49

Chapter 49:

"Is everyone in position?" asked Weiss.

"We're clear at the docks," Blake announced over her scroll.

"Good to go at Point One," declared Ruby.

"All set at Point Two," declared Jaune.

"Point Three, ready," said Ren.

"And we've got Point Four," finished Yang, grinning impishly, while lounging against the side of her motorcycle.

In the end, it had been tricky to work out exactly how to cover the trucks as they made their deliveries. They had the schedule for when the trucks came in to receive their loads. However, besides the start and finish of the deliveries, the exact route could only really be guessed at. It had taken them a while to figure what roads the trucks would probably travel on to deliver their Dust.

From there, each pair would be stationed at particular points along the route. They'd studied the routes in order to figure out the best places the White Fang might launch ambushes from. As the trucks passed each point, the pair stationed there would move into position to observe the next delivery truck along its route. Obviously, with all the deliveries going to different Dust shops throughout the Kingdom, it was given that the drivers wouldn't be waiting for one delivery to finish before they started. So the students would have to move fast, if they wanted to be in position to monitor the next truck or convoy on the list.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of guesswork involved, which meant there was every chance they might not catch anyone that night. The two largest deliveries were being shipped to the police and Valean military, which would result in the vehicles entering into more secure territory, where it would be harder to monitor them. Everyone would be on the move throughout the night, so they could only hope that they would be able to keep up with it all.

Blake and Sun were monitoring the starting point of all the shipments, the docks themselves. They would be able to inform the others if any of the scheduled pickups began earlier or later than they should have, allowing the rest to adapt accordingly. Ruby and Penny had the points closest to the docks, with Jaune and Pyrrha having the next ones out. After them, Ren and Nora had the next points in the sequence. Finally, Weiss and Yang would do their best to supervise the arrival of the Dust at each of its intended destinations. With Yang's motorcycle, Bumblebee, Yang and Weiss would be able to cover ground a lot faster than the others, hence why they were stationed the farthest out, with their observation points being the farthest apart.

Once the sun had set, they began to put their plans into motion. The deliveries weren't expected to start until later in the evening, and would occur intermittently throughout the night. Some shop owners preferred to receive their merchandise for the next day right after they closed, while others would rather get it right before they opened. The result was that the first trucks wouldn't be arriving at the docks until well into the night...if everything went the way it was supposed to.

Blake and Sun carefully infiltrated the docks, dodging security guards and sensors to enter undetected. Once they'd gotten in, they mounted the highest stack of crates they could find, in order to get a proper view of the area where the SDC freighter had just unloaded, massive stacks of crates forming an artificial landscape of rectangular metal mountains.

"The first delivery is scheduled for ten," said Sun. "We've got some time."

Blake nodded.

"It's kinda weird though," mused Sun, not bothered by Blake's quiet nature, happy to fill the silence himself.

"What is?" asked Blake.

"I'm just wondering why the cops haven't thought to do anything like this," said Sun. "They have the manpower and vehicles. They could monitor the routes easily."

Blake frowned, her eyes narrowing. "I can't say," she said. "I don't want to think that Vale's police force is completely corrupt. But...they might be complacent."

That seemed like the likeliest explanation to Blake's mind. After Roman Torchwick's arrest, crime in Vale had taken a tremendous nosedive. It had actually been unnerving. Normally, when someone of Torchwick's caliber was put behind bars, there was a chaotic rush by other criminals to fill the power vacuum left. Instead, crime had tapered off considerably, with only a few petty thieves still working.

Prior to Lisa's interview with Ruby, the police had taken credit for it, of course, even if no one had ever explicitly said that Roman had been brought down by them. It was naturally assumed, by virtue of Ruby's name being kept out of it. Of course, when the White Fang began to start their Dust thefts, the police had been left scrambling. It was possible that Ruby's interview, and the revelation that she, not the police, had brought down Roman Trochwick, might have made things worse. Without that feather in their cap to draw public goodwill, the police had scrambled to take actions that at least gave off the appearance of trying to do something, which was what led them to detaining innocent faunus, like Velvet, then trying to goad them into confessing to something...anything.

That being the case, Blake was more than a little miffed that the police would rather resort to grandstanding measures, instead of actually doing something productive. Of course, there might be every chance they could be wrong, and the police were in fact doing something. That could potentially be bad. Blake didn't like the idea of what would happen if they wound up tripping over, and tripping up, a police sting in the process of their own investigation. Still, the die had been cast. Now it was time to see the results of the roll.

"Hmm..."

Blake, glanced at Sun, upon hearing his pensive hum. "Something wrong?" she asked.

"It's just..." Sun frowned. "It was actually pretty easy to get in here."

Blake felt an uneasy tingle run down her spine. Now that Sun mentioned it, it was more than a little odd that there had been so little security they needed to dodge around, in order to enter the docks. The White Fang had recently become more active, and were hitting Dust shipments, so why hadn't the administrators beefed up security around the main point Dust entered the Kingdom through?

Swallowing, Blake pulled out her scroll, and placed a call to Weiss. "Hey, Weiss..."

"Yes?" came Weiss' reply, curt and businesslike.

"You said this was the biggest shipment to come through in a while, right?"

"Yes, much bigger," said Weiss. "I guess, since it looked like whoever was hitting the freighters moved east, they decided to take a chance on sending a larger shipment through the Aman. That's why keeping up with all these deliveries is going to be such a hassle. Why?"

