Blood and Roses

by The Snow Mage

Chapter 8: Nearly two years have gone by since Raven killed her ex-husband, and Ruby has delved deep into the criminal underbelly in her city searching for answers. When Cinder returns with a much more proactive plan for taking over the city, Ruby comes to understand exactly the forces she's involved herself with - just in time for Beacon High to collapse.

4. Chapter 4

Yay! I actually get to say the name of the damn city in this chapter! Hooray!

It'll make a lot of things more obvious, I think. Where this story's going, what'll happen, why I'm writing a high school AU even though I want to write about such intense violence. It'll still take a while to get there, though, so this will still be a crime drama / high school drama / supernatural drama (so dramatic, much wow) that you've been slowly getting used to.

Speaking of crime, though, I realize that the last couple of chapters were more "high school" and less "drug dealers", so we'll be touching on that a bit more this chapter. Velvet gets a couple of scenes, as does Torchwick, and Yang and Blake talk about their work a bit. But that doesn't mean that we don't get some old-fashioned high school drama: Neo asks Ruby out on a date this chapter! Hooray! Given what we learned at the end of 3, though, you might be able to see why that could go poorly.

And yes, this chapter was timed to go up literally days before the launch of RWBY Volume 5. I'm just nefarious enough to do that.

Enjoy!

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"Of course," Velvet Scarlatina mumbled to herself, turning slightly as she ran a cloth along the bar she was standing behind, not coincidentally turning away from the pair of already drunk men starting to yell at each other in a language she only understood a few words of. "Not even four p.m., and they're already at it again," she continued to mumble, shaking her head slightly as she saw one of the bar's bouncers walking over with a resigned look in his eyes.

The Diamond-Eyed Sloth was a very particular bar-and-grill that catered mostly to the empowered clientele of the city that it was in, but there were occasionally a few out-of-towners that made their way in, as well. They were typically given extra-strong drinks, sometimes enhanced with something a bit less than legal, to get them out the doors before the regulars could get drunk enough to start slinging around elemental powers. Almost everything, from the bar itself to the broad decorative pillars to the individual tables and seats, was made from relatively cheap segments of light ash wood from the nearby forest and nailed or screwed together; this was a calculated decision on the part of the bar's owner, a man who went by the name Junior, as an angry drunk could cause enough destruction without any additional abilities. If that drunk man could call down lightning or fire with his mind, well... it's just cheaper to prepare for that eventuality.

Velvet sighed and shook her head again, the rabbit-like ears atop her head bouncing and swaying before they straightened and stiffened. Using a talent that she'd refined over years of being an inquisitive child, Velvet focused her hearing toward a corner of the bar, fixing it on the booth where three older men had just been joined by a fourth.

"Now that we're all here," one of the men, his voice an unusually deep baritone, began, "we need to discuss how to move forward."

"Yeesh, Hiraku, let me get something to drink first," another man said, his voice almost feminine. A pair of quick, clacking footsteps approached their table after a moment, and he said, "Hello, beautiful. You mind getting me a Bloody Mary?"

"N-not at all," said a giggly voice that was very familiar to Velvet; she sighed as Cristina, a waitress at the bar, made her way to her.

"Let me guess: Bloody Mary?" Velvet asked, stretching her lips in a smile as she looked up at the outwardly exuberant brunette. Every time she saw her, Velvet's first thought about Cristina was that she was curvy, and the way her breasts strained at the top she was wearing (an odd mix of an overshirt and a corset, the only actual uniform that the waitresses were required to wear) only reinforced that in her mind. Her hair was the dull brown of fresh mud, but her eyes were a bright green that shone with an uncanny intelligence, completely at odds with her appearance and profession.

"Stop listening in on our customers," Cristina said, absolutely none of her apparent cheer appearing in her voice. She let out a sigh as Velvet smiled at her conspiratorially. "It's rude, Vel."

"Yeah, yeah," Velvet said, pouring tomato juice and vodka into a small blender hidden in an alcove beneath the bar. A few different spices followed suit, and Velvet covered it and turned it on, resulting in a nearly inaudible hum that couldn't be heard at all to anyone more than a few feet away from the bar. "You know it's easier for me to just keep track of everyone when they're ordering. It lets them gets their drinks faster, too, which makes them tip better."

"Still rude," Cristina said dryly.

It took only a moment for Velvet to pour the drink and a few ice cubes into a glass and adorn it with a stick of celery, after which Cristina took it back to the table. Velvet giggled as Cristina started giggling and blushing when the feminine-sounding man complimented her again; she was working as a waitress to put herself through acting school, and was making damn good use of what she'd learned so far to coerce some extra tips from her customers.

Still, though, seeing her normally stoic and somewhat depressing coworker act like a flirty schoolgirl was distracting enough that Velvet didn't start listening to that table again for a few moments. Once she realized what she was neglecting, she cursed under her breath and focused her hearing again.

"Why?" the feminine man asked, raising his glass to his lips.

"Because you're a slut, Dmitri," another of the men said, his voice so gravelly that Velvet wondered if he was a chronic smoker. "You'll stuff your dick in anything that wears a skirt."

"Oh, you're exaggerating," the feminine man, Dmitri, scoffed.

"Remember the tree incident?" Hiraku asked, drawing a few chuckles from his other two companions. "Or the boat?"

"I still want to know where you found a skirt big enough to fit on a boat, Hira," their final companion said. Velvet cocked her head to the side as she wiped at the bar with her rag again; his voice was so utterly unremarkable that it actually took her a bit of extra effort to focus on it.

"Don't ask," Hiraku said, letting out a wistful sigh.

"Oh? Is there a story behind it?" the unremarkable man asked.

"Seriously, Souta, you don't want to know," Hiraku said.

The name – Souta – sent a chill up Velvet's spine. Souta the Iceberg was one of Roman Torchwick's few remaining competitors left in the city, and he held his territory with a strength and coldheartedness that gave him his nickname. The fact that he'd come to her bar, while she was working, was nothing short of a miracle. To her, at least.

But, at the same time, it confused her. The familiar way that this Hiraku person was talking to him, and how all of his companions were content to joke around with and around him, made her wonder if it really was the Iceberg, and not just someone else named Souta, despite it not being a common name in Vale.

