New chapter is here. It was supposed to end after Yang's encounter with her mom, but…well let's just say I got a new idea (thanks to my friend). So please enjoy!
I do not own RWBY.
#
Prryha Nikos was going through some old items in the store room.
There was a phone call earlier that day, addressed to both Prryha and Yang. It was from the administrators of the teen shelter that they previously lived in, asking them to come and see if there was anything they want from the old store room before the workers cleared out everything and dumped them into the huge garbage can outside.
Yang had a job that day and she was too far to make it to the teen shelter. Prryha's photo session had finished rather early, so she called Yang and told her that she would go there alone. Yang had promptly disagreed with the idea.
"Listen Prryha, we know teen shelter's no normal place. Those guys there will definitely trouble you! Either we go together or we don't go at all."
"It's okay. I can handle it, Yang. The boxing lessons helped a lot and I am capable of protecting myself if anyone picks a fight with me."
"…Alright. Anything call me kay? I've got Enabler with me today. I'll rush there. Don't push yourself!" Yang gave up persuading her best friend because she knew the redhead was as stubborn as Yang herself.
"Of course, Yang. Good luck on your work." The redhead giggled.
"Kay. See ya."
Prryha simply caught a cab to the teen shelter because she assumed there wouldn't be anything valuable to her in that old store room. She made sure to go check on it anyway just to be sure.
And she definitely regretted her decision.
Aside from a layer of dust that was as thick as her winter blanket and some old wooden items too wrecked to even know what they were, there weren't any valuables or interesting things. Prryha sighed as she leaned against a bookshelf.
Crack.
What.
She jerked back and looked at the bookshelf that let out a loud crack when she leaned against it just now. It was old but rather steady and surprisingly clean compared to the other stuff inside the room.
There was definitely something wrong with this bookshelf. It was as if somebody moved it here to hide something and the traces were recent. Prryha did her best to not ruin anything in the room while trying to shift the bookshelf away from its original position.
To her surprise, there was a door. She hesitated at first, but opened it anyway. The door wasn't locked and it was rather easy to be pushed open.
Inside was a room with a huge table in the middle. Messy files and documents were scattered all over it, meanwhile on the four brick of walls surrounding the room, crumpled memos and old newspaper were pinned covering them.
Prryha took a good look at the content of the newspaper and was flabbergasted.
"Schnee family annihilation?"
She continued to read through all of them and had found out that they were all the same case – the one that brought her lover away from her for eternity.
Someone is running investigation on the case.
She was tempted to go talk to the administrators but had decided against it. She had learned her lesson to discuss her problems with her best friend before taking any actions. Taking out her smart phone she took a couple of photos and did her best to reconstruct the whole thing into the way it was before.
After saying thank you to the workers there she went back on a bus, taking her time to calm herself down. It started to rain and she watched the raindrops gliding down the window, burying herself in thoughts of her late girlfriend.
It took half an hour before reaching her apartment.
The blonde was eating some unhealthy food while sitting on the couch, staring blankly at her cell phone. Clearly she had been waiting for the redhead.
"Stop eating so much instant noodles. They're unhealthy." Prryha said as she joined her best friend on the couch.
"It's more unhealthy to let your friend worry about you, you stubborn little girl." Yang put the empty cup on the table and smiled at her friend.
The temperature was low that night. Prryha shivered a little so the blonde made a space in the blanket she was covering herself with and asking her to join her. Both had made themselves comfortable when the blonde finally broke the silent.
"Something's concerning you Prryha."
"It's Weiss." The redhead was rather honest.
"Ah. C'mere, momma Yang gives the best hug~" Yang forcefully pulled Prryha into her embrace; the latter's back facing the blonde's chest. She wrapped her arms around the redhead's collarbone and hugged her tight.
"That's so sweet of you Yang."
"Ssh, I'm always sweet."
The Amazonian chuckled.
"Anyway, I think you should see this." She then took her smart phone from her pocket, fingers swiping on the screen skillfully and handed it to Yang.
"Whoa, this looks like some secret room those private investigators use to work on cases."
"It is. I'm just not sure if it is really private investigator working on this case."
"This case? All these papers and stuffs for a single case?"
"Yes. It's the-"
"Schnee family annihilation."
Prryha gave Yang a pity smile.
"Someone's investigating that cold case?"
"Yes. There might be some clue inside that room, but I thought it was unsafe for me to check on them alone. So I've decided to discuss this matter with you."
"That's a good move Prryha. I'm really glad you trust me." Yang smiled, releasing her grip and allowed her friend to shift to a more comfortable position.
"How do you think of this Yang?"
"Well, I know for a fact that you're still being bothered by Weiss. So why not help you walk out of it?"
"You mean…"
"Yes Prryha. I'll be with you if you wanna investigate this case."
"Thank you so much."
Yang simply smiled back to the girl.