Blake swallowed. "Sun and I just realized that security around the docks...is probably not up to par."

Weiss was silent for a moment. "Oh..."

"Hey...Blake..." Sun gently elbowed her in the side.

"What is it?" asked Blake.

"I think that bad feeling we just had was spot on," Sun whispered.

Blake looked around, and saw what he meant. The docks had gone strangely quiet. When they'd first entered, they could see the lights of the docks' security personnel, moving between the rows of containers. But now...those lights were gone. What was more, the lights illuminating the docks themselves suddenly cut out, throwing the entire place into darkness.

"Weiss!" Blake hissed into her scroll. "We had it wrong! They aren't going after the trucks this time. They're going to hit the docks themselves! They're going after the entire shipment!"

"What?!" Weiss exclaimed. "That's impossible! The White Fang would need some serious equipment to move all that Dust."

The familiar sound of jet engines filled the air, and Blake looked up to see dark shapes swooping out of the night, several bullheads descending down towards the SDC freighter, and the containers near it. "It looks like they have that equipment."

She heard a muffled curse over the other end of the line. "I'll let the others know," Weiss said sharply. "Keep an eye on things there."

Weiss hung up. Blake watched from over the side of the container, her fingers clenching against the edges as the bullheads landed, their bay doors opening, disgorging several faunus, dressed in white, sleeveless shirts and black pants. Their faces were covered by bone-white masks, designed to imitate the Creatures of Grimm. They quickly fanned out, inspecting the containers.

"This is bad," muttered Sun.

"That's putting it mildly," agreed Blake, wishing there was something she could do. Every fiber of her being was screaming for her to get down there, to take her former comrades to task for their foolishness. But doing so was too dangerous, not when there were only two of them.

Then, out of the darkness of the central bullhead's passenger bay, a new person emerged. The problem was that this person was someone Blake recognized. "Ilia!"

The girl was a slim and slender young woman, the tight lines of her sleeveless, black stealth suit showcasing the smooth, flowing lines of her body, including the tight lines of her small bust and toned rear. Her skin was tanned, but dotted in places with spots of darker-brown. Brown hair covered her head, tied into a tail that ran down past her shoulders, all the way to the small of her back, before curling in on itself, like a fiddlehead frond.

Her eyes and face were hidden by the white Grimm-mask she wore. But hers was somewhat different from the ones employed by the other White Fang members. It was broad, covering the upper section of her head, its point extending down over the tip her nose, while it also rose up, the upper section sloping up to a point at the top of her head. Two upward-curving horns extended from the face of the mask, one from either side of her forehead.

"You know her?" asked Sun.

Blake nodded. "She's an old friend," she explained. "We used to train together a lot. But I thought she'd stayed with the Menagerie Branch. Why is she here, in Vale?"

"Might as well put that on the list of questions," muttered Sun.

Blake frowned. "Wait here," she said firmly.

"Huh?" Sun glanced to his side, only to realize that Blake hadn't even waited for his response. Instead, he found himself staring at the empty top of the container, where she'd been lying a moment before. "Are you kidding me?!"

A few minutes earlier...

"What should we do while we wait, Friend-Ruby?" asked Penny.

"Something...inconspicuous...I guess," said Ruby uncertainly. "Also, could you just call me Ruby?"

"Okay, Ruby," said Penny, her unflappable good cheer as unfaltering as ever.

Ruby had to admit that Penny's question had been a good one. They couldn't exactly just stand around on a street corner and wait for the delivery trucks to drive by. They'd stand out like a pair of sore thumbs to anyone, including any White Fang planning to set up an ambush. Unfortunately, this particular spot lacked a place where they could easily wait.

Glancing up, Ruby saw the building looming behind them. It was an ordinary apartment complex. With its height, they would be high up enough that no one would spot them from street level. If the White Fang were going to ambush the Dust delivery here, it was also a potential spot they could launch their attack from. Being able to survey the street and keep that spot under observation would be a good idea.

"Let's get up there," said Ruby, leading Penny to a fire escape that they would be able to take up to the rooftop.

A few minutes later, they were tucked behind an air-conditioning unit, where they could watch both the street and the vantage point at the corner of the building, where prospective ambushers were likely to watch from, before descending on their prey.

"Hey, Penny?" said Ruby, looking warily at her new friend.

"Yes, Ruby?" Penny replied.

"I'm sorry if this is too personal, but...what are you?" asked Ruby.

"Huh?" Penny's eyes went wide. Ruby could have sworn she heard a faint whirring sound from somewhere. "Wha-what are you talking about?"

Ruby swallowed. "You don't breathe," she said. "You don't have a pulse." She took one of Penny's hands in her own. "These aren't bones under your skin. It's something else, something more solid. Aside from the fact that you have an Aura, you don't feel alive at all...almost like you're a walking, talking statue."

"I...I don't know what you're talking about-Hic!" Penny's expression became evasive, something that surprised Ruby, considering she hadn't realized that the other girl even could look nervous. "I'm-Hic!-I'm a perfectly normal-Hic!-um...person!"

Ruby's expression went flat, conveying that she didn't believe Penny so obviously that not even Penny could miss it. Penny only became more nervous at the sight of that expression. Then Ruby slowly let out a sigh. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's not really my business, is it? I'll drop it."

"Y-you will?" Penny seemed surprised by the notion.

"Yeah...I just...I didn't know what to make of you," said Ruby, looking down. "But that's not right. I shouldn't be prying into your life, trying to ferret out your secrets, just because they make me a little uncomfortable."

