Darkness was all Emerald could see. Either the room was completely black or they had blindfolded her, though the latter made absolutely no sense to her. They were law woman, of course they would have taken her to the sheriff's office. Not only that, but she couldn't feel anything covering her eyes nor her face, so that could only mean that the room was simply pitch black.
The one thing she could feel, however, was the tight bindings that held her arms behind her and her legs strapped to the chair she sat upon. Normally this would have been easy for her to break out of, but whenever her arms twitched, or her toes curled upon themselves-
"Don't even think about it," a voice would whisper, gently into her ear, causing shivers to run down her spine. Someone was in here with her, watching her every move. How they did this was beyond her, even after hours inside this room her eyes had yet to adjust. She could understand somewhat if it had been the Sheriff, after all her eyes were legendary despite her being in office for only a week. But this wasn't the Sheriff, oh no, the voice was much too gentle, too quiet to have been the sheriff's.
It was much too threatening. It was a voice that promised death, one that could rival her beloved boss Cinder's.
It didn't help matters that the only thing she could hear, other than her jailors, was the scream of her partner every so often. Screams so painful, so guttural she could feel the fear in them. What could they be doing to him that would make him scream as so? What kind of torture could a naive little girl such as the Sheriff bring herself to do?
The screams had finally stopped. Had Mercury talked? Or did he pass out from the pain? What if it was worse than that? What if he had…
'No, I mustn't think like that!' Emerald thought to herself, mentally shaking away the image of her friend's corpse. 'There's no way the Sheriff would stoop so-'
Her thoughts were interrupted by a bright light, causing her eyes to scream in pain as she shut them as tightly as she could.
"Well, that was disappointing," she heard Ruby mutter. "I gotta say, your friend was a tough one, passed out before I could get anything out of him." Emerald heard the swishing of water inside of a bucket, as if someone were washing their hands.
"W-what did you do to him?!" Emerald demanded, doing her best to sound as intimidating as possible, but it was to no avail. Ruby had simply smirked, walking back to the door and slowly shutting it.
"The same thing I'm going to do to you."
And with not another word spoken, she felt a searing pain inside of her ear, like nothing she had felt before. It was as if Ruby was sending billions of volts of lighting directly into her ear, causing her to squirm inside of her chair.
All she could do was scream.
-Line Break-
Weiss was sitting in her chair, doing her best to relax. She had no desire to watch Ruby at work, the things she was doing to both Mercury and Emerald disgusted her to no end. She couldn't even bring herself to watch over Emerald as she awaited her 'torture', and had simply called in a favor from a friend.
'Is this really necessary?' she would ask herself constantly, the screams of Ruby's victims echoing throughout the office. It honestly sent shivers down her spine. She made a mental note never to get on Ruby's bad side, it seemed like a dangerous place to be.
Several minutes went by until Emerald's screaming had subsided. Had Ruby finally broke the girl in? Or had Emerald passed out like her ally before her? Weiss could only guess as Ruby finally left the room with a smile.
"She finally caved in," Ruby said as she wiped her fingers with a piece of cloth. "We finally have Cinder's location, she's hiding out in the abandoned Schnee Mine's just a little ways north."
"Well that's cliché," Weiss muttered with a roll of her eyes. "And it figures it has to be a schnee owned property, even when I'm trying to get away from my family I have to interact with them on some level."
"Oh Weiss, chin up!" Ruby said as she slung her rifle over her shoulder. "We're taking on one of the most wanted criminals in all the west! We're going to be heroes!"
"Yay," Weiss exclaimed with all the enthusiasm of a hedgehog getting devoured. "I just hope my father has nothing to do with this, I don't need him dragging our name even further in the mud than he already has."
"Hmm," Ruby paused, scratching her chin in thought. "How much you wanna bet that he is involved?" Ruby asked, causing Weiss to laugh loudly.
"You should know by now that I never take a bet I can't win!" and with a smile she gathered her own things, making sure that her revolvers were fully loaded and checking to see if Ruby had all the ammo she would need with her. "What are we doing about Mercury and Emerald? Is it really okay to leave them unsupervised?"
"Oh, don't worry about that, Blake agreed to watch over them," Ruby said with a smile, though that quickly vanished in favor of a look of confusion. "Said something about wanting you to owe her something?" and with that Weiss couldn't stop herself from sighing.
