It was night above Vale's capital, completely black except for the orange lights of the skyscrapers in the distance, which lit up the horizon like a burning sunset. The area between Vale and Beacon was just as desolate as usual, however, far above that empty space, a jet black helicopter cut through the night sky like a hot knife through an endless ocean. The blades of the helicopter only made the slightest bit of noise as it tore its way through to its destination, ensuring that no one noticed it before it reached its destination. Inside, Emerald sat in the passenger cabin watching a video on her Scroll brand phone to pass the time.

"No one knows yet why the senator thought the grenade was an apple, but video of his untimely demise has already gone viral" a newscaster announced on the screen. "Sources say that the reporter who managed to capture the famous shot plans on submitting it to Vale's Funniest Home Videos, but it is expected to be rejected due to their recent ban on explosive related videos".

"My my, just as prideful as ever, I see" Cinder said as she sauntered into the cabin from the cockpit.

"What can I say? It's one of the perks of the job" Emerald replied as she switched off her phone.

"Only when you succeed, that is" Cinder pointed out. "Need I remind you that pride always goes before the fall?"

"And you should know that you sound like a fortune cookie when you talk like that" Emerald countered.

"That doesn't make it any less true" Cinder said as she sat down next to Emerald and handed her a folder. "I would hope that this woman's face has become so familiar to you that you could draw it blindfolded, but here it is again in case you needed a reminder".

Inside, Emerald found Ruby's latest mugshot, which featured her stretching her lips apart and sticking her tongue out at the camera.

"We are running out of chances, after all" Cinder continued. "Despite our best efforts to end this war quickly, The Saints keep holding on. We've already lost so much on this venture already, and if this continues for much longer, we might lose something we might not be able to replace. If you eliminate her, we can finally have the edge in this war again. Any other Saints you kill in the process will merely be icing on the cake".

"No pressure though, right?" Emerald laughed as she closed the folder again.

"Right" Cinder replied as she stood up and opened the door on the side of the helicopter. "I believe this is your stop".

"Why thank you, my lady" Emerald replied with a bow before making her way towards the cool night air.

"I will be in my 'office' in case The Saints try anything tonight, but your target should be here the entire night" Cinder explained as air from the blades blew over her body.

"Really? On a Friday night?" Emerald asked incredulously. "Are you sure she won't be out partying or anything?"

"You forget: Friday night also means new cartoons" Cinder replied.

"Ah, yes, of course" Emerald said as she rolled her eyes. "Please, forgive my ignorance".

She then moved to jump out of the helicopter but was stopped by Cinder's hand on her arm at the last second.

"Remember not to strain yourself too much" the dark-haired woman warned. "Your semblance only works on one or two people at a time: any more than that is dangerous".

"Thanks for the advice, but if anyone were to know my semblance, I'm pretty sure it would be me" Emerald replied as she brushed Cinder's hand away.

"Just making sure that you don't make any silly mistakes while you're down there" Cinder smiled back. "Now, Ms. Prideful… fall".

With that, Cinder pushed her green assassin out of the helicopter and Emerald dove into the inky black night, the cool night air zipping past her face as she hurtled toward the ground. It normally would have been very difficult to judge the distance to the ground so late at night but, ever since the attack on Junior's club, the place had been lit up as bright as a firework almost every night, and was somehow even louder. Because of that, Emerald could make out almost every inch of the place even from as far away as she was. As she finally approached her target, Emerald couldn't help but smile as she imagined making that firework metaphor a whole lot more literal by the end of the night.

Emerald finally opened her small, green parachute thirty feet or so away from the ruins of Beacon's main tower, which managed to slow her descent to just below breakneck speed. This meant that she still had to use a good chunk of her aura to finish breaking her fall, but she didn't mind that in slightest since she didn't plan on taking any more hits for the rest of the night.

Once she was safely on the ground, Emerald packed her parachute back up as she toured around what used to be the headmaster's office, admiring all the broken clocks and gears that were strewn about the place like so much useless litter.

"I gotta say, the whole 'dilapidated' look really suits this place" Emerald commented to herself. "They really should try it out again".

She then walked over to the remains of the elevator and pried the doors to the shaft open. After judging the distance to the bottom for a few moments, she stepped into the shaft and immediately opened up her chute, allowing her to land relatively softly on top of the stuck elevator at the bottom of the shaft. Then, she reached up to the closest set of doors and pried them open a little - just enough to let her peek through and see what was outside.

"Come on, Yang!" she heard a familiar voice whine. "Hurry up! We're going to miss out on Pumpkin Pete's Playtime Powerhour!"

This was followed by a flash of yellow in front of the elevator shaft, followed by someone saying "Sorry, Rubes, but I'm going to be distracted tonight by four different, much more entertaining P's. Besides, it's not like we have to watch it tonight. That's what recording is for!"