"So, why'd you call us all here today?" Dmitri asked. "I'm assuming it has something to do with what happened last week?"

Last week, there had been a carefully coordinated series of raids on quite a few buildings, most of which were either warehouses and factories, and nearly all of them belonged to the Iceberg's drug operations. The police and the DEA had both taken part in it, though Velvet had needed to hear that part from Torchwick rather than the news: the station she'd first heard the story from had called out the police for their inaction and unwillingness to cooperate with the DEA, which turned out to be blatantly untrue and made Velvet question why she still listened to that channel.

"Last week was a damn tragedy, but that doesn't mean we can't use it to our advantage," Souta said. "Markos here managed to trace a few of the 'anonymous' tips that the cops and DEA got."

"Weren't they made at pay-phones?" Hiraku asked.

"Yep, but pay-phones are used so infrequently these days that you can usually find out who used them by looking for fingerprints," Souta answered, grinning. "So, we took a few samples, ran them through our worm in the feds' database, and got a damn good match."

"Higurashi Sato," the fourth member of the group, presumably Markos, said. His voice was hard, and carried a trace of an accent that Velvet couldn't place; he stretched the 'r' oddly, and stressed the 'sh' more than a local would've. "One of the Candle's strongmen. Guards his prize chemist."

"And you want us to ice the chemist?" Dmitri asked. "Might be harder than you think, boss."

"Oh, I don't much care about the chemist," Souta said. "But if he's there when you burn his facility to the ground, that's even better."

Velvet's lip twitched as she fought off the urge to smile, instead filing away the information for later. Her boss would want to hear about this.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Fire blossomed explosively in the confined space, blooming into a colossal sphere nearly twenty feet wide before it was suddenly snuffed out by an abrupt absence of air. Smoke filled the space between them until it fell to the ground all at once, as if pressed down by an invisible hand.

Penny panted, closing her eyes to bask in the sudden wave of fresh air that washed the scent of flame from her nose and mouth. "I think..." Penny began, only to take a moment to try to catch her breath before she continued. "I think I'm good for the day."

"Are you sure?" Ruby asked, smiling at the foreigner. Despite how long they'd been practicing for, and the state Penny was in, Ruby didn't look any worse for wear, barring a couple of scorch marks that were only barely noticeable on the sleeves of her black blouse. "We can keep going, if you want."

"No, I'm good," Penny said, still trying to catch her breath.

Neo's eye twitched at the exchange, and she stood up from the plastic folding chair she'd been sitting in at the edge of the abandoned warehouse. She'd practically demanded to come along when she'd heard what Ruby and Penny were planning on doing, even though she'd known she'd be next to useless in helping Penny train.

"Just don't take too long before you ask her out, Neo. You might be disappointed if she ends up with some exchange student instead."

Whitley's words from last week kept bouncing around in her head as she saw Ruby hand Penny a bottle of water, Penny smiling gratefully at the brunette. Neo's hands started to shake as she realized that the Schnee's warning would likely come to pass if she took much longer, but...

Neo swallowed nervously, turning back around and pretending to smooth out the chair and adjust her blouse. 'But I'm not ready for a relationship yet... No. I am ready: I'm just scared,' Neo thought, realizing exactly how she felt.

"Hey, Neo!" Ruby called over to the shorter woman, startling her enough to make her jump. "You about ready to head out?"

Neo turned back around, offering a smile and a nod to Ruby. 'Today,' Neo thought forcefully, swallowing again, her breathing quickening ever so slightly as she picked up her purse. 'Today, after we get Penny back home, I'll ask if she wants to... uh... if she wants to see a movie with me. Just the two of us.'

As Neo rejoined them at the exit, as Ruby opened the door for them, walking out and holding it open, Penny's breath caught in her throat, her knees buckling like a puppet with its strings cut. Neo's eyes widened, and she moved to catch Penny, her hands beneath the redhead's shoulders.

"Penny!" Ruby said, her own eyes going wide. Neo bit her lip, concern showing in her eyes; for the moment, at least, she'd forgotten her worries about her crush. "Are you okay?!"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Penny said, panting again. She was blinking rapidly, her eyes watering. "I think... maybe we overdid it, is all?" she asked, looking between Ruby and Neo with a blush.

"Oh, gods, I'm so sorry!" Ruby exclaimed. "I wasn't thinking! I usually just do this stuff with Dad and Yang, so I didn't realize you'd burn out that quickly!"

"It's okay, Ruby," Penny said, her voice a bit raw, almost like she'd been crying, despite the smile she was wearing. "I'll be fine, I think."

Ruby let out a sigh of relief, still hovering over Penny and Neo like a scared mother. Neo helped Penny back onto her feet, which prompted another smile and a "Thank you" from the redhead; Neo's only reply was a quick nod and a readjustment of their bodies, so that Neo was beneath Penny's left arm, her own right arm wrapped around Penny's back.

"This might not be–" Penny began, only for her to nearly collapse as she tried to step out from Neo's grip. After a moment of catching her breath, Penny said, "Okay, maybe this is necessary."

Neo looked up at Ruby, then directed a pointed glance to Penny's right arm; Ruby got what she wanted to say after a second, and slung Penny's right arm over her shoulders, mirroring what Neo had done. "Don't worry, Penny: we'll get you home safe!" Ruby exclaimed, a bit of forced cheer in her voice.

Penny giggled, only to hiss with exhaustion and pain as the three started moving slowly, starting the nearly quarter-mile journey to the nearest bus stop that would take them back to Penny's apartment.

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"You had to know it would end this way," Roman Torchwick said, using his cane to tilt Souta the Iceberg's head up, forcing the fallen man to look at him and not at the unconscious bodies of his three comrades. The two of them stood in a back only a few blocks away from the Diamond-Eyed Sloth; a quick word from Velvet during her break had been all it took to get Torchwick to set up his now former rival.

Souta opened his mouth to speak, but Torchwick jabbed his cane into the Iceberg's throat, causing him to cough and gag instead. "What was that?" he asked playfully. "I didn't quite catch that." The glare he received would've had lesser men quaking in their boots, but all Torchwick saw was the faint flicker of fear and self-preservation that flashed through Souta's eyes for a brief instant. "Now, before you start cursing at me and calling me all sorts of pathetic names," Torchwick said, jabbing his cane into the man's throat again, "I'd like to know who sold you out."