"Ruby...?"

Ruby looked up to see Penny giving her a worried expression, the most serious and sober look she'd ever seen Penny wear; though, granted, their brief association hadn't exactly afforded Ruby an extensive opportunity to familiarize herself with the nuances of Penny's expressions. "Yes?"

"Are we...are we really friends?" asked Penny.

"Um...Well..." Ruby could tell that her hesitance was making Penny uneasy. Penny seemed to have difficulty with hiding her expressions. Between that and her powerful and lively Aura, the girl wore her emotions on her sleeve. Ruby wasn't certain that she could give a firm affirmative on the matter either. After all, Penny was someone she'd literally run into the previous day, and someone who had invited herself along on this excursion. It hadn't helped that, after their strategy-meeting the previous afternoon, she had disappeared until their designated meeting time, today, leaving Ruby with very little chance to get to know her new "friend", and temporary partner.

And yet, despite how…unusual…Penny had been, Ruby couldn't actually say that there was anything she genuinely disliked about Penny. Sure, the other girl was peppy to a fault, and there was something...off...about Penny's mannerisms. But she was earnest and straightforward, with a positive personality that Ruby couldn't help but admire. The fact that Penny's nature seemed to irk Weiss to no end was a plus as well...simply for the amusement it provided.

"Yes," said Ruby finally, giving Penny her most sincere smile. "We are. I have to admit that I'm not...used...to someone like you. But you're someone worth getting to know, and I really think we are friends."

"Thank you," said Penny, smiling widely. Then that smile quickly faded. "You're right."

"About...?"

Penny looked down. "I'm not...I'm not a real girl."

"What do you mean?" asked Ruby.

"I'm...an android," said Penny.

"Android...?" Ruby tilted her head. It took her a few extra seconds to piece together what Penny was talking about. Then she let out a soft gasp. Given her time with the Mibu, and her sojourns in the wilderness, she hadn't given a thought to the humanoid machines employed by the more advanced Kingdoms, often as security or as a supplement to their military. If it weren't for the fact that the topic occasionally came up in class, Ruby would have forgotten they were a thing entirely, seeing as Beacon didn't utilize androids of any kind.

"So...you're a robot?" said Ruby, trying to process it.

"That's...probably the best way to put it," said Penny. "I'm a product of the most advanced technology Atlas is capable of, the first of my kind, an artificial person capable of generating an Aura." She looked down. "I'm not a real person at all."

"Yes you are," said Ruby firmly, drawing a surprised squeak from Penny, who looked up at her in shock.

"I am?"

"Of course you are," said Ruby, smiling warmly. "You have an Aura. I can feel it. Having an Aura means you have a soul. Sure, you might not be a human or faunus, but you're still a real person."

"Really?" Penny's eyes blinked, mimicking the expression of a confused person.

"Yeah," said Ruby. "I want you to meet someone." She drew her sword. "This is my first partner, Akaibara."

Holding the handle in her left hand, Ruby rested the flat of the blade across the fingers of her left, holding it out for Penny to inspect. Penny looked closely, leaning in towards the blade. Then her eyes widened and she gasped, which felt strange to Ruby, as she couldn't sense the inhalation that should have accompanied such a sound.

"Y-your sword has an Aura!" said Penny, amazed. "How?"

"It was forged for my by someone who's probably the greatest smith in the world," said Ruby. "He can breathe life into the weapons he creates. She isn't animate, the way you or I are, but she's alive in her own way. She's not quite the same as you, but close enough. She's my most-trusted partner, and my dearest companion. So, if I can accept her as alive, then I can definitely believe you're alive too."

"That's...that's sen-sa-tional," said Penny.

Ruby smiled, then quickly returned her sword to its sheath, before Penny could touch it. "She's temperamental though, so I wouldn't advise trying to hold her."

"It's...amazing," said Penny.

"So, I know you're a real person," said Ruby. "The fact that you have nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts doesn't change that."

"Thank you," said Penny, lowering her head. Then she looked at Ruby. "Please don't tell anyone?"

"Why?" asked Ruby, not that she was planning to, not without Penny's permission.

"It's an important secret," said Penny. "Officially, I'm a student of Atlas Academy. Not many people know what I really am. General Ironwood doesn't want the secret to get out."

"Who?" Ruby canted her head.

"General James Ironwood," said Penny, looking at Ruby in surprise. "You don't know him?"

Ruby shook her head wordlessly.

"He's the Commander in Chief of the Atlesian Military, and is the Headmaster of Atlas Academy, which means he holds two seats on Atlas' Council," explained Penny. "He's the one in charge of me."

"So...you're here on his orders?" asked Ruby.

Penny shook her head. "I...I'm out without permission. The General is very protective of me, and wants to make sure that there isn't much risk of my secret getting out. But I wanted to see Vale for myself. What's the point of coming to a new Kingdom if I don't get to visit it? I know it's going to get me in trouble, but..."

"You still need to see things for yourself," said Ruby softly. "It's no good spending your life completely ruled by someone else."

"You understand!" gasped Penny.

Ruby smiled and nodded. "My dad didn't want me to be a Huntress, so he wouldn't let me do anything that might allow me to get closer to that."

She related her conflict with her father, and how she'd run away from home. She mostly skipped over being taken and trained by the Mibu, giving Penny as general a summary as she could.