After almost an hour of discussing and planning, they had come to a conclusion that they would visit that secret room again later during midnight when everyone was asleep. Yang had some pretty nice training to pick locks due to her being an experienced freelancer. The teen shelter would clear out that room tomorrow so their only hope was tonight.
"And we leave Ruby out of this." Yang said, "I don't want her to get in any danger."
"Understood."
They patiently waited until midnight and as the time approached, both hopped on Enabler and with insane skill Yang had sped through all the traffic lights in just the blink of an eye.
What was awaiting them was not the teen shelter they were familiar with, however.
The whole building, including the rooms where the orphans slept at, was being devoured by red merciless flame. Next second, the whole building collapsed and had turned to a ruin covered in ashes. The firefighters arrived too late.
Prryha and Yang watched as the clue to solving that murder being burnt down until nothing was left.
"Let's go." Yang drove the motorcycle away from the scene when she sensed Prryha's uneven breathing.
Yang helped Prryha to get into her room and gently sat her on the bed.
"Hey hey, you alright Prryha?"
"I'm okay. I'm just…" She sighed, "Just when I'm about to find something."
"Don't think too much kay? Just sleep, whatever it is we'll leave it to tomorrow. Do you want me to stay?"
Normally, Prryha would reject her. Yang already had a girlfriend, so sleeping in the same bed with her sounded like a bad idea. But the redhead was too tired tonight. She nodded and lied on the bed as Yang joined her.
"Sleep tight kay?"
"Thanks Yang. Good night."
#
Listen to my voice
Calling you, calling you out of darkness
Yang searched for her phone on the table beside her bed.
But instead of a table, she grabbed something soft.
Oh.
She smacked her head for forgetting she was in Prryha's room. She jerked up and searched around for her phone nervously. Ruby would send her a goodnight text and a good morning text everyday and obviously she had forgotten to reply her.
Crap crap crap where is it! Where on earth is the stupid phone?!
The ringing stopped just as she found it on the floor under the makeup table just beside the room door.
How the hell did it even get there?
She unlocked her phone to see an unknown number. She breathed a sigh of relief. There wasn't any message from her girlfriend since yesterday night, meaning she also had forgotten about Yang.
Phew. Now I just have to text her good morning.
Just after she pressed the send button, her phone rang again, startling her. The redhead was still deep in her slumber and did not hear any of that.
It was that unknown number.
"Xiao Long here." She answered the call.
"Yes Miss Xiao Long, good morning. My name is Glynda Goodwitch. I would like to talk to you about something important." Came a mature female voice from the other side of the phone.
"Miss Goodwitch, you do realize that it is freaking six in the morning now right?" Yang groaned.
"I do. But I have to make sure to call you as soon as possible. It is about the fire in the teen shelter last night."
That was it.
That was the end of Yang's sleepiness.
"Yes, what is about that fire?"
"I need to talk to you face to face. Can you give me your address?"
"How can I believe you?"
"Check your message later."
The woman named Glynda Goodwitch had hung up the phone and shortly after that she received a message. It was an image of a badge.
"FBI? That Goodwitch lady is an FBI?!" She mumbled to herself.
Fine.
She sent her address to the lady and received a 'thank you, see you in an hour' text and a smiley face beside it in return.
After Yang had explained to Prryha about this Goodwitch, both had taken turn to hit the shower and got ready to face the lady.
At seven o'clock sharp, a gentle knock was heard on the door. Yang went to get it and exchanged greetings with the strawberry blonde haired lady wearing a pair of glasses.
"Prryha, this is Miss Goodwitch." She led the lady into the living room and poured her some tea as she sat on the soft couch.
"Sorry, we barely have visitors so there's only one couch." Prryha said as she sat on a chair facing Glynda.
"You girls don't have to be so formal with me. Please, just call me Glynda." Glynda smiled.
"Nice to meet you Glynda. Can we cut straight to the point?" Yang said as she sat beside the woman on the couch.
"Yes Miss Xiao Long. Just give me a second." Glynda said as she started working her magic on a piece of gadgets that both Yang and Prryha had no idea what the function was. After a few seconds, she turned it off and took a deep breath.
"Alright, it seemed like there's no tracking devices or any bugs in your house. I believe Miss Xiao Long has already told Miss Nikos about my job?"
Both nodded.
"I'm actually a special agent and I'm in undercover disguised a teen shelter worker to get access to investigate on the Schnee family annihilation. My boss, Agent Ironwood had information from a trustable CI that the whole case is closely connected to Miss Nikos. Therefore, I've to hide my real identity to sneak in that teen shelter because I couldn't risk trusting anybody there. Anyone could be a spy from the White Fang."
"White Fang? The White Fang had something to do with the murder?" Yang squeaked.