Souta blinked at him, confused. His voice was a harsh, grating croak as he asked, "What?"

"Because I'd rather not make the same mistakes you did," Torchwick continued, practically ignoring his rival drug lord as he withdrew his cane from Souta's throat. "Tell me who did it, and you'll never hear from me again. Unless you decide to do something stupid, like make a move on my territory again."

"How would I know who moved against me?" Souta asked, eyeing the standing man warily. Despite the scuffle that had wound up taking down Souta and incapacitating his three guards, Torchwick hadn't taken a single hit or even gotten a speck of blood or dirt on his suit, a simple black ensemble that went passably well with the bowler's hat atop his head of orange hair.

"Because I know the people in my organization you've been keeping tabs on. I knew I had a mole working for one of the Families, but I wasn't quite sure who it was, so I fed a few people I didn't quite trust a few bits of information. Nothing major, really, just most of the details regarding how your business is handled," Torchwick said, smiling as Souta paled. "Sorry: was handled," Torchwick corrected himself, now outright grinning.

"You bastard," Souta spat, only for Torchwick to slam the end of his cane into his already dislocated shoulder.

"Now, now, didn't we cover this already?" Torchwick asked while Souta bit back a scream. "Tell me who moved against you, and you'll never have to see me again. If you don't, well, you'll still never see me again, but you'll also never see your daughter again."

Souta, who'd doubled over from pain, looked up at Torchwick, fear blazing in his eyes. "What daughter?" he asked, trying and failing to keep his voice from trembling.

"Asha's quite the cutie, isn't she?" Torchwick asked, drawing a picture from the breast pocket of his shirt. "And quite intelligent, too; I wouldn't expect anyone else to earn a doctorate in such a demanding discipline so quickly. Although, that might have just been your influence. Drug money smooths out quite a bit, I'd imagine."

"Wouldn't you know?" Souta asked. Torchwick slammed the end of his cane down on Souta's broken leg, drawing a tight bark of pain from the man.

"I could do this all day," Torchwick said, twisting his cane against the already swelling skin. "But we're both busy people, Souta, so I'd like to hurry this along. Tell me who sold you out."

Souta sat silent for another moment, fear and pain twisting his stomach. "Lara Irons," he finally said, drawing a nod of agreement from Torchwick.

"I thought as much," Torchwick said, withdrawing his cane again.

"Then why bother with me?" Souta asked, wiping his mouth with a hand.

"It gives me a chance to do this," Torchwick said, still smiling, as he struck with his cane again. In mid-swing, the metal of the cane shifted, flowing like water until it was edged like a sword.

Souta's head tumbled to the ground, and there still wasn't a drop of blood on Torchwick's suit.

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Yang grunted as she flopped down onto the couch in the small warehouse, covering her eyes with her arm and letting one leg dangle off the side. "Just two more hours," she mumbled to herself. "Just two more hours before the day's over, Yang."

"You've only got six more deliveries to make, Yang," Blake said, not looking up from the stack of papers in front of her. She made a note in the margin with a pencil, then added, "And four of them go to the same place, too."

"I'm on break!" Yang yelled into her elbow, muffling the sound. Blake chuckled, shaking her head, but still didn't look up. After a moment, Yang said, "What are you doing, anyway?"

"You still don't know?" Blake asked. "I'm going over the account books for Torchwick. Making sure that everything's on the level and all that."

"Even thought it's not?" Yang asked, lowering her arm so that she could look at Blake.

"Yep," Blake said, making another note on the paper she was on before moving it to the much larger stack in a plastic bin marked outgoing at the edge of the desk. "That actually makes it more important, since it makes sure people like... well, like our parents won't catch on."

"Yeah," Yang said, swinging her dangling leg. "You ever wonder why we work here?"

"I assumed it was out of a subconscious desire to rebel," Blake said dryly, making Yang chuckle. More seriously, she said, "The money's good, and we can safely lie and say that we weren't complicit to all the details. Assuming our boss isn't caught, it also gives us a great reference to put on our resumes."

"Yeah, but... I feel bad, y'know?" Yang asked, finally getting Blake to look up from her work. "All those drug addicts who could be going to rehab or something, and we're helping supply them."

"You know, anyone but me would think you're wearing a wire right now," Blake said, getting another chuckle out of the blonde. "What brought this on, Yang?"

"Ruby's friends with the boss's niece," Yang said, staring up at the ceiling of the warehouse. "They just... they're so damn innocent to all of this, you know? It kinda makes me wish that I was, too."

"Well, I don't know if this'll make you feel better, but I imagine most of the addicts that we help supply wouldn't go to rehab anyway," Blake said. "They'd just... find someone else. Or die from withdrawal, somewhere that it'd take a long time for anyone to find them."

"Thanks, I feel much better now," Yang said sarcastically.

"At least they're still alive," Blake offered, turning back to her work. "They'll live long enough to have a chance to find someone who can help pull them out of it."

"Unless they OD," Yang mumbled, covering her face again. "Wake me in twenty, okay?"

"Your break's only fifteen minutes long, Yang."

Yang let out a very loud, very fake snore, drawing another chuckle from Blake.

"You keep doing that and I'll draw big dick on your forehead. In permanent marker."

Her only response was another snore.

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Ruby let out a relieved sigh as she and Neo left Penny's apartment. The woman she was staying with was a grade ahead of them, and worried about Penny to an almost obsessive degree; it made sense, though, since Penny's father was paying her to take care of his daughter.

Still, Ruby was relieved to not have to take care of the redhead for the moment. So relieved, in fact, that she missed Neo taking a long, deep breath and writing onto her notepad. She also didn't notice Neo growing pale and crossing out what she'd written.

"Well, I thought that would take more of the day," Ruby noted, glancing at the sky. The sun was still a few hours from setting, but the sheer mass of dark storm clouds made it seem much later. "And it looks like it's gonna rain tonight, too."

Neo started writing again, this time catching Ruby's attention. When Neo noticed, she blushed, but kept writing. Her eyes tightly shut, she pushed the notepad towards Ruby, revealing what she'd written.

