Ruby spun the chamber of the sword, biting her lip nervously. It was working, the logical part of her brain told her. She had checked and rechecked and rechecked again. It all works. It all functioned. It was, by all accounts, the best weapon she had ever made (not counting her own, but that was to be expected with the amount of time she had poured into the scythe). Still, this was the most important client she had ever had. It wasn't her sister, or looking to get a notch above standard issue, or even a championship fighter. This was Weiss Schnee, and any imperfection would be noticed. And scrutinized. And she might get yelled at.

Maybe she should check the chamber again.

The bell above the door jingled, signaling that her time was up. Ruby straightened nervously, smoothing out the wrinkles of her jacket and tried to prepare herself to meet the heiress. She placed the sword gingerly into its case and snapped the lid shut before closing her eyes and steeling herself to walk out and present it.

"Where is she?"

Ruby winced. Apparently she was taking too long. She hurried out just in time to hear a familiar voice answer, "I'm sure she'll be here in a moment, Weiss." Pyrrha Nikos beamed up at Ruby as she finished her sentence. "See? Hello, Ruby."

Weiss folded her arms. "She was still slow."

Ruby swallowed nervously and placed the case on the counter. "Uh, hi, Pyrrha."

"You have my weapon?"

Ruby jumped a little and turned to face Weiss. "Of course, Miss. Ma'am. Uh, Sir?"

Weiss exhaled and closed her eyes. "Just give it to me."

"Right!" Ruby thrust the sword at the woman—hilt first, fortunately. "This is it! His name is Myrtenaster."

Weiss delicately took hold of the rapier and raised it, examining the blade critically before raising an eyebrow at the smith. "'His' name? Why male?"

Ruby blushed and wrung her hands. "Uh, not really any reason, I guess. Just the feeling I got while making it."

"Miló and Akoúo̱ are both male, too," Pyrrha added helpfully, receiving a bemused expression from her employer.

"I see." Weiss stepped into her ready position, Myrtenaster angled slightly forward. She took a couple practice swings with it before returning to her usual stance. "Regardless, it is well-balanced. Now, how does the dust operate?"

"Oh, you just have to rotate the chamber so that the type you want is on top, then press the trigger on the hilt there. It'll come out the top and down the blade, just like you wanted it to. I did have to refine the nozzle from the design I was given, though. That one would have made it spray too much; this one will give it more of a stream."

Weiss narrowed her eyes. "I believe you were given orders to make it exactly as specified."

"Well, I, uh," Ruby stammered looking around desperately as though some saving grace might leap from the shadowy corners of her shop.

"Weiss, trust me. Any alterations she made could only make it better. She's brilliant."

Weiss whirled around on her bodyguard. "I did not pay to have the designs made only for some dolt to decide she could do better!"

"But I did do better…"

The heiress narrowed her eyes at the weaponsmith. "That remains to be seen."

"Well, then how about you try it out, Weiss?" Pyrrha interjected smoothly. "If you don't like it, then Ruby can make you a new one."

Ruby beamed. "Yeah! Just try it out. I promise you'll like it."

Weiss's eyes flickered from Pyrrha to Ruby. "Very well. Pyrrha, come with me."

The heiress turned and marched from the shop. Pyrrha gave Ruby a reassuring smile before following.

Ruby stood anxiously behind the counter until she got too nervous and began pacing, glancing up at the clock every so often. They've been gone forty minutes now. Is that long enough? Where were they going? Maybe they went all the way back to her house to test it. How far away is her house? Does her house have training facilities? Probably, if she's getting a dust weapon like that. Forty-one minutes. I wonder how good of a fighter she is. She must be pretty good with dust, at least. She'll be able to tell if anything's wrong. What if there is something wrong? Maybe I didn't do it right. Maybe my design was completely horrible. Oh god, what if it explodes when she tries to use it? What if it kills her? What if-

Her rambling thoughts were cut off as the bell jingled again and Weiss stepped in and walked purposefully to the counter. Ruby couldn't seem to find her voice as the heiress's gaze bore down into her. Just as Ruby had almost found the words to apologize, Weiss drew a slip of paper from her purse and placed it on the counter. Ruby looked down at the check. The check with a very big number. Weiss started to turn to leave, but before she did, she turned back and, after drawing out a pen, reached down and added another zero to the figure. Ruby sat down heavily as soon as the heiress left her store, clutching the check tightly.

0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0

"Alright, you three," Junior paced back in forth at the top of the stairs, addressing his employees. "This meeting I've got tonight is important. Worth more than your life important."

Yang snickered and he sent her a glare.

"So you're not going to do anything to mess it up, clear?" He stopped in front of Yang and stared at her.

"You know me, Junior. I never mess anything up."

"That's all you do."

"Well," Yang winked at him, "That is what you hired me for."

Miltia snorted derisively and Yang grinned, leaning back over the railing and looking upside-down at the twins. "Aww, come on, Millie! Don't be like that. Come on, let's dance!"

Miltia huffed and stalked off to the bar.

"No? How 'bout you, Mel?"

Melanie shot Yang a look of contempt before joining her sister. Junior groaned as he turned to face her.

"Could you, for just one day, not be a complete pain in the ass?"

Yang laughed. "Doubt it."

The door opened, and one of Junior's goons ran into the room. "He's here."

"Right," Junior said, straightening up. "Melanie, Miltia, places. Yang, just… look threatening."

The twins took up their place at the far side of the bar. Yang grinned and leaned against the wall next to the door. It son opened again, admitting an orange-haired man wearing a bowler hat and a far-too-white suit. He also carried a cane, though he wasn't supporting himself on it. Weapon, Yang's mind immediately said.