"I see," said Penny, when Ruby had finished. "It is kind of similar to how I feel sometimes. My father and Mr. Ironwood...they aren't sure that I'm ready yet. One day, it will be my job to save the world. That's why I'm at the Vytal Festival, to test myself in the tournament, and see the rest of the world."

"Save the world from what?" asked Ruby.

"I...I don't know yet," said Penny, looking down again.

Ruby frowned. The Vytal Festival was supposed to celebrate the peace that followed the Great War, to reaffirm the bonds and unity between the four Kingdoms. The fact that they were at peace was something that had been emphasized over and over again. So what was Penny expected to save the world from?

And yet, there was that unsettling feeling that not all was right with the world. Ruby had spent much of her life divorced from the Kingdoms, living with the Mibu. Yet she could still feel quite keenly that there was something not right about the current state of affairs. After all, wasn't that why they were out here to begin with? The White Fang had graduated from retaliation for abuse against faunus by humans, moving into outright theft, stealing weapons and munitions in the form of Dust. Tensions between humans and faunus were at an all-time high. Even if she couldn't see exactly what was going on, Ruby couldn't help but get the sense of darkness, gathering out there, at the edge of her senses. There was something going on.

Ruby was about to talk more. She wasn't sure what she should say, what she could say. However, all thoughts of further conversation were cut short with a call from Weiss.

"We had it all wrong!" said Weiss over the scroll. "The White Fang are going to hit the docks! They aren't just going after a single delivery, they're going to try and steal the entire shipment!"

"Penny and I will head there right now," said Ruby, shooting up.

"Please hurry," urged Weiss. "We'll get the others over to help, but I'm worried that Blake might do something rash. You're the closest ones, so make sure you support her."

"Will do," said Ruby, putting her scroll away. Turning to Penny, she smiled. "You said you were combat ready, right? I hope that's not a bluff."

"Not in the least!" said Penny, grinning back at her.

Blake had to take a roundabout route, carefully slipping through the gaps between containers, circling around the formation of landed bullheads, gradually moving closer to the White Fang soldiers working amongst the SDC containers, prominently marked with the SDC snowflake sigil. Presently, the soldiers were fanning out, inspecting the containers, noting their contents. How they would get all these containers out was still a mystery.

But it was a mystery that could be solved later. Blake slipped closer, ducking up against the edge of the bullhead that Ilia had stepped out of. It was at the center of the three bullheads, which had landed in an arc in a broad clearing between the stacks of containers. Moving slowly and deliberately, Blake peeked around the rounded hull, seeing Ilia standing there, apparently supervising the actions of the others. She said nothing, merely watching quietly.

Blake took a deep breath. She's a friend. Just talk to her. Carefully, Blake rounded the bullhead's nose, taking slow steps towards her old friend. "Ilia?"

The shorter, slimmer girl jolted, as though she'd been jabbed with a live wire. Spinning about, she stared at Blake, the opening of her mouth being the only indicator of her surprise, with the rest of her face hidden behind that mask. "Blake!?" Her exclamation drew the attention of several of the White Fang soldiers in the vicinity. Several of them trained their weapons on Blake, though none of them opened fire...yet.

Blake felt her stomach lurch. Ilia's voice contained an incredible range of emotions and, somehow, Blake could pick them all out. There was surprise, of course; Blake being the last person Ilia would expect to be seeing at a time and place like this. There was anger, the reasons for which Blake could easily guess at. And, for some reason...there was fear.

"Ilia...what's going on?" asked Blake, approaching her friend slowly. "We shouldn't be doing this."

"We...?" With that, anger came to the forefront of Ilia's tone. "What 'we', Blake? Last I checked, there is no 'we'. You left, remember? You abandoned the organization, left in the middle of a mission. You don't get to talk as though you're still one of us." As she spoke, Ilia changed, her skin turning a bright, fiery-red color, with the speckles that spotted it turning yellow, along with her hair. Some people wore their emotions on their sleeves, but Ilia wore hers on her skin.

Blake swallowed. "Do you know why I left?" she asked, stepping closer. "Do you know what Adam's been doing, what he's backing? That train we were on, he was going to blow it up...with everyone on it! He didn't care that they were all just people who happened to work for the wrong employer. He was going to kill all of them for a chance to hit back at the SDC."

"But you still left," Ilia pointed out. "If you really aren't happy about the way things are going, why didn't you fight it? Why didn't you work with the organization?"

"I think you know why," Blake spat, her tone becoming just as bitter and angry as Ilia's.

After all, Blake was the daughter of Ghira "The Coward" Belladonna, as he'd become known amongst the rank and file of the White Fang. He'd been the leader who couldn't stomach doing what was "necessary" to fight against human oppression. Adam might have been close enough to her to see that Blake didn't agree with her father's beliefs, but most of the rest of the organization merely saw her as an extension of him, someone to attack in his absence. If she had tried to call Adam out on his excessive violence, her words would have been brushed off as the lies and exaggerations of the daughter of a coward, and a coward in her own right.

Ilia clearly understood that much. Aside from Adam, she had been one of the few close enough to Blake to accept her as something other than her father's daughter. Her skin turned green, with her spots and hairs turning blue. "Blake..."

"This..." Blake gestured around them. "We're supposed to be better than this. You're acting like common thieves, causing mayhem and destruction."

"We're stealing what we need," Ilia countered, her normal colors returning. "We've always stolen the Dust we need for our actions, you know that Blake. You've stolen Dust yourself. Suddenly, it's wrong?"