Would you like to go see a movie with me?

"Sure," Ruby said, shrugging. "Anything in particular?"

Neo opened her eyes and stared at Ruby for a moment, then wrote down more and thrust the pad at Ruby again. She was blushing, biting her lip, and her hands were shaking; Ruby noted all of this before she lowered her eyes to the notepad and paled as she read what Neo had written.

As a date.

"I-I, um..." Ruby stammered out, her eyes going wide. Fear threaded through the young brunette, making her hands shake and her whole body feel cold. "I... I... I just remembered I have to go feed Zwei!" she exclaimed, her voice shaking as much as her hands. "Sorry but I gotta go!"

As Ruby turned around and literally started running away, the look on Neo's face etched itself in her mind.

That raw pain and devastation would haunt her thoughts for a long, long time.

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"I told you this would happen," a young woman said into her phone. Her shoulder-length green hair was nearly hidden by the hood of her basic black jacket, but her toned, dark brown legs were on display, thanks to the nearly skintight black shorts she was wearing; they didn't even fall to mid-thigh. "The instant we got here, she disappeared."

"She won't compromise the operation," the womanly voice on the other end said. "She knows better than that."

"I'm not worried about whether or not she knows what she's doing," the young woman said, raising her red eyes to look at the storm clouds darkening the sky. "I'm worried about whether or not she doesn't care. She's too impulsive for something this delicate."

"That's not your call, Emerald."

"Can't you do something about her?"

"Not until I get there. And only then if she gives me a reason."

"You're coming here?" Emerald asked, her back stiffening and her eyes going wide. She bit her lip, anticipation making her smile. "When?"

"Tonight."

"Where are you staying?" Emerald asked, her voice a bit more breathy than she'd intended.

"The last time I told you that, you showed up in my hotel room wearing a length of ribbon. And nothing else."

"Ah, but boss!" Emerald whined. The chuckle she got in reply sent a shiver up her spine. "Please?"

"No. We're here to work, Emerald. Make the arrangements with our local contact."

"Yes, ma'am," Emerald said, still smiling. The call ended, and she slipped her phone into her jacket's pocket just as it started to rain.

"You're such a freak."

The male voice coming from over her shoulder made Emerald react instinctively, twisting on her heels and jamming her elbow into the man's midsection. Well, into where the man's midsection would have been if he hadn't moved away with supernatural speed.

"One of these days I'll hit you with that, Mercury," Emerald warned the chuckling young man, her red eyes narrowed with frustration.

"Looking forward to it," Mercury said, folding his arms behind his head as he smirked at her. His shock of grey hair was done up in an overly spiky style, though it was starting to sag from the falling rain, and his eyes were an even darker shade than his hair. The dark grey shirt he wore was slowly darkening as the rain soaked through it, beginning to match his black slacks and boots.

"Ugh, you're insufferable," Emerald groaned, raising her middle finger at him as she started walking away.

"Says the perv crushing on her boss," Mercury replied, his smirk softening to a grin as he walked beside her. She shot him another glare, but otherwise didn't comment. "You know she's not into you, right?"

"Not yet," she shot back hotly.

"Not ever, most likely," Mercury said, rolling his eyes when Emerald glared at him again. "You should find someone else, probably someone closer to your own age."

"What, like you?" Emerald asked sarcastically.

"Nah, I'm not in for anything long-term. I mean, if you just want a roll in the hay, I'm game, but I know you well enough to know that's not what you're looking for," Mercury said, looking her over as he spoke.

"You're such a jackass," Emerald muttered, making him laugh.

"Doesn't mean I'm wrong."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Kali Belladonna was having a hard time keeping herself from smiling at the worried young woman sitting at her kitchen table. Ruby had gone to her as soon as she'd managed to push down her emotions, looking for advice and hoping that Kali would be able to help her.

It was a rather heartwarming moment for the woman who'd had a hand in raising her, but she knew that Ruby would take her smile the wrong way, and making her think that she found the situation funny was the last thing Kali wanted to do.

Ruby had filled her in, quite frantically, until Kali had presented her with a slice of leftover blackberry pie with multiple scoops of ice cream piled on it, at which point Ruby had started eating just as frantically as she'd been speaking. Kali just stood and watched for a long moment, letting that smile finally play across her lips as she saw that Rose appetite at work yet again; growing up as one of Summer's friends, she'd seen it so often that she'd long since forgotten why other people called their habits disgusting.

"So," Kali began as Ruby kept eating, "one of your new friends wants to get a bit friendlier with you?" she said teasingly, making Ruby sputter and nearly choke on her latest bite.

"Kali!" Ruby whined, coughing around the food in her mouth and throat and making the older woman giggle.

"And this scares you because you think you'll eventually wind up abandoning her?" Kali asked, going from playful to serious in the blink of an eye. "Is that why you've always had trouble making friends your own age?" she added after a moment of thought. "You're scared you'll wind up hurting them because you think you'll die thirty years or so before them?"

Ruby stared at the food in front of her, setting down her fork. "Yeah," she said after a moment, her voice quiet. "I don't want to hurt anyone like that, and if I have to live a lonely life to make sure I don't, then... then that's what I'll do."

"That's one of the silliest things I've heard in a long time," Kali said, smiling down at Ruby. "And, trust me, with some of the excuses Blake comes up with to keep me and Ghira from walking in on her with her laptop on her bed and her pants around her ankles-"

Ruby made a disgusted noise in her throat and picked her fork back up, taking another bite of pie just to give herself something to focus on aside from that mental image.

"Well, you get the idea," Kali said, trailing off with a little laugh. "And that train of thought never stopped Summer from making friends. If anything, she works harder than anyone else to keep in touch with her friends; she still talks to Claudia sometimes, and we haven't seen her since middle school!"

Ruby stared up at Kali for a long moment, then looked back down at her food with a frown.

"Plus, if she hadn't been friends with both of us, Ghira and I probably wouldn't have gotten together, which would mean that Blake wouldn't even exist right now," Kali added, making Ruby roll her shoulders uncomfortably; she had a hard time picturing her life without her in it. "There was a damn good reason I had Summer be my maid of honor at our wedding, after all. Ghira even said he'd have picked her as his best man if I hadn't, though I think he was joking."