"Hi!" Yang greeted, jumping up and extending a hand. "I'm threatening."

"Yang?" Junior addressed her, walking up the man.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up," he said, brushing past her. "Come with me, Mr. Torchwick. I hope my unsavory employee hasn't put you off any deals."

Torchwick laughed as he shook Junior's hand. "Not at all. I've had to work with people like her before," he replied, smirking at Yang, "and please, call me Roman. We're all friends here."

"Great, Roman," Junior said. "Come on, have a drink and we can talk."

"That sounds wonderful," Roman mused, following Junior to the bar. "It's so nice to meet someone civilized in this town."

The manager laughed. "I know what you mean. So many people think that the answer is always punching something." His eyes flitted to Yang, carrying a silent threat. She gave him her best innocent smile, which seemed to be more of a mischievous smirk judging by his grimace. He nonetheless managed to hide it from Roman as the pair sat at the bar.

"Tommy! My usual. What'll you have?"

"Nothing too strong," Roman replied nonchalantly. "I've got a long night ahead of me."

Junior chuckled. "Never a dull moment, is there?"

"Indeed not. Thank you," Roman replied, raising his glass to Junior as soon as it arrived. He didn't drink, though, merely placing it on the counter as Junior took a swig of his own. Yang tensed.

"Now, Roman. Since you've got a long night, let's keep this short, shall we?"

Roman smiled. "Of course."

"So, your boss is planning to do some work down by the docks, right?"

"Yes, precisely. And we were concerned about stepping on your toes, as it were."

Junior waved a dismissive hand. "Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you came to talk to me about it first. I'm sure we can work out an arrangement."

"Ah," Roman said, leaning back slightly. "Thing with that is, my employer doesn't particularly like contracts. She wants to have as much freedom as possible."

"I assure you, I can be reasonable."

"You two may have different definitions of reasonable."

Junior's face became dangerously neutral as he straightened up and leaned slightly forward. "We're not going to have a problem, are we, Mr. Torchwick?"

Roman laughed. "No, of course not."

Junior relaxed slightly, but his eyes remained firmly fixed on Roman, who leaned forward.

"I never let things alone long enough to become a problem." Roman brought his cane up, a small pop sounding as the end flipped up into a crosshair. Before junior could react, a blast erupted from the end of the cane, catching him in the chest and sending him flying across the bar.

"Junior!" The twin's voices sounded off in unison as they rushed to their fallen boss. Yang, meanwhile, had already locked Ember Celica into place and leapt forward, driving a punch at the back of Roman's head.

He seemed to be expecting her, though, as he ducked to the side and brought his cane up painfully into her stomach. She stumbled momentarily before turning back to find him still smiling.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat, Blondie, but I've got a very busy schedule," he said, raising his cane again. Yang lunged at him knocking his cane aside and driving her fist into his stomach and sending him flying across the room, where he shakily got to his feet and chuckled. "Not bad, Blondie."

She charged at him again, but this time he had enough distance to get off a couple shots, forcing her to dodge instead of chase. When she came back up, he was already making a hasty exit through the front door. She ran out after him in time to see him enter a car and drive off. Not breaking her stride, she leapt up and landed on Bumblebee, kicking up the kickstand and roaring the engine to life. A moment later, she was off after him.

Roman's car was fast, but unwieldy. He couldn't take the turns Yang could, and she could easily catch up to him on the busy main street in front of Junior's club by weaving in and out through the traffic. He seemed to realize this, too, as he soon swerved off onto a less-traveled side street and accelerated. Yang followed, already falling behind as the car rocketed down the narrow road. But Yang still had one advantage: she knew the area. She had grown up here, and she and Bumblebee spent much of their free time exploring the alleys and learning every shortcut. The street they were on now curved gradually to the right, and there weren't many streets leading off of it that Roman's big car would fit through.

Yang pulled off into a narrow alleyway, and started dodging in and out through the back alleys behind the closely-crowded buildings with a confidence that came only from experience. And a bit of insanity. She came bursting out of the alleyways back on the main street, with the increasingly loud rumble of Roman's car told her that she was ahead of him. Good. Yang smirked and pulled Bumblebee around to charge at the oncoming car. Roman immediately tried to swerve away as Yang came barreling down on him.

As he approached, Yang took her chance. She leapt off of Bumblebee and dropped down, fist extended, onto the hood of Roman's car, savoring the look of shock on his face as the engine crumpled and the back of the vehicle flipped over her, sailing through the air before slamming into the ground and tumbling along, shredding into tiny pieces as it went. It was Yang's turn to be surprised when she looked around to see Roman, still immaculately dressed, straightening up amidst the wreckage.

She growled and prepared to charge when a small girl leapt down from one of the surrounding buildings to land directly in front of Roman, facing Yang. She had pink and brown hair, an entirely impractical parasol, and a grin that Yang wanted to punch almost as much as she wanted to punch Roman.

"Ah, Neo. What impeccable timing. If you would."

Not seeming to acknowledge Roman, Neo instead fixed her gaze on Yang and bowed, flourishing her parasol in an entirely unnecessary fashion.

Yang roared and charged at the girl, who still hadn't raised back into a standing position when Yang delivered a blow that could crumble walls to the girl's smug face. As her fist connected, both Roman and the girl shattered into tiny fragments like glass, the real pair nowhere to be seen.

"Damn it damn it damn it!" Yang yelled in frustration.

"Well, then. Looks like we finally managed to catch you in the act."

Yang whirled around just in time to catch an oversized mace with her forehead.

"Alright," Cardin said, turning to the four officers behind him. "One of you grab her and throw her in the car." He looked back at the unconscious girl. "Hopefully we'll be able to make this one stick."