Last Call – Act I Epilogue
"What the hell was that?" Adam shouted the instant they were out of range.
Robin held onto the railing that ran around the roof of the bouncing, speeding van, trying to steady himself and ignoring the cut in his side where one last chunk of shrapnel sliced through his aura. He spared Adam a glance, fighting the urge to roll his eyes. The bull Faunus was furious. His face and neck were a brilliant crimson beneath his mask, one vein pulsing angrily in his neck. The terrorist was fuming, leaning in as Robin turned way, screaming into his ear.
"What's the point of putting a listening program on Belladonna's scroll, if you're not gonna use the damn thing?"
"This may come as a surprise," Robin snapped, yanking on the straps holding his White Fang mask in place. He could barely see with it on, and no one had told him how uncomfortable the damn thing would be. "But in case you didn't know how electronics work, she has to turn it on first."
Adam was mid-shout when the van hit a bump and bounced its passengers up into the air. Gripping tight to the handrail, he steadied himself, then turned the brunt of his fury back on the man peeling his way out of a borrowed White Fang uniform.
"What the hell is-"
Before he could finish, the van filled with an incessant beeping – the short fast sound of an incoming call on someone's scroll.
Probably Mal, Robin guessed, smirking as the rest of the thugs checked their pockets.
"Pretty sure it's for you."
Glowering, Adam reached beneath his seat and pulled out the scroll he had stashed before the ambush. Thumbing the power button, he looked down, his face growing even darker as a scowling Mal appeared on the small screen.
"Report," she snapped, her tone leaving very little doubt about her mood.
Adam shot Robin a look – probably meant as a warning to keep his damn mouth shut – then turned back to the scroll. "She got away."
If anything, Mal's scowl grew deeper. "Explain."
"They brought backup," Robin chimed in helpfully, making sure to smile when the redheaded glared in his direction. "The extra huntress started shooting and your Fang puppies turned tail and ran."
"We were ready to handle the other two, not the Adel girl," Adam snapped, a vein in the side of his neck starting to throb. "If you had done your job, given us reliable information, we could have taken precautions. We would have been prepared-"
"Enough," Mal snapped. "It's a setback, but not a drastic one. The important thing is it kept them focused on us. Robert, head back here and finish the report for Miss Schnee on our 'mysterious' assassin. Something insignificant – the source materials for the masks perhaps. Something interesting but ultimately useless for tracking us."
"I'll go with him," Adam growled, still glowering at Robin over the top of his scroll.
"No. Go to your bolthole. Ready your men."
"The plan was-"
"Plans change," Mal said with a firmness that left no room for argument. "There's a bullhead waiting for you one klick east of your position. Get Robert there, then go to ground. Belladonna and her partner saw you – they can confirm you've returned. That's all we need for now."
The Faunus opened his mouth to argue, but the words had barely left his mouth before the connection cut out. Cursing, he slammed his fist into the side of the van, denting the side and missing a bullet hole by an inch. Hauling himself forward, he made his way to the front of the van, and started briefing the driver at the top of his lungs.
Shaking his head, Robin waited for the swordsman to reach a high point in his tirade, then reached into his pocket and slowly drew out his scroll. Ignoring the request for a password, he placed his thumb on the bottom left corner, holding it place until it started the biometric scan. The screen blinked, then cleared, replaced by the real login page. Fingers tapping on the screen, he entered his code and sighed, waiting for it to load. The double layer of security – the scanner and the fake sign-in page that wiped the entire scroll if used – always slowed down the processing speed. Still, better safe than sorry.
Finally, after watching that damn circle spin time and time again, it booted up.
Pulling a pair of earbuds from his back pocket, he plugged them in and got to work. The file he was looking for was large – the inevitable side effect of leaving the bug running overnight. Fortunately, he remembered what he was looking for. Clicking the play button, he jumped to the section he'd highlighted, listening as the voices of the four girls came in over his headphones.
"More bad news?" Belladonna asked. The voice was distorted, altered by the poor quality of the recording and compressed enough to be sent without much impact on her scroll's processor. Still, it was her – even the interference couldn't hide that.
"Good news, actually." The second voice was higher pitched – the compression had distorted it even more – but it had to be the Schnee girl. "I think we just got our ace in the hole."