Kali sighed, smiling at the memories, before she remembered exactly why Ruby was there and cleared her throat. "Anyway," Kali began, a light blush on her cheeks, "I think you should go to this Neo girl right now and apologize. And, if she still wants to go out with you, tell her everything you just told me. If she still wants to, despite all that, then say yes in a heartbeat!" Kali exclaimed, practically cheering.

Ruby stared at her for a long moment, then sighed. "I... I should definitely say sorry, at least," Ruby said, practically mumbling. "But I don't... not over a text, and she's mute, so she probably won't ans-"

"Wait, she's mute?" Kali asked, cutting Ruby off and frowning at her. At Ruby's nod, she said, "She wouldn't happen to be Neopolitan Torchwick, would she?"

"Huh? You know her?" Ruby asked, bewildered.

"Oh, yeah. Her uncle is a pretty big supporter of the local police," Kali said, nodding her head. "He helps them out with some of their funding issues from time to time, all because he wants a safe place for his niece to live. The big softie," she added, giggling again.

"Can you tell me where they live?" Ruby asked, already grabbing her hoodie and putting it back on.

"Sure thing, sweetie!"

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"I'm fine, really!" Penny exclaimed, practically shouting at the only slightly older woman fussing over her. "Stars and stones, Ciel, stop!"

"There's no need to raise your voice, Miss Polendina," Ciel Soleil said, frowning at her. Ciel was rather dark-skinned, her hair such a dark shade of blue that Penny had thought it was black when they'd first met. Ciel's eyes were a rich shade of blue as well, though much lighter than her hair, and seemed to shine brightly in the recessed lighting of Penny's bathroom, especially compared to her white blouse and blue skirt.

"Then stop, please," Penny repeated, lowering her voice.

Ciel sighed, then bowed her head. "Very well, Miss Polendina. If you believe that you aren't likely to seize again, I will not interfere with you attempting to bathe on your own."

"Thank you," Penny said, her sigh displacing some of the water around her. Her cheeks had reddened significantly when Ciel had walked in, and she was certain that if she'd had even a drop of power left her bath would be boiling right now.

"I'll be just outside, in case you need me," Ciel said, making Penny's eye start twitching. True to her word, though, she left the bathroom, leaving Penny alone to bathe in peace.

Penny sighed deeply the moment the door closed behind her, and lifted a hand up to cover her eyes. Her entire arm was shaking, making the water ripple around her. "Stars and stones," she mumbled under her breath, her breathing too heavy, as if she'd been running. "Why was that so exhausting? Is it just because Ciel is... Ciel? Or..."

She sighed yet again, letting herself slump deeper into the water until it came up to just below her chin. 'Is this all from being empty?' Penny thought, blushing at the way she'd phrased it. 'I thought it would feel good, not having any power left, but this just... sucks.'

Penny had always thought of her power as a burden, always tried to keep a handle over her emotions so she wouldn't be at risk of burning down everything around her. She'd had more than one incident as a child, some of which still brought tears to her eyes as she thought about how badly she'd hurt her family's servants and, in one instance, her father.

She closed her eyes tightly, fighting off the tears that threatened to emerge at that memory, and sat up. She let the pain in her sore body distract her, and sat there for a moment, catching her breath, before she reached for a bottle of body wash to clean herself with.

Still, though, when she got to her left arm, she couldn't help but picture the bandages her father wore to this day.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"I'm surprised you still remember how to play that," Winter said, smiling at Weiss. The younger woman was sitting at the pianoforte Winter had in her apartment, purchased at the behest of their father so that Weiss could continue to grow as a musician. "It's been three years since you last played, if I remember correctly?"

"Since I last played while you were listening," Weiss said, performing a short, fairly simple melody.

"Oh? You're trying to keep it a secret?" Winter asked, not bothering to hide her amusement as she pulled a few things from the kitchen cabinets. "My, my, I didn't know it was that embarrassing, my little sister."

Weiss blushed at Winter's chuckle, accidentally going off-key; she cursed under her breath as Winter's chuckle grew louder, and started the melody over. "I still like to play sometimes, Winter, but I don't want to get dragged into another young musician's concert again. The last one was so... so insufferable! Everyone there was so arrogant, so overly prideful, that I just wanted to get it over with and get back home. And that wasn't even the worst one."

"Ah, yes, I remember," Winter said, frowning. She forced a smile onto her face as she faced Weiss, setting a plastic bag of rice onto the counter. "Nothing makes one of those exercises in pretentiousness worse than an attempt on Father's life. I'm just glad he'd had the foresight to hire a bodyguard."

"That was the one I was too sick to go to, right?" Whitley asked from his seat on the couch, three books and a pair of freshly sharpened pencils sitting on the coffee table in front of him: the first book was filled with photographs of various landscapes, everything from the deserts of Vacuo to a misty forested valley in Mistral; the second was a somewhat small artist's pad that was bound like a book; and the last was a pocket-sized leather-bound journal full of notes he'd made about how to improve his work.

"I think so," Weiss said, barely even paying attention to what she was playing now. "It would explain why I don't remember Amelia being there, either."

"That was the one," Winter said, directing a small smirk at Weiss. "I distinctly remember you being disappointed that our dear maid wasn't there to watch you play, Weiss."

Weiss didn't respond, instead continuing to play with a light blush on her cheeks.

"She was cute," Whitley added, smirking as he noticed Weiss's blush deepen. "I can see why you'd like her, sis."

"Can you?" Weiss muttered, too quietly for either of her siblings to hear.

"So, what're you making, Winter?" Whitley asked, turning back to his sketching practice.

"I've decided to try something a bit more local, so we're having sushi tonight," Winter said, pulling a few things out of the refrigerator.

"Oh, I've had that," Weiss said. "It really depends on how good the fish you use is, but it can be pretty good."

"Isn't that raw fish?" Whitley asked, making a face as he looked up from his work.

"Yes," Weiss said, stifling a giggle at the tone her brother used. "And seaweed."