"It's wrong because it's Adam you're stealing it for," Blake countered. "Do you have any idea what he's going to use this for?"

Ilia's mouth closed, her lips becoming a tight line.

"I may not know what his exact plan is," said Blake, stepping closer. "But I know him well enough to know exactly what kind of plan it's going to be. If he wants so much Dust, it's because he's planning on using it to hurt people, on a massive scale. And he isn't going to care who gets caught up in it, whether or not they're innocent of the kind of oppression that we're supposed to be fighting against. Do you really want to be a part of that, Ilia?"

Ilia frowned, her posture, slightly slumped, indicating that she wasn't sure, that there was something about Blake's words that struck a chord within her. All around them, the other members of the White Fang watched the argument unfold, unsure of how to respond. Some of them might have known Blake, by reputation at least, but they all clearly decided to stay back and let the one heading up their operation take the lead in what to do.

"We can't go back, Blake," said Ilia finally. "We don't have a choice. You talk about innocents. There are no innocents! There are those who oppress us, and there are those who stand by and let it happen, by doing nothing, because it's not convenient for them. We tried doing it your father's way. We tried to do it peacefully. But the humans showed that they don't want peace, they don't want equality. We're done with equality. From now on, we're doing what's best for us! If we can't talk the humans down from their hate, we'll use the next best thing...fear. You can argue all you want about the ethics of what Adam and the others are doing, but the one thing you can't argue is that it hasn't gotten us results."

"You say that now," said Blake softly. "But that is only in the short term. Eventually, that fear is going to come back at us...and things will be even worse than ever."

"Either way, you shouldn't be here," said Ilia, reaching down to her waist, pulling what looked like a small, steel-gray revolver with a black handle. It possessed two large chambers on either side of it. As Ilia pulled it out, a blade extended from it, consisting of cylindrical sections and tapering to a needlelike point. She leveled her weapon at Blake, the tension in the air increasing as the other soldiers also prepared to open fire, or otherwise attack.

"I'm going to give you one last chance," said Ilia. "Leave, Blake. Leave now. If you do, no one will stop you or try to hurt you. But that's the only chance you're going to get. If you don't leave, you're just an obstacle...and you know what happens to obstacles."

Blake tensed, keeping her hands down at her sides. However, she was ready to move the moment violence broke out. "I'm not going anywhere, Ilia. I'm putting a stop to this...right now."

"So be it, Blake," said Ilia, green and yellow flickering across her body once more.

The tension rose to a fever-pitch. And then...

"Hey!"

Everyone looked up. Ilia, just in time to see something yellow come flying right at her face. A second later, she grimaced as a half-eaten banana, and its peel, splattered across her mask. Frustrated, she pulled the mask off, but the next things to greet her eyes were the soles of a pair of sneakers, descending in the banana's wake. Ilia could only cry out in pain as the double-kick, with the full measure of Sun Wukong's weight behind it, slammed right into her face, driving her down into the ground, her Aura managing to keep her head from being crushed, but still leaving her dazed from the impact as Sun bounced off her face, executing a graceful forward flip, before landing next to Blake.

"Leave her alone," he growled, facing the other faunus.

Ilia looked up, the loss of her mask revealing a pair of gray eyes, which turned yellow, matching her spots and hair as red swept across the rest of her skin. "Get them!" she shouted, suiting action to word, and lashing out with her weapon, before she'd even gotten all the way back up to her feet. As she did, the cylindrical blade of her weapon extended, those sections separating to reveal a flexible cord running through them, which crackled and turned yellow, as lightning-Dust ran up its length. The increase in the weapon's range caught Sun off-guard, and he was forced to jump aside as the whip-like weapon slashed through the space he'd occupied with an angry crackle.

At the same time, the White Fang members holding rifles opened fire. Several of their shots riddled Blake's body, only for it to dissolve into a dark mass, before vanishing like a cloud of smoke in a breeze. Before they could understand what had happened, Blake was among them. She drew Gambol Shroud, pulling the cleaver-like weapon off her back and slashing at the soldiers around her, the power behind her blows sending them flying.

Ilia charged to meet her, but was forced to dodge as Sun countered her previous attack with a flying kick. Sun's missed kick sent him into the midst of another group of soldiers, who immediately turned their weapons on him. Several wielded swords or axes. Sun ducked and weaved dodging their attacks with ease, downing one with a punch to the face, before flipping over a sideways slash to catch another attacker across the jaw with a jumping roundhouse kick.

When Sun landed, his hand darted behind his back, reaching under his shirt, and pulling what looked like a set of rods that had been tucked into the waistband of his pants. Pulling them out caused the sections to unfold and link together in a red and gold staff that Sun whirled in his hands, before striking out with it, bringing down several soldiers in the space of just a few seconds.

He turned to face Ilia, just in time as she contracted her whip back down into its sword form, pulling the trigger on its handle, which sent a bolt of yellow flying across the distance between them. Sun had already brought up his staff, spinning it, causing the bullet of condensed lightning-Dust to crackle and disperse along its length, spreading outward and not touching the hand holding the spinning shaft of the weapon.

They charged each other, Sun bringing his staff out of its spin just in time to bring it swinging around in a strike aimed at Ilia's side. The blow was too powerful for Ilia to block, so she ducked, throwing herself into a forward roll that carried her past Sun, coming out of it and spinning around to thrust at him from behind. Continuing the swing of his weapon, Sun brought his staff around and knocked Ilia's thrust aside, turning around to followthrough with a swing from the other end of his weapon.