"Yes, we believe so. They don't have any motives to murder the Schnee family, and they're famous for not gaining unnecessary attention so we're almost certain they weren't the ones to initiate that. I think there's a certain someone behind this and White Fang were just hired to clean up the mess. After the fire yesterday we're almost certain that Miss Nikos is being followed. That's why shortly after she discovered the secret room I used to arrange my data, it got burnt down. It was a miracle no one was injured."
"It was really lucky no one was injured." Prryha let out a sigh of relief, "I'm sorry for ruining your room."
"No need to apologize Miss Nikos. We believe that you're in danger. Whoever was following you is trying to stop you from investigating this case, which I believe is someone from the White Fang. I'm now safe because they assumed I'm trying to track them down instead of investigating the Schnee family case, but you Miss Nikos are not."
The White Fang was the largest mobster in the world. They did not like to reveal themselves, which made them quite different from the terrorists. They liked to act in the dark, trying not to catch any unnecessary attention. The FBI had been trying hard to track them down, but they were too powerful; they had members from all over the world in any jobs and social status. From judges to politicians to just an owner of a tiny little ice cream stall, they had their own network of connections and this had made the FBI's job to wipe them out very difficult.
"Miss Nikos, you're a key to solving this murder. It's a shame to admit but after years of working on that case, there is still no progress at all. No matter from which aspect we're investigating, the lack of evidence had make it worse. Therefore, I'm now starting to work on your connections with Miss Schnee, the heiress. I apologize but we got info from the same CI saying that you two were involved in…a relationship."
"Yes we did." Prryha tried hard to hold back her tears.
"I didn't mean to make you upset. I'm sorry."
"It is fine, Glynda. Please go on. I would love to know who took her away from me."
"The hardest part on this investigation is the lack of motive. We've went through all the possibilities on but unfortunately there wasn't any results. Then I began to think, what if it isn't but his two daughters? We've also worked on Winter Schnee, it took us almost two years but it was the same with her father. Now we're working on his youngest daughter, Weiss Schnee."
Prryha flinched upon hearing her name. Yang got up and walked over to her, hugging her best friend and rubbing circles on her back.
Glynda took a deep breath before going on, "As far as we know, Miss Schnee grew up isolated from the world under her father's control. She was trained everyday in order to be capable of managing the Schnee Modeling Agency as intended to pass it down to her. That had caused her social connections to be limited to only the people inside the agency; and from what we know, the people that was the closest to her…was you."
"That's why you think her death has something to do with me?"
Glynda nodded.
"I see."
"I'm now working on basically anything related to you or Miss Schnee that I got my hands on. Would you like to assist me on this?"
"Of course."
"Can you tell me more about your relationship with her?"
"We kept our relationship a secret. I honestly have no idea how someone can know about us. We only date in Weiss' office in the agency which we assumed was the safest place in the world."
"Maybe someone from the agency saw you two. No offense, but you're a world-known famous model and you're dating your boss. That sounds much like a motive to me."
"I did not date her to gain my position or for her money or whatever bullshit that is! I date her because she is Weiss Schnee!" Prryha stood up suddenly, startling the other two in the room.
"I know you love her Miss Nikos. That's why you agreed to help me even though it will put you in danger."
Glynda's word had calmed her down evidently as she collapsed on the chair and started to sob quietly while Yang put her arm around her shoulder, mumbling apologies.
"That was just my assumption Miss Nikos. But I have to investigate based on that. I really have no other clues now, I'm really sorry."
"Don't be. Thanks for approaching us Glynda." Yang said.
"No problem. Do you have anything else that is related to the case that you would like to let me know?"
"So we're now looking into their relationship as a motive and look for whoever the hell that will definitely kill based on it?"
"Yes. I don't know why the whole family got killed if the motive is really the relationship, but I guess we don't have much choice."
"I think there's a certain someone who will have intel on this. He's the only guy I know who dared to stand up against the White Fang and ended up being safe." Yang crossed her arm and smirked.
"Are you sure he's trusted?"
"Yep. He's definitely not on the White Fang's side."
#
It wasn't long before the phone was picked up.
"Yang?"
"Hi Rubes."
"Hey. What's up? You normally won't call me before a date."
"Yeah, about that…" Yang scratched her chin with her index finger, "I'm sorry Rubes. I got called suddenly for a job that I can't refuse. I can't make it to the date later. But I promise I'll make up to you tomorrow kay?"
"Sure, no problem. Is there anything I can help you with?"
"It's fine Ruby, I got this."
"Alright. Good luck on that Yang!"
"Thanks. Love you."
"Love you too."
Yang hung up the phone and stared blankly on the floor while mumbling to herself.
"I'm sorry Rubes."
She gritted her teeth, wore her favorite brown jacket and walked out of her room to meet up with Prryha and Glynda.
"Let's go."
#
Thanks for reading my story.
It sort of became a detective story eh? And poor Ruby didn't get any chance to make an appearance in this chapter. This chapter is extremely rushed so I'm really sorry if it sucks. I have to make sure I update daily.
Long live the Enabler!