Robin hit the pause button. He'd heard the recording before, no reason to listen through the rest of it again. The conversation got less interesting after that. Weiss hadn't been talkative about her 'ace' and they eventually turned to her treatment schedules.
The 'ace' must have been the Adel girl then, he thought, rewinding back to the last of the good stuff. He had to admit, he hadn't expected them to bring in an extra huntress for backup. The other two had been obvious, but Weiss must have called Adel when Blake wasn't in the room.
Smart of her – not that I would have told our angsty bull-man anyway. Robin grinned, and wished once more that he'd had a camera when the back doors of the ambulance sprang open to reveal the gold-washed chaingun. If he could see the look on his face ...
Shaking his head, Robin glanced up at the driver, still trying to listen to Adam while keeping his eyes trained on the road in front of them. Turning his attention back to the scroll, Robin pulled up the menu, smiled, and hit delete.
The sun was just beginning to rise when the borrowed airship touched down at Schnee Corporate Headquarters. Red-orange light glinted off the propellers, reflecting onto the glass-and-metal skyscraper that loomed over the rest of downtown Atlas. The building cut the sky like a knife, one tall, perfectly symmetrical tower that narrowed to a point designed to pierce the heavens.
The ground crew guided them to a helipad on the sun-ward side of the building, putting the morning light at Ruby's back as she made her way to the landing zone marked with dashed black-and-yellow lines. As carefully as she could, Ruby pulled back on the control stick, slowly bringing the airship to a stop as they came in for a surprisingly gentle landing.
There was the slightest bump as they touched down, and then they were done. Finally able to breathe, Ruby cut the power, letting the airship blades cycle as she clambered out of the cockpit. Hopefully the little jolt hadn't been enough to hurt Weiss – the girl had already suffered through enough after a bumpy ride from the hospital.
Blake was already with her by the time Ruby made it to the hold, carefully undoing the straps that has held Weiss in place during their flight. The heiress was pale, paler than she'd been before they'd left
"You okay?" Ruby asked, reaching instinctively for one of Weiss' hands. Their fingers had barely touched when she stopped, realizing just in time that she'd tried to grab Weiss' bad arm.
The white-haired girl looked up at her and tried to smile, unable to fully hide the pain from her face. Reaching across with her left, she took Ruby's hand in hers.
"I'll survive. Thank you for not pulling one of your normal landings."
Ruby gave her the best smile she could, but even that felt hollow. She still didn't feel like smiling. Even with Weiss awake, even with her starting to heal, the image of her partner – her girlfriend – collapsed on the marble floor in a pool of her own blood was too new, too raw. Especially with Weiss lying in front of her, pale and sickly, wincing as Blake slowly undid the last few straps.
A small whimper escaped Weiss' throat, and Ruby reached for the button that controlled Weiss' IV drip. But before she could push the button, Weiss caught her hand.
"No." the heiress shook her head, holding Ruby's gaze until she let go of the controls. "It's not too bad."
"Weiss, you have a hole the size of my fist in your shoulder."
"You're exaggerating, and it'll still be there even if I take the meds." Weiss gave her a tired look, and turned her hand, twining her fingers with Ruby's. "I need a clear head for this. Once we're done, we can let the doctors dope me up till I can't feel a thing."
Ruby opened her mouth, then closed it, seeing the stubborn set to Weiss' jaw. This isn't an argument I'm gonna win.
The younger huntress pursed her lips into a worried line and nodded. There's only so far I can push her, she thought, still not letting go of Weiss' hand. If she thinks she can handle this...
"Promise me," she choked out, her throat closing tight. "The second it gets too much-"
"I'll tell you. I promise."
That's probably the best I'm ever gonna get. Nodding, Ruby let out the breath she'd been holding and reached for the door controls.
The airship door popped and cracked, hissing as the hydraulics raised the heavy panel. Light flooded in, blinding Weiss for a second before her eyes could adjust. At first, all she could make out was four shadowy figures standing on the helipad outside, scuffed and scraped in a place or two, but not looking too much the worse for wear. Then a blur of pink and orange raced across the tarmac as soon as the bay door was half-open, arms reaching out to hug Blake around the middle.