Ilia jumped back, extending her weapon into its whip-mode. lashing out with crackling, yellow electricity along its length. Sun jumped aside from the whip's lashing movement, feeling his skin tingling from the near miss. Dispersing the energy of an electric gunshot was one thing. But maintaining prolonged contact with Ilia's weapon, with its electric current active, would only channel that energy into his body through his hands.

Instead, he dove straight in for her again. As he did, the staff separated, becoming two. Furthermore, those two pieces separated further, handles curving down, joined by chains at their ends, forming two pairs of nunchaku, made from joined short-barreled shotguns. Sun whirled his weapons in his hands, the guns becoming spinning red and gold blurs. Closing with Ilia, he struck with them, firing one gun, before flipping it in his grip to fire the other, while the one he originally shot chambered a new round. He whirled his two weapons through complicated patterns, creating a multifaceted attack that had Ilia backpedaling desperately to avoid it.

Then Blake arrived, leaping over Sun's shoulder in a flying kick that landed against Ilia's face, knocking her away and onto her back. In the time Ilia and Sun's exchange had taken, Blake had seen to the remaining soldiers. Now Blake and Sun stood together, looking down on a prone Ilia, who glared up at them.

"That's enough," said Blake, looking at her former-friend sadly. "This has to stop, Ilia. This won't solve anything. Adam's way won't save the faunus."

"It's too late for that," said Ilia. "You can't stop this."

As if summoned by her words, the air filled with the whine of jet engines anew. Blake and Sun looked up to see even more bullheads swooping in.

"I warned you," said Ilia, her green and blue colors returning, her eyes turning blue as well. "You really shouldn't be here, Blake. I wish you'd run, while you had the chance."

Blake swallowed, not all that surprised to see more soldiers dropping down from the hovering airships. However, the true impact of Ilia's words struck home as Blake saw an all-too-familiar figure in red and black drop along with them.

A young man, a few years older than Blake, touched down amidst the soldiers, who quickly spread out to encircle Blake and Sun. His eyes were hidden by the white Grimm-mask across his face, with elaborate, red, horn-like designs running across the eye-slits cut into it. His short, spiky hair was red, with streaks of brown running through it, sloping backwards over his head in a manner that constantly looked windswept, with a pair of backwards-curving horns extending up over his hair, from above his forehead. The young man's mouth was set into a grim line, looking perfectly at home amongst the chiseled features of his face.

With his black pants and suit-jacket, he would have been almost invisible in the darkness that pervaded the docks, now that all the lights had been taken out, were it not for the red shirt he wore beneath his jacket, and the red lining of the jacket itself. There was a crimson design of a wilting flower embroidered over his left shoulder, and red flame-designs decorating the tails of his jacket. His hands were covered by black gloves, the left hand clenched around the handle of his weapon.

Blake gulped nervously at the sight of that weapon, weapons rather. She was all too familiar with what it was capable of. Wilt and Blush, he had named them. In their regular form, they looked like a relatively ordinary sword and sheath. But the trigger built into it, a short distance down from the mouth of the sheath, betrayed its true nature. The Dust-rounds fired by the weapon, while plenty dangerous in their own right, showed their true threat when combined with the blood-red blade of the chokuto, which Blake knew to be concealed within the sheath.

"Blake..." growled the young man.

"Adam..." Blake replied, unable to keep the frightened quaver from her voice.

Adam Taurus strode forward, his expression stern. "To think...after you left...after you fled, like a coward...I would find you here, like this, Blake. To the very end, you're nothing but a disappointment to me."

Blake shivered, his words driving into her skin like needles. "Adam..." she said, trying to put as much strength into her voice as she could. "...This is wrong. This isn't how we're going to win equality."

"You're a fool, Blake," growled Adam. "The time to fight for equality is past. The humans had their chance, and they squandered it. If they refuse to share this world with us, then we will take it from them." He took another two steps. "But I should have known you wouldn't have the stomach for it. I guess you're your father's daughter after all, a coward to the end."

Shivering, Blake took a step back, her weapons trembling in her grip. Her reaction prompted Adam's expression to change, going from a frown to a smirk. "But it's just as well that I've found you again...My Darling. Your betrayal hurt me, but I can forgive that, because you belong with me. And now...I will take you back where you belong."

Adam moved to step forward again, only to come to a halt as Sun stepped forward as well, joining his nunchaku back into their staff-form, and using the extended weapon to hold Adam at a distance. "Back off, creep," he growled.

"Sun! Don't..." A frightened whimper crept into Blake's voice.

Adam looked at Sun, then glanced down at the staff being pointed at his chest, then back up at Sun, as though he'd only just noticed Sun's presence at all. His smirk widened, and he tilted his head back, barking out a harsh laugh. "Well well, would you look at that," he observed in a mocking tone. "You just can't seem to stop hiding behind others, Blake. It seems that you're still afraid to fight your own battles."

Adam's laugh was echoed by the soldiers behind him, spreading in a soft wave through their ranks.

"Shut up!" snapped Sun. "All I see is an abusive jerk who likes to make other people feel small." Then he matched Adam's mocking smile. "Compensating for something down below, maybe?"

Adam's smirk was wiped away, replaced by an angry scowl.

