Chapter 1

Blake lay prone on the roof, carefully watching the snowflake-emblazoned cargo containers. This was a massive shipment of Dust. Whoever was behind the crime spree would not be able to resist a haul of this size. "Did I miss anything?" she heard from beside her as Sun landed on the roof, apples in his arms.

"Not really," Blake replied. "They've offloaded the crates from the boat. Now they're just sitting there," she said, gesturing to the containers.

"I stole you some food," Sun said as he made to hand her an apple.

"Do you always steal without a second thought?" Blake asked.

"Weren't you in a cult or something?" Sun shot back. Blake simply responded with an eloquent glare. "Okay, too soon," Sun concluded under the weight of that glare.

A whirring noise became evident as a bullhead hovered to a landing in the empty area between the containers and a warehouse. The bay door opened as the ramp lowered and a figure exited the craft. "Oh no," Blake murmured as she got a good look at the person, more specifically at the red emblem on the back of their vest-like uniform.

"That them?" Sun asked.

"Yes, it's them," she sadly confirmed.

"You really didn't think they were behind this, did you?" Sun asked as more White Fang members disembarked.

"No, I think deep down I did know. I just didn't want to be right."

"Hey! What's the holdup? We're not exactly the most inconspicuous bunch of thieves at the moment, so why don't you animals try to pick up the pace?" rang out from the aircraft.

"This isn't right. The White Fang would never take orders from a human, especially one like that," declared Blake. As she spoke she stood up, readied her weapon and jumped down to the ground.

Roman suddenly felt a cold strip of metal against his neck. "What the?" Looking out the corner of his eye, he saw a hand holding the end of the strip of metal, giving a strong indication the metal was a sword. "Oh for f-" They were suddenly surrounded by White Fang members brandishing assorted weapons. "Take it easy little lady."

"Brothers of the White Fang, why are you aiding this scum?" the girl called out from behind Roman.

"Didn't you hear?" Roman replied, "The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture."

"Tell me what it is, or I'll put an end to your little operation," the girl demanded as she tightened the blade against Roman's neck.

"I wouldn't call it a little operation," he insinuated as several more transports appeared with a whirring noise. The blade fell away from his neck slightly, implying the girl was distracted. Smirking, Roman angled his cane away from himself and fired it, launching the girl away from him.

As Blake stood back up, Roman fired his cane at her several more times. She ran and rolled away to dodge, winding up behind a tower of cargo containers. A handful of White Fang members chased her as she ran. She fired several shots behind her, and could tell by a grunt that she hit someone. She continued running before she hit a dead end. The White Fang members caught up to her and raised their weapons. "Surrender, traitor!" the one in the lead growled before getting struck in the stomach by a yellow crystal. The crystal shattered, causing chain lightning to arc across the entire group of soldiers, knocking them out.

Blake looked up at the stack of crates behind her and saw someone crouched down, wearing a tan trench coat and goggles, holding some sort of assault rifle. "You alright?" they called down to her.

"I'm good, thank you." Blake paused a moment before asking, "Who are you?"

"I think Sun's in trouble," the person said, pointing to the other side of the stack of containers he was on. Blake climbed up the stack before jumping off towards the battle, not noticing the fact that the stranger knew her companion.

"He's mine!" she declared as she landed between Sun and Torchwick. She began dueling Torchwick, before Sun jumped in and took her place. In a brief time, Torchwick had pushed them both back before firing on a container suspended from a crane, causing it to fall and force Sun and Blake to break off their attack.

The stranger crouched on the cargo containers, watching the fight. This was not his battle, so he would not step in unless it started to go against his desire. He briefly prepared to jump in and help as the container fell, but both of the Faunus combatants were fine. He watched as a girl in red wielding a scythe twice her size called out from the warehouse roof before getting shot by the man in white with the hat. He briefly raised his rifle to his shoulder, preparing to fire, before another girl jumped down from the roof and began engaging the White Fang troopers. He watched in awe as the girl began swinging swords around, seemingly by telekinesis, eventually using them to fire an energy blast at two escaping bullheads, bringing them both down.