Whitley just stared at Winter as she held up a sealed bag of seaweed, his face paling. "I'm not sure I'm okay with that," Whitley said, drawing a giggle from Weiss and a chuckle from Winter.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Jaune Arc stifled a sigh, instead pasting a smile on his face as he turned to face Pyrrha. She was smiling as well, a single canvas bag containing the bare few items she'd bought during their day out together. They'd decided to spend the day at the mall, without Nora and Ren at the moment; when the other two decided to spend the entire day out on a date, Pyrrha had wanted to spend some time just hanging out with Jaune, since they rarely got a chance to actually talk to each other without Ren and Nora nearby.

Jaune had a hard time hiding his discomfort at what his inherited ability was telling him: being an empath was quite difficult when your best friend was in love with you.

"Well, at least that's still how I remember it," Jaune said, prompting Pyrrha to raise an eyebrow at him. "You never were much of a shopper, Pyrrha."

"Oh, well, I know how stereotypical it would be to just buy everything I saw, so I try not to," Pyrrha explained, blushing even as her smile broadened. "Even though that sweater was really cute."

Jaune's smile became more genuine as he said, "Well, at least that leaves me something to buy you for your birthday, right?"

Pyrrha laughed, but Jaune winced as someone else's emotions caught his attention. He glanced over at the emotional man, who was arguing with a much calmer man nearly twice his age, and winced again as his utter anger and hatred flowed through his perception.

"Hey," Pyrrha said, putting her hand on his arm and drawing his attention back to her. "I'm right here, okay? Focus on me, not on them."

Jaune closed his eyes and took a deep breath, forcing his awareness away from the enraged man and onto Pyrrha. Her concern, tinged with joy, love, and hope, surged through his mind, burning the anger from his perception. "Thanks, Pyrrha," Jaune said, keeping his eyes closed as the two of them started to walk away from the two men. He sighed as he felt the beads of sweat forming on his brow, opening his empathy back up to everyone instead of just one person; he found it tiring to focus his ability like that, especially in such a crowded environment.

"Well, at least it helps you out at work, right?" Pyrrha asked, focusing Jaune's attention again on something other than his empathy. "Figuring out who's going to need to get bounced before they actually start a fight or get too drunk is useful there, right?"

"I guess," Jaune said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Uh, Pyrrha?"

"Yeah?"

"Your hand?"

"Hm?"

"It's still on my arm."

"Ah. I see," Pyrrha said, smiling. She didn't remove her hand from his arm until Jaune gave her a look, at which she chuckled and finally relented. "So, where to next?" Pyrrha asked, still smiling at him.

"Didn't you want to see that new movie? What was it called?" Jaune asked.

"Mass Effect," Pyrrha said, her voice turning almost wistful. "Based off of the first game in the series. I heard the movie didn't turn out very well, so I'm curious to see exactly how bad it is."

"If it turns out to be another Emoji movie, I'm walking," Jaune said dryly, making Pyrrha laugh.

"I don't think it will be quite that bad," Pyrrha said, laughing again at Jaune's sigh.

"Did you already reserve tickets, or should we go get them now?"

"I did not, so we definitely should."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"Okay, I'm gonna need you to stop doing that, ma'am," Emerald said, her face noticeably pale.

"We just need you to come with us, okay?" Mercury said, swallowing nervously as the older woman they were speaking to turned to face them.

She wasn't tall, only five and a half feet in her boots, but the sheer strength that practically radiated from her made her seem impossibly massive to the two teenagers. Her black hair was long enough to fall to the backs of her knees, and her skin was extraordinarily pale, almost as white as fresh snow. But it was her eyes that paralyzed them with fear; they were the color of freshly spilled blood, and full of a bored, predatory sort of focused malice. Everything she wore, from her oddly short skirt to her turtleneck sweater to her knee-high boots, was a black so deep that it seemed to swallow the light around her and made her skin seem even paler by comparison.

"Who are you?" the woman asked, her voice utterly calm, save for a mild tinge of annoyance. Despite how inoffensive her tone was, though, it terrified both Emerald and Mercury immensely.

"We, we work for the... for the same people," Emerald said, her voice squeaking and shaking from fear. "We, we're supposed to, to get everyone to... to meet."

"Where and when?" the woman asked, turning her back on the two teenagers. They blinked at her, then turned to each other to share a wordless conversation as the woman raised a set of binoculars and returned to examining the building a block away from the one they were on.

"You... you're not thinking of robbing that bank, are you?" Mercury asked, swallowing again.

"Does it matter?" the woman asked.

"Since our boss said to make sure you didn't draw attention to yourself, yeah, it matters," Mercury said, momentarily regaining some courage, only for it to leave him again as the woman glanced at him irritably. "Look, I know what happened the last time you tried to rob that back-"

"The last time I successfully robbed it," the woman corrected him.

"Right. But, you're still in the top five of the FBI's most wanted," Mercury said. "If you get spotted, by anyone, there will be too much attention in this city for our boss to work it over, okay? So, if you want to keep her from sending a bunch of kill squads after you-"

"If you two are any indication, I doubt that would even be an inconvenience," the woman muttered under her breath; the only reason Mercury managed to hear it was because of the adrenaline singing through his veins.

"If we were her best, I'd slit my own wrists before I went after someone like you," Mercury said, rolling his eyes. "Seriously, please, just... will you come with us to the meeting?"

"I'll be there," the woman said, raising her binoculars to her eyes again and looking back down at the entrance of the bank, three blocks away and more than eighty feet down from the building they were on the roof of.

"That doesn't sound like you're coming with us," Mercury said flatly, ignoring Emerald's utterly terrified stare as it darted between him and the older woman. "The boss asked us to bring you there, ma'am, not to let you come on your own time."

"Your boss should've hired someone else if she wanted a loyal bitch," the woman said, making Emerald pale and Mercury sigh.

"Like us, you mean?" Mercury asked, rolling his eyes as he saw the barest hint of a smile twitch the corner of her mouth. After a moment, he sighed again, pulling a pen and a spare scrap of paper from one of his pockets. "Screw it, fine. Here's where it is," Mercury said, writing down an address and offering it to the woman. As she reached back to take it, not even looking as she grabbed it, he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice, "I look forward to working with you, Miss Branwen."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

Ruby swallowed nervously as she knocked on the door of the moderately upscale house where Kali had said Neo and Roman Torchwick lived. She took a few calming breaths as she waited, biting her lip as she heard a sound from just inside the building. Neo opened the door, her eyes puffy and red as she glared at Ruby.