"Great, like I don't owe her enough favors," she growled, though at that moment another thought had came to her. "Hey Ruby, what did you do to those two? Had to be something horrible for them to react like that, so what was it?" she asked carefully, earning a chuckle from Ruby.
"What my sister used to do to me to get me to confess," she said with a knowing smile. "A vicious wet willy."
-Line Break-
Though it was doubtful that Cinder would know the two of them were coming, Ruby had decided to err on the side of caution and walk to their destination, using the rocky terrain to their advantage, something their horses would be unable to travel upon. The best part of this plan was the time in which they would end up at their destination, midnight. Under the cover of darkness the two would sneak in, scout around to find out Cinder's strength, find any weakness in her makeshift stronghold, and take advantage of it.
Ruby felt the best plan was to silently snipe their enemies from afar. Her eyesight was the greatest in the world, and even with the cloudy night sky making it far more difficult to see, Ruby would still be able to see better than all but one person, and that person was currently at her office watching over Cinder's lackeys.
Weiss, however, had a plan that was a bit more… forthright.
"You want to blow up the mines?!" Ruby exclaimed uncharacteristically.
"It would be over in an instant," Weiss muttered, a terrifying grin upon her face. How could she not smile at the images of her father's abandoned mine blowing up, a cascade of rock and boulder collapsing upon itself in a blaze of glory. Oh, how the arrogant old fool would be furious. Weiss knew the only reason he still kept it was for the inane reason of not wanting anyone else to own the land, to recondition it into something useful. Sure, Weiss herself couldn't think of what to do with it, but that didn't mean someone more imaginative couldn't.
"That seems a bit… excessive, don't you think?" Ruby asked, unable to hold back the shiver of fear from seeing such a maniacal grin upon her Super Deputy's face. It was also kind of hot, but she wouldn't say that aloud.
"It would be glorious," Weiss argued back.
After arguing for several hours as they made the slow trek towards the abandoned mines, Ruby's plan unsurprisingly won out, much to Weiss' vexation.
"If it makes you feel any better, the next time someone decides to use your Dad's old abandoned mine THEN we can blow it up to smithereens, heck, I'm pretty sure we can get Yang to help!" And with that small promise Weiss' mood improved drastically.
By the time the two's discussion were over, midnight had rolled around and, just as Ruby had predicted, they made it into their positions, high atop a rocky hill overlooking the abandoned mine, and what they saw shocked them.
Several men, whose looks just screamed "bandits", were scattered in front of the mines, all sitting around a campfire, a pot of what Ruby assumed to be food cooking over a roaring flame. Ruby had expected the opening of the mines to be clear, she had planned to send Weiss down there to cause a bit of commotion to get them to leave the mines, she didn't expect this! For the bandits to be just sitting around like sitting ducks!
"Either they're really confident that they won't be found out," Weiss began, looking through her binoculars, scouting out for signs of Cinder. "Or they're just really stupid."
"I don't see Cinder anywhere," Ruby muttered, able to see better than even Weiss' binoculars. "Do you know if there are any exits other than the entrance?"
"Not that I know of," Weiss said with a shake of her head. "I even looked at the old blueprints for these mines, so if there is another ext it would have had to been made after Father abandoned it…" she trailed off, estimating how long it would take to make a new exit while factoring in with how long the mines have been abandoned.
"Well?" Ruby asked as she poked Weiss several times, much to the super deputies annoyance.
"Don't rush me," she growled. After re-doing her calculations for errors, she finally came to a decision. "Eh, maybe," she said with a shrug, earning a groan from Ruby.
"Seriously, Weiss? You don't know long it takes to make an exit for a mine?"
"Well excuse me for having zero interest in my father's boring business," Weiss snapped back, turning away from Ruby with a pout. "Does it matter? We should just expect the worse anyways, that way we'll be prepared."
"Oh please, don't give me that crap," Ruby admonished as she unslung her rifle and loaded in her special rubber bullets. "The worse that could happen is for a meteor to fall from the sky and crash into the mines, killing Cinder and all the possible information she has on her associates-"
"Shut up, you know what I meant," Weiss growled, earning a giggle from the girl next to her.
