Judge. Jury. Punisher.
Board meetings.
Emphasis on "bored."
Weiss ran the SDC now, undoing years of her father's dark dealings and nasty work.
Fighting the board and the stockholders every step of the way.
Weiss closed out of the video conference, another droll business venture that would bear no fruit. Not that any of them ever did, her work never seemed to stick, at least… not the work she did in the office.
The ringing of a cell phone.
"Hello, my love," Weiss didn't have to fake her cheerful voice here, never fake it with her…
"Hey, baby, I was just wondering what time you might be home?" Ruby's voice was so hopeful, so pure, too good for Weiss, much too good to have a wife who hid things from her.
"I'll be a bit late getting home… need to finalize a deal over the most recent Faunus workforce strike."
"Oh… okay, I'll uh, see if I can stay up," Weiss' heart sank every time she heard Ruby's hopes crash.
"I'll try to make it up to you..."
"Just getting to see that perfect face of yours tomorrow morning will be enough." Ruby snickered. She always knew how to make Weiss feel better, to make a liar feel better.
Weiss gave a small chuckle, "keep it up smooth talker and I might show you more than my face..."
"I like the sound of that," growled Ruby
"See you tonight, love you, but I have to go now."
"Not as much as I love you..." Ruby sang.
"Charmer."
"For you..."
Weiss rolled the wedding band around her finger after she hung up the phone. "I'm sorry Ruby… but I need to do this…" She got up from her desk, clocked out a bit early and walked to her car, driving to the place she wouldn't be tonight, putting on the clothes she wouldn't wear.
Dark coat, dark pants, snow-white hair forced underneath a dark cap. A white skull spray painted on a bulletproof vest.
Weiss always thought she looked horrible in black, clashed too hard, but black was perfect for what she had to do…
Who she had to be…
Twenty Minutes Later, Southern Atlas
The sound of hurried boots on wet pavement filled the air in the dark alley, like a symphony of the scared. The man sprinted away, covered in blood but none of it his, a businessman in the wrong part of town, or the right part if you were trying to hire a biker gang to rough up a Faunus workforce on strike…
The clinking of chain link fence, a man climbing for his life, glancing behind every so often.
She's coming.
The panicked pants of a dead man. The gut-wrenching thud of an elbow to the gut. These damned blind corners, so often do they run right into them.
The squelch and clinking of a soaked man and a briefcase.
"What do you want!" The screams of fear.
"To send a message." The chilling calm tone of someone who has done this before.
"Oh God, Oh God! Listen, the money in the briefcase, take it, please just let me live!"
"SDC money?"
"Y-y-yes! Please, I just do what I'm told."
"How quaint..."
"Wait… I know who you are… y-y-you're that Executioner woman!"
"Ugh, they never get the name right… no, I am The Punisher."
The ringing of a gunshot.
The clink of a casing on the pavement.
The sound of boots walking calmly away...