Sun's smirk became a teasing grin. "Hey, come on, man. It's nothing to be ashamed of. I can understand that it's a little hard to cope with, but you really shouldn't be taking it out on others."

"Don't talk as though you understand anything," growled angry.

"I understand enough," Sun retorted, his own smile vanishing. "You may be a terrorist, but you're also just a bully, a pathetic jerk who talks down to others in order to feel better about himself. If this kind of treatment is what you have for her, then it's no wonder she left you, dude. Who wants to put up with an abusive jackass?"

"Sun, stop!" Blake warned him desperately, already able to sense Adam's ire increasing.

"It looks as though you've found quite the irritating shield to cower behind, Blake," growled Adam. "But it's just as well. I'll show you the price of leaving me...with his corpse!"

Turning slightly, Adam addressed the other soldiers. "Bring her down!" he shouted. "But make sure you don't kill her!" Then he turned to face Sun again. "I'll deal with this one."

"Fine by me, pal," Sun replied.

"No!" exclaimed Blake. But there was nothing she could do.

Sun and Adam rushed each other. The red blade of Adam's sword flashed, a crimson streak, accompanied by the sound of a gunshot, rushed forth from the sheath. Sun met it with a swing of his staff, the two weapons clashing with a loud clang.

"Sun!" exclaimed Blake, trying to rush to his aid, only to stop when Ilia, having taken advantage of the time afforded by the conversation to recover, struck at her from the side.

Ilia's electrified whip pierced through Blake's chest, only for Blake's body to vanish. Using her shadow, Blake launched herself up over Ilia's head, descending with a slash from Gambol Shroud's bladed sheath. Once again, Ilia dodged by throwing herself into a forward roll. Before she even came out of it, she lashed out with her weapon again, forcing Blake to substitute another shadow, while sidestepping the attack herself. Bringing her right arm around in a wide swing, the black blade of Blake's katana folded over on itself, transforming into a sickle, which fired as Blake threw it, the recoil of her shot accelerating the weapon, swinging along its ribbon, right for the rising Ilia's ankles.

Kicking off the ground, Ilia barely managed to jump over the low sweep of Blake's sickle, going into a backflip, lashing out with her whip again. Swinging her sheath across her body, Blake deflected it and surged forward, a tug on her weapon's ribbon triggering the pistol again, firing another shot that both accelerated the sickle, and slightly altered the trajectory of its swing, bringing it circling around to slash at Ilia from a new angle, striking downwards at her from above in a diagonal line. Retracting her whip back into its sword-form, Ilia barely managed to bring it around in time to deflect the sickle. By that point, Blake had closed to swing her sheath, which Ilia, again just barely, managed to block and brace. For a few brief seconds, they stood, poised against each other, the scraping of their weapons against each other grating against their ears.

They both changed tactics at the same time. Ilia abruptly extended her weapon into its whip-form again, while sidestepping enough that Blake's weight would send her stumbling forward at the sudden lack of resistance to her attack. At the same time, a tug on Gambol Shroud's ribbon brought the sickle back to her hand. While Ilia lashed at Blake with the whip, Blake aimed her pistol and pulled the trigger.

Blake screamed as Ilia's whip scored her Aura, and electric arcs danced out from the line of its contact across her body. At the same time, Ilia cried out in pain as Blake's shots struck her torso, the impact knocking her back. The two girls fell to the ground at the same time, landing heavily, unable to immediately return to their feet.

However, the main difference between them was that Ilia had numbers on her side. While she struggled to get up, three White Fang soldiers descended on Blake, swinging at her prone form with broad-bladed swords. They were cheap, mass-produced weapons, nothing even remotely equivocal to the kind of advanced weaponry Blake, Sun, Ilia, or Adam wielded, but plenty dangerous in their own right, particularly if Blake was in no condition to fend off their blows.

The blades struck home, cleaving through her body. But the soldiers abruptly stumbled forward at the lack of resistance to their strikes. Blake's shadow propelled her up over their heads, allowing her to land behind them. Before they could recover, she threw her sickle again, swinging it on its ribbon to take their legs out from under them, knocking them into the air. Before they could all all the way to the ground, Blake dashed through them, launching a rapid series of slashes, both with her sickle and sheath, knocking them away and sending them sprawling.

Several familiar clicks sounded from another angle, and Blake quickly pulled her sickle back into her hand, unfolding the blade back out into its katana-mode. She turned to face several more soldiers as they opened fire with assault rifles. Blakes blades were blurs as she whipped them through a rapid defensive pattern, batting away the bullets that came flying at her.

Then Ilia's whip pierced into her Aura at the small of her back, and Blake shrieked in pain as golden arcs of energy danced over her body, making her muscles spasm and clench painfully. Desperately, she used what little control she had remaining to throw herself forward, managing to escape the point of Ilia's weapon, and its devastating current. But she was in no shape to get right back up and keep fighting. She fell to the ground, her body trembling.

Ilia stood over her, contracting her weapon back into its sword-form, green and blue washing over her again. "I told you, you shouldn't be here, Blake," she said softly, her expression mournful.

After the initial impact between their weapons, Sun and Adam jumped back away from each other. They quickly closed again, weapons flashing. Sun slammed his staff into the blade of Adam's sword, before jerking sharply to the side to avoid a shot from the rifle that formed the sword's sheath. That movement gave Adam the time he needed to quickly re-sheathe his sword, before, in a flash, drawing it again, the blade practically a streak of crimson light in the darkness.