"Sorry, couldn't help myself," Ruby said as she bent down on one knee and finally aimed down her sights, targeting a random bandit.
"You're not going to use rubber bullets on Cinder too, are you?" Weiss asked as Ruby pulled her trigger, knocking out one of the bandits and causing the others to fly into a panic.
"No," Ruby replied as she cocked her gun and once again pulled her trigger. "Cinder's too dangerous, I mean, I know rubber bullets can kill and all," another cock, ten more exit the mines. "But if Cinder resists like I know she will, I'd feel more comfortable using a silver bullet," three, four, seven, and more fall, faster than Weiss can even count, and before she even knows it all the bandits lay on the floor. She watches the mines, waiting for even more to come out. But no one came. Either they learned their lesson and decided to stay put, or Ruby had just single handedly taken out each and everyone of them, save for Cinder of course.
'Speaking of which,' Weiss thought as she turned towards the sheriff. "You do know she's not a werewolf, right?" Weiss asked, watching as Ruby stood back up, patting away the dust that now adorned her pants.
"You do know we have zero confirmation that she isn't a werewolf, right?" Ruby shot back, loading her gun with silver bullets as Weiss groaned beside her.
"I swear you do this for the sole purpose of annoying me," she muttered, following Ruby as she descended to the mines below.
"You can't prove that," Ruby replied, taking aim and slowly entering the mines, Weiss trailing behind her. They had to be cautious. No doubt Cinder knew they were here, she may not have seen them, but she most certainly heard the gunfire and shouting.
"Be careful where you aim," Weiss whispered, aiming her twin revolvers in different directions. "My father, in his infinite wisdom, left barrels and barrels of TNT in here." Ruby paused, before turning towards Weiss.
"That doesn't sound very smart?" her statement sounded more like a question, her face clearly showing her confusion while Weiss' own showed off her irritation.
"The "infinite wisdom" part was sarcastic, Ruby," she explained, earning a nod from Ruby.
"Oh, that makes sense," and with a smile, Ruby turned away and continued to slowly lead further into the mines.
Several minutes passed by, Weiss unable to see anything save for Ruby's bright red vest. She chewed on her lip, being careful not to jostle her guns too much. Though she told Ruby earlier to be careful, she knew if anyone had to watch where they shoot it would have to be her. Ruby could easily see in this dark cave, which was the very reason as to why they decided against a torch, and if they were to successfully run into Cinder, Ruby would be the first to see and the first to pull the trigger.
'Why am I even in here?' Weiss asked herself, in this darkness she was more of a liability to Ruby, if anyone were to make a mistake to cause Cinder to find them first it would be-
"Oh crap!" Ruby shouted, causing Weiss to cringe as she watched her boss trip over her own two feet, the scream echoing throughout the mine. Hopefully the echo would confuse Cinder and-
"I knew I smelled a couple of rats." Slowly breathing through her nose, Weiss cursed their own luck as the sultry voice echoed around them.
"Cin-!" Weiss quickly slapped her hand around Ruby's mouth, preventing the girl from shouting.
"Dammit, Ruby," she hissed. "The louder you are the higher the chances of her finding-"
"You?" Cinder finished, a ball of flame in her hand illuminated the area around them, causing the two law woman to flinch.
'Suddenly I'm very grateful Ruby brought silver bullets,' Weiss thought to herself, a twinge of fear taking place in her heart as she stared in awe of Cinder Fall, trying and failing to figure out how the woman was holding a ball of pure fire.
"Bet you're grateful I have silver bullets now, aren't cha?"
"Shut up," Weiss replied, unwilling to admit the truth as she slowly pulled away from Ruby, eyes never moving away from Cinder. It was two on one, their best bet was to get Cinder from both sides, a pincer attack. If Cinder attacked one, the other would end her.
"You're not serious now, are you?" Cinder chuckled, keeping an eye on the Super Deputy. "You really think the two of you can take me? It doesn't matter what you do, it'll end the same way," Cinder shrugged, staying perfectly still as the two law woman got into position.
"On the ground, now," Weiss' tone left no room for argument, yet Cinder still stood, a smirk on her lips as she stared at her, completely disinterested. "You're wanted, dead or alive, and though I may not speak for Ruby, I personally would prefer the former." She pulled back the hammers of her revolvers, leveling them at Cinder's head with a snarl. "Last warning. On. The. Ground."
