Chapter Text
Blake arrived at the armory, putting on her combat outfit and making sure her weapons were good to go. She double checked that gambol shroud had enough ammo in it, according to the case files, there were high amounts of grimm so hunters were needed. When she was done she headed towards the briefing room, immediately spotting a head of wild blond hair, Yang. Next to her was a shorter girl with black hair and red highlights, Ruby, Yang's younger sister.
Despite being going to the same school as Yang, they have never formally met each other as they were on different teams. She knew Ruby was Yang's younger sister so they never remotely met until now.
Ruby was practically bouncing in her chair as she waited for the captain to walk in and Yang was next to her with a much more relaxed posture as she chatted with Ruby. They were already ready, with both their outfits on and their weapons leaning against the wall next to them. Blake went and sat behind them leaning back into the chair with her arms crossed as she waited.
“Ok Squad, as you know today is operation snake pit, I want this to go smoothly so heres how its gonna happen,” The Captain said walking in
He was a big guy, jet black hair trimmed neatly, his presence commands respect. His words were quick and on the point too. Blake wasn't paying too much attention though because all she needs to do is tag along with a group to get rid of any grimm they come across.
“Does everyone get that?” When he got yes captains he continued “Alright we leave in thirty, dismissed,”
As everyone stood up to get ready, Ruby and Yang turned to talk to her.
“You’re Blake correct? I'm Yang, nice to meet you,” Yang stuck out her hand for a handshake in which Blake gave
“I know, you’re the girl who almost exploded Ms Goodwich’s classroom with Nora,” Blake said with humor
“Hi Blake, I’m Ruby!” The girl said practically vibrating up and down waving "I'm so excited to be taking down something on this grand of a scale. How many grimm do you think we would be fighting, I hope it's lots!”
“Alright Rubes, I bet we’ll be fighting our share of grimm, lets head to the vans now,” Yang said before the two of them left with Blake trailing behind
The whole operation is the reason why she took this mission. An illegal fighting pit using either down on their luck faunus or trafficked faunus for bloody entertainment. When she read part of the case file she felt sick, multiple photos of faunus in the ring fighting each other bloodied and bruised. In some of the photos, their faunus parts are badly mutilated or ripped off entirely.
There were other photos of untrained and barely armed faunus going up against grimm. A lot of them get their limbs permanently mangled or deep gashes leading to blood loss. The worst part of it is that there were so many humans watching with glee and betting on different fighters like it was just some game show for entertainment.
As someone who was a Faunus herself and has advocated for faunus rights, this put a bad feeling in her gut. She knew about the exploitation of faunus workers in dust mines and that some faunus have been trafficked, but this was different, something sickening.
Each huntress was assigned to a squad that they were to shadow in case they encountered grimm, so the three of them were separated. They were also supposed to search every room to make sure everything was accounted for. They had mics to call on each other for back up and had each other's location on their scrolls. According to the case files they were striking on a day that there were no fights planned.
As they got closer to the location Blake realized they took the term underground fighting quite literally, they went into an abandoned looking tunnel that seemed to go through a mountain. They stopped outside a lone double door leading into the side, there was graffiti surrounding the door. Blake has to admit that it was a good spot to place an illegal fighting pit, the whole place screamed abandoned.
“Remember, there's a guy already in there, when he gives the signal, that's when we break in,” A voice said from the radio, probably the captain
Blake could hear voices coming from the radio, she didn’t know what they were talking about or what the signal was but everyone else in the van seemed to be listening very carefully. Pretty soon she heard someone say “That's our signal! Let's Go!” and soon with everyone else they stormed the facility.
“VPD! PUT YOUR HANDS UP, YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!” Somebody yelled
Blake soon ran in the direction she was assigned and started to search for grimm. The whole place was confusing as hell, each hallway looks exactly the same. Rows and rows of doors under a dimly lit hallway, Blake was scared to know how many people were kept here to be used as entertainment. She could hear the task force behind her breaking down doors getting whoever is behind them. She could hear panicked whispers behind some doors as she continued to track down the grimm.
Venturing down one of the gross dimly lit hallways she heard a loud crash along with a series of roars and pounding sounds. She sprinted down the hallway following the banging until she reached a large metal door where she could see it vibrate as Grimm tried to get out. The door was like that of the ones at banks with the rotating handle, making it harder for things to enter and leave. She didn’t know how many Grimm were behind that door and it could go down hill once she opened it, she took those chances anyways and flung open the steel door.