What? her look clearly asked. Ruby flinched, looking away as she swallowed again.

"Can I... can I come in, Neo?" Ruby asked, her voice practically a whisper. Neo blinked, her glare momentarily softening before it hardened again, and she took a step back from the door, letting her classmate inside. After guiding her to the living room and pointedly glancing at the couch, an exceptionally soft-looking sofa, Neo took a seat in the nearby chair, letting Ruby sit down or stand at her discretion.

What is it? Neo's glare said as Ruby continued standing, wringing her hands nervously.

"I, um..." Ruby began, closing her eyes and taking a long, deep breath to attempt to calm herself. "I... I wanted you to know that I'm sorry, Neo. I, I ran away after you... after you asked me out, and I need to explain why."

Neo blinked at that, though Ruby didn't see it as her eyes were still tightly shut.

"My... my being a bloodmaker... it lets me heal from any injury pretty much overnight, and I could donate blood every day without getting lightheaded," Ruby began. "But, but it has some downsides. You've seen how much I need to eat, but... but what you don't... I'm dying."

Neo practically bounced off of the chair she was in, her back straightened so quickly. Her mouth dropped open slightly, and her glare vanished, replaced by concern.

"It's not going to... it's not going to happen any time soon," Ruby continued, swallowing again. "I won't... until I'm in my fifties, but... I don't... I don't want to hurt anyone by making them love me." She chuckled humorlessly, shaking her head. "I know, it sounds stupid, but... but I... I know that I'm going to hurt people, and I don't want to."

Ruby flinched as she felt something touch her, but after a moment she realized that Neo had wrapped her arms around her. "Neo?" Ruby asked, opening her eyes. The shorter girl was crying again, silently sobbing with her chin resting on Ruby's shoulder. Ruby tentatively hugged her back, feeling something inside her chest tighten and her own eyes begin to water at Neo's apparent forgiveness.

They stood like that for nearly a full minute before Neo slipped out from the embrace, pulling a notepad - the same one Ruby had given her two weeks ago - from her pocket and shakily scrawling what she wanted to say on it.

I forgive you, Ruby.

"Neo," Ruby said, swallowing at the lump in her throat. "Thank you. I... I know that I, uh..." Ruby trailed off, blinking as she saw that Neo was writing again.

I have something I should tell you, too. I'm not actually mute.

Ruby blinked, surprised. "What?" she asked, her voice croaking a bit. What Neo wrote next seemed hard for her, tears brimming in her eyes, so Ruby put her hand on Neo's shoulder, drawing her multi-colored eyes to her own silver ones. After a moment, Neo looked back down and began writing again, her hand shaking even more but still continuing. It took quite some time for Neo to finish writing this time, taking up two full pages of the notepad, and when she finally raised it up so Ruby could read it, she kept her gaze on the floor instead of looking at her.

When I was seven, my parents and I were in a car accident. A drug dealer was driving the wrong way down the highway to get away from the police and hit our car head-on. My parents died, and a shard of glass from the windshield went into my neck. It's too close to the arteries and my windpipe to get it taken out.

"Neo," Ruby said again, openly crying as she pulled Neo into another hug. Neo let herself be held for a moment, then pulled back again and started writing anew.

I'm also 17. It took a year of therapy and learning sign language before my uncle let me go back to school, and I didn't handle it well when I got back, so I was held back again.

Ruby giggled at that, albeit a bit nervously. "Well, that might explain why we get along so well," Ruby mumbled softly, blushing. "I... tend to get along better with people older than me."

Neo giggled softly as well, leaning into Ruby and resting her head against her shoulder again. Ruby wrapped an arm around her, tentatively, and Neo relaxed in her grip, letting out a contented sigh.

"S-so, um..." Ruby began, biting her lip. "We have Wednesday off from school, so... would... would you like to get lunch and... and maybe see a movie with me?" she stammered out, worry and fear apparent in her voice.

Neo smiled. "Yes," she whispered into Ruby's ear, her voice quivering from its lack of use. "I will."

Ruby let out a breath, her worry leaving her with it, and they stood there holding each other for a time. Until Neo left the embrace yet again, blushing as she wrote on her notepad again.

I think you should leave before my uncle gets here. I don't think that this would be a good way to introduce our relationship to him, since we haven't gone on a single date yet. And we've both been crying.

"Oh," Ruby said, disappointment apparent on her face. "Well, o-okay then. See you tomorrow, I guess?"

Neo nodded; then, grabbing Ruby's shoulder and pulling her close, she pressed a small, chaste kiss to the younger girl's cheek. Ruby's eyes widened and a blush covered her face, but she smiled broadly at her new girlfriend and mimicked the gesture. Neo leaned into it as Ruby's lips met her own cheek, a small noise escaping from her that made both of them blush further.

"I'll see you tomorrow, then," Ruby said, her grin almost witless as they finally let each other go. Neo showed her to the door, let her out, and then closed the door behind her.

Neo pressed her back to the door and slumped slightly, a light blush and a wide smile on her face as she gazed absentmindedly at the ceiling. A giggle rose from her as an immeasurable amount of pride and joy surged through her, bringing a different sort of tear to her eyes.

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

"We did everything we could, boss," Mercury said, sweat beading on his forehead as he bowed to the black-haired woman in front of him. Her orange-tinted yellow eyes seemed to burrow into his head, despite the utter amusement they held. "I'm sorry, but Branwen elected to not come with us."

She sighed, smoothing out her gold-trimmed red dress in a controlled display that wiped away the sweat on her palms before her subordinates could notice. "Very well," she said, seemingly disappointed, though she was inwardly relieved; Raven Branwen was one of the few people that actually scared her, though she absolutely refused to let anyone see anything that could be conceivably called a weakness. "I suppose we need to wait for our contact, anyway. This won't make much of a difference."

"I'm glad to hear that, Cinder," Emerald said, her red eyes smoldering with her sheer joy at seeing the older woman again. "If you would like a way to pass the time," she continued, practically purring the words, "then perhaps we could-"

"No," the woman said dismissively. Emerald seemed to deflate, disappointed that she refused her offer again, and this time without even hearing it. "I would like to hear about what you've seen and heard about the city so far."