Yet despite the threat, Cinder stood, as impassive as ever and with an ever present smirk. "Didn't you hear me before, princess?" Cinder asked, the flames in her hand crackling in the ever silent mine. "It doesn't matter what you do, it'll end the same-"
And with that the flames went out, encompassing Ruby and Weiss in darkness as a shot rang throughout the cavern.
"Aaarrgh!" Weiss heard a scream, panic seizing her heart for a moment. What happened? Who was that? Was Ruby alri-"
"Got her!"
"You bitch!"
A sigh of relief escaped Weiss. It seemed Cinder was far too cocky for her own good and ended up getting shot. "That's what you get for posturing around like a child at a playground," Weiss scolded, the darkness of the cave being the only thing hiding her smirk.
"Wait, I thought you liked good posture?" Ruby asked, pausing in her work to hog tie Cinder.
"Not what she meant, but thank you for the distraction," And with a flick of Cinder's wrist, Ruby was aflame.
"Ruby!" Weiss screamed, running towards the girl as she dropped to the ground and began rolling like a barrel down a hill.
"STOPDROPROLL!STOPDROPROLL!STOPDROPROLL!" Ruby continuously screamed, rolling around as fast as she could.
"Oh my god! Ruby!" Weiss screamed as she continued to follow her rolling companion, removing her own vest and slapping Ruby with it, hoping it would help quell the flames.
Ruby continued to roll for her life, eventually leading herself out of the mines and into the open air. Finally, after a full minute of this, combined with the slapping of Weiss' vest, did the flames finally die out.
"It's-it's finally out," Weiss gasped, falling to her knees as all her strength left her. "Are you...okay?" she asked, watching as Ruby laid there on the ground, gasping for breath.
"Y-yeah, I think so," Ruby said, wincing as she finally stood up. "I was only burnt a little bit, I think," she said as she checked over herself, and though her clothes were a bit singed, it didn't look like the fire did any lasting damage to her skin.
"Good, good," Weiss said with a nod, her breathing having slowed down as she stood and turned towards the mines. Cinder slowly emerged, glaring in their direction before quickly darting off into the opposite direction, away from the mines.
"Big mistake," Weiss muttered, her fear from before being replaced with something else. "Ruby? Stay here for a moment, I'll be right back," she muttered, her face contorting into a hideous snarl as she made a slow jog towards Cinder
"Uh, you sure about that? What if she-" A loud bang interrupted her, causing her to wince as she watched Cinder fall to the ground, a feeling of pity taking root as she watched Cinder attempting to crawl away from the vengeful Super Deputy. "Uh, hey, Weiss! I don't think she's going anywhere now, so tie her up and-" she was once again interrupted by a loud bang, which was continued consecutively ten more times. "Or you can kill her. Violently. That's fine, I guess," Ruby muttered nervously as Weiss made her way back towards her.
"Let's go," Weiss ordered, earning a nod from Ruby.
"Yeah, Yang'll be here in a bit to arrest these-Aah!" Ruby gasped as she was lifted bridal style. "W-what are you-"
"Quiet," Weiss muttered, holding Ruby gently against her chest. "You'll aggravate your wounds, so just stay still and let me carry you," Weiss commanded, earning a blush from Ruby.
"O-okay," she nodded, before doing a little fistpump. "Dreams do come true," she muttered before wrapping her arms around Weiss' neck.
"...Uh, not really comfortable with this, but okay," Weiss muttered, now sporting her own blush as she slowly made her way back to town.
Or she would have, if they hadn't met up with Yang five minutes later and just hitched a ride with her.
-Line Break-
And that's the end of this story. This was always meant to be a short story, honestly it wasn't even suppose to be this long. Just a bit of a quickie really. One thing I am disappointed about though is the White Rose. I mean, it's really only hinted at the very end, so I could have probably done it better. I'm gonna label this as complete for now, but I might end up doing a wrap up chapter, don't count on it though.
I also feel like the humor fell flat. This is primarily a comedy story, but I don't think that worked out too well. Still, at least I wrote it out, so it made for good practice. Let me know what you guys think, tell me what works, what doesn't work, and hopefully that'll help improve my writing.