When she got the door open she had a fraction of a second to dodge out of the way of a leaping beowolf, which crashed into a pile of mist in the shape of her. There were a lot of Grimm; beowolves, boarbatusks, ursa, and beringel. Luckily most of them were still in cages, though she still couldn’t solo all the ones that were free.
“Hey guys, if you’re not occupied, I could use some back up,” Blake said into her mic
“Roger that Blakey, I’ll be there in a few,” Yang answered and Blake chose to ignore the nickname
“Alright, I need to finish up here and I’m on my way,” Ruby said a second later
Again the beowolf lunged at her and this time she was prepared to dodge, when she landed, she fired a barrage of bullets, killing a couple of the grimm. Blake jumped up when a beringel swiped at her and threw one of her ribbons around its wrist, flying behind him to throw the creature off balance before stabbing it when it hit the ground.
A boarbatusk caught her off guard and rammed into her at full force, sending Blake flying across the room. She grunted as she got up from the impact before the rest of the beowolves started to lunge at her in rapid succession. She barely had time to dodge and swing at the Grimm in the small amount of room she was able to move. She managed to kill them not before they got hits on her.
She was starting to get tired from the impact the boarbatusk caused and the chipping away the beowolves did to her aura. The exhaustion made her falter, letting an ursa tackle her, pining her to the ground. Blake braced for impact, which never came as a blur of rose petals caught the ursa in a giant scythe, launching it off of her. That’s when a flash of fire exploded with a loud bang killing the ursa mid air not letting it even hit the ground.
“That’s what we call Strawberry Sunrise, it’s a work in progress,” A cocky voice said, Yang, “I heard someone call for back up?”
Blake let out a few heavy breaths as Yang walked over to her and reached out an arm to help her up which she gladly took.
“Thanks a lot,” Blake looked around and saw Ruby clear out the rest of the Grimm
“Hey, are you ok?” Ruby said walking towards them
“I am, thank you. Let’s head back now,”
The group started to walk back to the entrance, looking inside rooms to make sure there was no one left behind. This place was enormous, Blake didn’t know how they managed to construct a place like this, the actual arena area was about the size of a food court in a mall. It’s a wonder the staff here didn’t get lost, getting people in and out.
When they were nearing the entrance they heard a soft bang, it came from a lone door at the end of a small hallway. Blake didn’t know if the task force checked it already or completely missed it but she cautiously walked down with her weapon drawn, Ruby and Yang behind her doing the same thing.
“Hello, is anyone there?” No answer
Blake got closer to the door, it was like all the other fighters doors; metal, bars on a small window, a number on the front, and a small slit at the bottom that was probably for food. She opened the door and saw the cell was empty, and like the rest of the facility, it was dimly lit. There was a messy cot in the corner, chains on the wall and a lone tray of eaten food in the middle.
In a flash Blake was forcefully pinned to the wall by someone, her weapon clattered to the ground. She couldn’t see who the attacker was but she saw round ears atop the person's head, a tail swishing behind them, and an axe in the person's hand ready to use if necessary. She then realized that she could see their eyes, two icy blue eyes practically glowing in the dark room piercing into her.
“Blake?” Ruby and Yang yelled in worry. Blake heard shuffling but it was hard to see from where she was pinned.
“Stop.” The voice was rough and very raspy like it hasn't been used in a long time but still had a feminine pitch.
“I’m not here to hurt you,” Blake said cautiously “We’re here to help you and get you out of this place. Alright?”
The girl stared at Blake a little longer before lowering the axe and letting her go. That is when Blake realized that her feet were touching the ground the whole time and the girl was just very short. She picked up her weapon off the floor and exited the room with the mysterious person trailing behind her. Yang looked at her relieved then looked behind her, her eyes widened in shock.
“Blake, is that…” She trailed off
Confused, Blake turned around finally seeing the girl who attacked her. The first thing she noticed was the striking white hair, it came down to the end of her back in a braid. She was dressed in only a black sports bra and sweatpants, she had the physique of someone muscular but also malnourished at the same time. There was white fur on her forearms, calves and some on her chest, it was very dirty and matted with blood. She had a pair of lion looking ears on top of her head and a long tail behind her, they both had cuts littered across them and one of the ears had a small chunk missing from it. There were also scars across her body with a giant claw gash coming from the side of her face and over her left eye. She was still holding onto the axe in which Blake can now clearly see is covered in dried blood.
Shocked also came onto Blake, she was horrified at what she was seeing, the person standing in front of her was supposed to be dead and most definitely not a faunus.
It was Weiss fucking Schnee.