As the stranger was watching the fight, he saw the commander retreat towards a bullhead, likely to make good his escape. He quickly jumped off the stack of crates and began running to the aircraft, trying to stay out of sight. Just before he reached it, the man boarded the transport, the bay doors closed, and the aircraft took off, flying away into the darkness. He growled under his breath before returning to the main area, where the Faunus and girls had gathered, sitting on some small wooden crates as the police arrived and began examining the area.

He approached the four teens but stood in the background as they conversed, although he did not go unnoticed. The other male there recognized him and turned to speak to him. "Verdan? What are you doing here?" Sun asked.

The girl in black turned from speaking with the girl in red. "Sun? You know him?" she asked.

"Yeah, I know him. He attends Shade back in Vacuo, we were at Umbra Primary Academy together, he's a year above me though. Ladies, may I introduce to you Verdan Allen. . . Yeah, I got no description here." Verdan's expression changed from a guarded, neutral one to an angry one, glaring at Sun.

"Yeah, he's pretty cool," Sun lamely finished, clearly diverting from what he had originally planned to say. "So, how are you doing, Verdan? And how'd you get here?"

"Doing fine," Verdan flatly said. "As for how I got here,-" He was interrupted by a cry of "Blake!" A girl in yellow and a girl in white came around the corner and ran up to the group.

"It's not what you think Weiss, you see she doesn't wear a bow she has cat ears and they're actually kinda cute. . ." the girl in red trailed off as the girl in white, Weiss it would seem, approached the girl in black, most likely Blake. His hunch was correct as Blake began speaking.

"Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associ-" Weiss interrupted her quickly, holding a hand in front of Blake.

"Stop. Do you have any idea how long we've been looking for you? Twelve hours! And in that time, I've decided-" Verdan dropped back as everyone else started to look slightly tense. "I don't care! You said you're not a part of them anymore, right?"

"No, I haven't been-" Blake began before she was interrupted again. Weiss made a noise to interrupt her as she held up her hand again.

"Just promise me that next time something this big comes up, you'll come to one of us, instead of some – someone else," she finished, looking at the other Faunus present. She moved forward to hug Blake.

"Hey, where's Penny?" Ruby asked. Everyone looked around, noticing that the strange girl had disappeared, before focusing on Verdan, the other stranger present.

"Who's this?" Yang asked, gesturing to him.

"My name's Verdan Allen, I'm from Shade Academy in Vacuo." Everyone studied him for a moment, taking in his strange form of dress – a tan trenchcoat over a dark brown T-shirt and khaki cargo pants, with a bandanna in another shade of tan tied around his neck, with black goggles around his neck, resting over the bandanna. A large black rifle was slung over his shoulder.

"Hi! My name's Ruby!" the girl in red excitedly interjected. "Can I see your weapon? I'll let you see mine!" Verdan handed Ruby his weapon as everyone else was introduced.

"My name's Yang, the girl in black is Blake, the girl in white is Weiss. And the guy is. . ." Yang trailed off as the guy interjected, "I'm Sun." Verdan nodded, looking at each one as he mouthed their names to himself.

"You said you're from Shade? What are you doing here, and particularly here on this dock?" Weiss asked imperiously. Verdan looked back at Weiss.

"Officially, I'm a temporary transfer student from Shade to Beacon. Unofficially, I'm trying to track the White Fang and find their base. They're doing something out in the Great Desert by Vacuo, and I want to figure out what. I have a vested interest in their activities, for several reasons."

"The headmaster of Shade just let you transfer because of what you want do?" Blake asked skeptically.

"She's my cousin, plus there are. . . other. . . circumstances," Verdan said, yelling at the end due to an increasingly-loud whirring noise.

Everyone looked up to see a Bullhead coming in for a landing. Once it landed, the bay door opened up, revealing a less-than-happy Professor Goodwitch. "Everyone get on, we'll take you back to Beacon. Even you, Mr. Allen. Why must you always get involved in these things, Ms. Rose?" she asked rhetorically as everyone got onto the transport. Ruby returned Verdan's weapon to him as the VTOL lifted off to travel back to Beacon Academy, everyone eager to get some rest after the events of the evening.