Planting his staff, Sun used it to vault upwards. Adam's strike knocked the staff out from under's Sun's body, prompting him to descend. But Sun quickly turned his fall into a flip, using it to bring the staff down in a powerful stroke. Adam caught the descending staff with his sheath, while readying his sword to slash at Sun's unguarded torso.

But there was a lack of power behind Sun's strike. No sooner had the staff made contact with the sheath than did the staff separate, dividing into the twin pairs of gun-chucks once again. The chain joining the pair that had formed the end of the staff that made contact with Adam's sheath wrapped around the weapon in question, allowing Sun to yank it down and to the side with one arm, while he swung the other at Adam's incoming sword. The nature of the weapon meant that the flailing end didn't have the power to fully deflect Adam's strike. But it was actually a distraction. When one end struck Adam's sword with a loud clang, the other end, in Sun's hand, pointed right at his chest, Sun pulling the trigger.

Seeing Sun's attack coming, Adam swiftly changed the course of his strike, instead using his sword to deflect the shot Sun fired. From there, Adam pulled hard, managing to pull his sheath free. He moved to sheathe his sword again, but Sun advanced with a whirling onslaught from his weapons, unleashing a flurry of strikes and firing the four guns that made up the weapons' handles again and again. Adam was only able to partially sheathe his sword, swiftly maneuvering the weapon with both hands in order to catch the incoming attacks with the exposed section of the blade.

It took several seconds, but Sun came to the realization that Adam had deliberately not sheathed his sword all the way. With every hit he blocked, and every bullet he deflected, the blade of Adam's sword began to glow, the glow increasing with each impact. That's not good...

Abruptly, Sun stopped his attacks, instead jumping back. He rejoined his gun-chucks back into a staff, whirling it over his head, then bringing it straight down, not at Adam, but at the ground. A shockwave rippled out, forcing Adam to jump up and back. Landing on his feet, Adam slammed his sword home, and took his usual stance. However, Sun's instincts were screaming at him that things were not the same as before.

Then a scream reached his ears.

"Blake!" Sun shouted in dismay, turning in the direction of the sound. At that second, he realized his lapse. He'd allowed himself to be distracted from an extremely dangerous enemy. Too late, Sun turned to face Adam, readying himself as best he could for what was to come.

However, the expected attack never came. Shortly before Blake's scream had echoed out, a pair of figures dropped over the dock's perimeter walls. One, a red cloak trailing behind her, shot across the ground, leaving scattering flurries of red petals in her wake, closing in on Adam from behind. Just after Blake screamed, the new arrival took to the air, going into a horizontal spin. In the same move, she held out her sword, running the first two fingers of her right hand along the flat of the blade, tracing it from the hilt to the tip.

The blade let out an echoing ring, flashing with crimson light. She descended on Adam from behind, bringing her sword around and down in a slash, aiming right for Adam's head. "Kazebara!"

But Adam had sensed the attack coming. The red of his jacket lining, shirt, and mask all illuminated, glowing starkly against the black of the rest of his outfit. In an instant, Adam drew, using the motion to turn and slash at the newcomer. His own sword blazed with a crimson light to match that of his attacker, the two blades meeting.

There was a flash and, for the briefest of instants, the entire world seemed to be dyed red, with all the objects within it reduced to ebony shadows. Time seemed to stop. Adam and his attacker froze in place.

Then time abruptly started again. There was an almost deafening ring, then the air around the two combatants seemed to shatter. Waves of sickly red and black flashed out in all directions, biting into and through everything in their path. Bright-red streams of wind whistled outward, slicing through earth and metal cleanly. Containers collapsed, their metal walls carved to pieces, spilling vials of Dust and trunks full of valuable crystals across the pavement of the docks. The three landed bullheads abruptly fell apart in cleanly-sliced pieces.

Of the White Fang soldiers menacing Blake, several of them screamed in surprise and agony as streams of wind and flashes of red Aura cut into them. Blood flew through the air, and several collapsed with severe lacerations. Ilia barely had any warning of the attack's approach. But she turned, whirling her whip in a circular motion to deflect the incoming wind and energy in a manner similar to how Sun had used his staff. Even so, she found herself wincing as traces of it got through, razor-edged breezes that whipped past her, opening thin cuts along her arms. They were little more than paper-cuts, but the edges of those winds had cut right through her Aura with nary a sign of resistance.

Sun, like Ilia, escaped with only a few shallow cuts. But that was mainly because he had been directly behind Adam, when the two colliding attacks had exploded in such spectacular fashion. In front of him, Adam had grunted and grimaced in pain, several blades of Aura and wind biting into his body, cutting lines across his front. In contrast, his opponent rode out the shockwave of the explosion, letting it blow her cloak across her body to enfold it, while channeling her Aura into the garment to harden it into armor. As a result, when she touched down, she sported only a single thin, shallow scratch across her right cheek.

Everything came to a stop. All eyes were on Adam and the girl who'd just matched his most powerful attack. Adam himself stared at the girl in disbelief, while she stared back at him with a dispassionate gaze, meeting his angry glare with a pair of steely, silver eyes. She lifted her sword. Taking it up in both hands. With a tiny "chink," the blade split lengthwise, directly up the center of its length, one double-edged blade becoming two single-edged ones. The girl whipped them through a few circular passes, before settling into her stance, her left-handed sword extended, straight out in front of her, her right one held up and over her shoulder, so it extended down her back.

Ruby Rose had entered the battle.