"Team CYNR, reporting for duty!" Nora beamed, pulling away to give the Faunus a mock-salute, then darting over to help Ruby lower Weiss' wheelchair.
"Really? You went with 'Sinner?'" Weiss rolled her eyes, wincing as her friends gingerly lowered her to the ground. "Little on the nose, don't you think?"
Nora just kept beaming, and gave Weiss the gentlest, least jarring hug she could manage. The heiress sighed and wrapped her left arm around the woman's back. Normally, she'd try to push the overly expressive girl away ... but it was good to see her.
"We figured it'd do for a temp name." Yang drawled, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Coco as the remaining three hunters gathered around the airship. She spared a glance for Blake, a quick flash of teeth in a reassuring smile, before moving over to their injured teammate. "How're you feeling?"
"Ready to freeze the first executive who looks at me cross-eyed."
Yang rolled her eyes. "I meant your wound."
"I know." Weiss turned to look up at Coco, squinting against the sunlight. "Thank you for going with them."
Coco shrugged and adjusted the shades on the tip of her nose. "It was the least I could do."
"Hardly." Weiss blocked the sun with the back of one hand, and saw the teasing smile on her friend's lips. "When are you heading back?"
"Not sure. Think I'll stick around for a bit." Coco glanced back at the building behind them, putting one hand on her hip as she gave the SDC offices a long, critical look. "I've been involved with Adel Conglomerate's finances for years now. And I'm guessing you could always use another gun if things go sideways."
That's just like her, Weiss thought. Coco had always been the attentive sort of leader – checking on her team, almost instinctively knowing when something was wrong, even keeping an eye out for her juniors from time to time. Weiss smiled gratefully and tried to nod, wincing as the motion pulled on her wounded arm.
"... honestly, I still can't believe the hospital cleared you," the senior huntress said, eying the bandages peeking out from beneath the jacket wrapped around Weiss' shoulders.
They were well-hidden for the most part - the heiress had insisted on being properly dressed for the board meeting, despite the fact that the others could barely raise her arm far enough to slide on her shirt without he nearly feinting from the pain. Finding a compromise, Ruby and Blake had hacked one of her dress shirts apart, removing the right sleeve and replacing the stiches on that side with hastily-added buttons. It worked – you couldn't see the rough needlework beneath the jacket – but it ruined it for almost anything else. Not that Weiss couldn't spare the clothes.
"They didn't." Blake growled, throwing a very dark look towards the white-haired huntress. "She insisted."
"A few hours in the office won't kill me, and I couldn't call a board meeting from my sickbed."
"You know, there's this thing called a video call," Yang drawled, a bit more bite to her tone than normal. "Sometimes, businesses even use them for things called conferences."
"Still sends the wrong message," Weiss shook her head. The others didn't understand – she knew they were worried, why they were worried, but she needed to appear strong in front of the board, now more than ever. With the stunt she was about to pull – using her majority shares to name herself, an injured woman in her twenties, as the new company president – she needed every advantage she could get.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Ruby asked quietly, eyes locked on Weiss' face as she slipped a bottle of water into Weiss' good hand
"I'll be fine," Weiss said, just as softly. "I promise."
Weiss held the younger woman's gaze, never looking away, doing everything she could to keep any sign of the throbbing pain from her face. The agony digging into her side like a knife and making her crave the drowsy bliss that the painkiller brought. Ruby was worried and any other time, Weiss would have told her how she felt. Let the girl settle her in bed, numb and sleepy and relaxed in the knowledge that Ruby was watching over her.
But that wasn't what she needed right now. She needed to look strong, for Ruby as much as the board.
No matter the pain.
Finally, Ruby nodded, reaching forward to smooth the lapels on her suit. Straightening, she ran her eyes over their team – now three more fighters strong.
"Alright team," she said, gripping the handles of Weiss' wheelchair and rolling the heiress towards the double doors. "Let's get her inside."
Writer's Note: Sorry for the short length – I realized that the next chapter was getting too unfocused and too long, so I needed to chop things up. As it stands, this is basically the epilogue to Act I, and now that the next chapter is mostly written, I can post the beginning of Act II (there'll be a bit of a time-jump to mark it) very soon. Hopefully this weekend.