"Well, I've heard that it's pretty welcoming to most Enhanced," Mercury said, lifting his leg to tap his heel against his knee. "I actually overheard some people talking about an Assassin that got taken in by the police a week ago, and I'm pretty sure they didn't mean a hitman."

"I saw something similar; before I met up with him," Emerald said, glancing disdainfully at Mercury, "I went through this district and saw a couple of girls a bit younger than us practicing with their powers in a warehouse a few blocks away. At least one of them was definitely a pyromancer of some sort, but I didn't stay long enough to see what the other's power was."

"I see," Cinder said, lounging into a plush secondhand chair and crossing her legs. She took a moment to glance around the abandoned factory that they'd gathered in, looking up at the long, thin windows set near the ceiling and wondering how easy it would be to overhear their conversation from them. "That would explain why she always based those recruitment operations within this city, instead of her home," she said quietly to herself, staring at what little she could see of the sky.

"There's something else," Mercury said, drawing Cinder's and Emerald's attention back to him. "During my scouting, I discovered something else. It makes our new ally a bit... less comforting to have around."

"What is it?" Cinder asked, her eyes narrowing slightly as she tilted her head to one side.

"My ex-husband still lives here." Raven Branwen's voice startled the two teenagers, making them both jump and producing a frightened sound from Emerald. She'd entered the building with an astonishing degree of silence, and her presence was enough to make the small hairs on the back of Cinder's neck stand on end.

"For the sake of our operation, I want you to hold off on approaching him for any reason for the time being," Cinder said immediately, her eyes narrowing further. "You'll get your chance eventually, Branwen, but not anytime soon."

"Very well," Raven said, letting out a frustrated sigh. "For the sake of the operation. For now."

"Thank you," Cinder said, resisting the urge to let out a relieved sigh. "Now, then, shall we discuss how to proceed?" Cinder asked, folding her hands in front of her as she leaned forward; it was more of a command than a question, however, and Emerald and Mercury nodded their heads practically out of reflex.

"Isn't there supposed to be a local here?" Raven asked, glancing around lazily, like a well-fed predator.

"Not quite yet, it would seem," Cinder said, more amused than annoyed. "For now, though, we can still discuss the general nature of our plan."

"What's there to discuss?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow. "Remove the Candle from power to allow your Family to take his place. I'm muscle, your brats are scouts, you're the coordinator. Anything I'm missing?"

"Other than my 'brats' being well-trained assassins, you have the gist of it, yes," Cinder said, her eyes narrowing; she intended to make it a lazy, almost seductive look, rather than one born of fear, but wasn't sure if she'd succeeded or not until she noticed Emerald shivering, her eyes glazing over. "But there's quite a bit more to this city than that, Branwen. I assume you know that much, at least." Raven didn't answer, so Cinder continued. "With how many Enhanced individuals live here, any random civilian could be a significant threat to us, so we need to move carefully and quietly. Not quite within your area of expertise, I know."

"You'd be surprised," Raven murmured, a lazy smirk stretching her cheeks. There was something predatory in her eyes, though, that made Emerald snap out of her lustful thoughts about her boss and back a step away from Raven, her fear of the career criminal growing stronger by the second.

"Miss Branwen was a well-accomplished thief for quite some time before she was discovered. I imagine she'd be well-versed in stealth by now," said a newcomer as she entered, wearing a wry smile as she took in the people she'd be working alongside.

"You're late," Cinder said, turning her gaze to the newcomer.

"You're the local?" Mercury asked, folding his arms over his chest as he checked her out.

"Velvet Scarlatina, at your service," the young woman said, her rabbit-like ears bobbing as she bowed dramatically. "Welcome to Yharnam, Miss Fall."

XxxXxxXxxXxxXxxX

And thus, my master plan for this story was revealed.

Yes, this is going to be a crossover with Bloodborne. Specifically, the backstory. Through the lens of a high school AU / crime drama, we'll wind up exploring it all, from the discovery of the Pale Blood and the foundation of the Healing Church, to the beginning of the Beast Plague and the fall of Byrgenworth, to the Nightmare's Beginning.

But not quite yet. The Beast Plague won't start until Part 4, and we're still in Part 1 for another few chapters at least.

Speaking of, here's how we'll be proceeding: there will be either six or seven parts, each denoted by a significant time skip (at least six months, but no more than ten years) and each between six and twelve chapters long. Part One is the introductory arc, where the characters and the stakes will be established.

As for specific parallels, there are a couple I'm willing to clarify right now. Carol (the guard at the building where Taiyang's office is located) will eventually change her name to Caryll, as in Runesmith Caryll, who scribes the language of the Great Ones, and Izzy is meant to be Irreverent Izzy, who researches the nature of the beasts and winds up developing a heretical way of harnessing Beasthood while still maintaining her humanity.

Ah, yes, fun times ahead! I've got it all pretty much planned out, though I've still yet to get the details down. Figuring out how certain characters will die will be a fun little challenge for me, and will help satisfy my thirst. Mmm... delicious.

Damn, I'm pretentious in this story. Oh well.

Speaking of stories, though, two things: first, I have been working on the rewrite for Fallout: Remnant. I know I put it on an indefinite hiatus, but I consider that to be more for any new chapters than the rewritten versions of old chapters. I do want to eventually finish it, but, well, that does mean that I'll be working on three fanfictions at once, so I'll be breaking them all into parts, similar to this one, and taking breaks from them so I'm only really working on two at any given time. Compartmentalization is key! I might be able to get the rewritten first chapter up by Friday. I hope so, anyway; I'd rather not have to compete with the first episode of Volume 5 on Saturday.

Secondly, in the previous chapter, I talked about my plans to start a new story, and I've made my decision about it: I'm making the Naruto story. I feel like I'll have an easier handle on making a fantasy story than whatever bizarre science fantasy thing I'd wind up turning a Mass Effect story into. So, if you've got any interest in teenage soldiers who went to therapy the entire time they were being trained, keep an eye out for it.

I hope you've liked this story so far, and that you'll continue to enjoy it going forward! Until next time, everyone!