"You know that's not as fun!" Ruby replied. "Are you sure you can't watch it with me?"

"I'm afraid my hands are tied, Ruby" Yang answered. "Literally, if we decide to get really kinky".

Emerald could practically hear Ruby's cheeks puff up in rage as she stomped her foot down and said "Fine! But I won't save you any cereal! I'm going to eat it all myself!"

"You're just going to throw up again, you know!" Yang pointed out.

"It'll be worth it!" Ruby shouted back before storming off.

Yang shook her head quietly before finally leaving the lobby as well, leaving Emerald completely alone and free to climb out of the elevator shaft unnoticed. She then glanced down the hallway Ruby and her sister left and saw the back of Yang's head right as she shut the door at the end of the hall behind her. The hallway itself was almost completely barren and unguarded, with the exception of an oddly placed white mannequin hanging out in front of the door of an old classroom.

"These girls are making this way too easy" Emerald said quietly as she approached the cloth dummy. "Still, what the heck is this thing? Are they so desperate for new blood that they're accepting recruits from the department store?"

She then tapped the dummy on the chest and it fell over onto the ground, falling to pieces instantly.

"Heh, still a better fighter than most of their guys" Emerald laughed.

Then, right before she was about to leave, the door to the classroom she was standing in front of began to creak open and Emerald froze in place. Blake walked out of the classroom a second later and saw a lone mannequin standing alone in the middle of the hallway.

"There you are! I was wondering where I put that spare" Blake said as she picked the dummy up and carried it back into the classroom. "Huh… this one is a little heavier than the other ones… oh well. I guess it won't matter in a few minutes anyway".

"I'm not heavy! You're just weak!" the 'dummy' thought angrily in Blake's arms. "You're lucky that I don't want to risk blowing my cover yet, or you would definitely be the first to go!"

Unable to hear Emerald's angry thoughts, Blake brought the 'dummy' to the front of the classroom and placed it alongside a row of other dummies before returning to the back and picking up an assault rifle up off a nearby desk.

"Alright, let's get started" she said as she loaded a magazine into the gun.

"Wait… what is she doing?!" Emerald thought panickingly as Blake took aim at the dummy at the other end of the row and pulled the trigger. A series of deafening booms then filled the classroom as a barrage of bullets tore through Blake's target, blowing it's head right off and leaving a gaping hole in its chest.

"Well, the sight seems to be working, as well as the high powered Dust rounds" Blake said as she put the assault rifle down. "Now let's try the revolver…"

"Okay, Emerald, don't panic" the frightened assassin thought to herself. "You can still get out of this without being seen or blown to bits. You just need to wait for an opportunity".

It was at that point that yet another shot rang out in the classroom and the next dummy in line was completely blown to bits.

"Ouch! That one's too powerful!" Blake moaned as she shook out her right wrist. "Kickback nearly took my hand off! Better try something a little softer next".

She then reached for a small squirt gun and Emerald finally felt herself relax a little.

"Oh, thank goodness" Emerald thought to herself as she let out a silent sigh. "Something less dangerous".

Blake took a moment to aim at the dummy next to Emerald before pulling the trigger and unleashing a stream of green fluid onto it. Emerald didn't even bother to look at the results until she noticed a strange sizzling noise coming from it's direction. Curious, Emerald glanced over and her eyes instantly widened in horror as she watched the dummy dissolve into a bubbling puddle on the floor. The goo puddle kept on bubbling, however, and soon sank into the floor and left a person-sized hole in the ground as the acid ate its way downwards.

"Whoops" said Blake. "I hope no one's in the basement right now.

A blood-curtling scream emerged from the hole a second later.

"Eh, I'm sure he's fine" Blake said as she tossed the squirt gun to the side. "Now for something a little more low-tech".

Emerald had only a second to wonder what Blake meant before a throwing knife embedded itself into the chalkboard next to her head, causing Emerald's heart to skip a beat as a sliced strand of heir hair gently drifted towards the ground.

"Damn! That revolver must have thrown off my aim" Blake swore quietly before picking up a rocket launcher from the floor and aiming it directly towards Emerald's head. "Good thing accuracy doesn't matter much with these things".

Emerald could do nothing but stare in abject terror as Blake's finger slowly pressed down on the RPG's trigger but, right before the rocket launched, she was interrupted by the door to the classroom suddenly slamming open. Confused, both, Emerald and Blake turned towards the door and saw Weiss standing angrily in the doorway.

"I knew it!" Weiss huffed as she stormed into the room. "I knew one of you assholes stole my dummies! Although, I must admit that you were pretty low on my suspect list".

"What? I was just using them for target practice" Blake replied, unsure why Weiss was acting so angry. "That's why you bought them, right?"

Emerald, meanwhile, strained under the pressure as she tried to maintain the her illusion for both women, but she didn't mind too much since it was at least better than fourth degree burns.

"No, it wasn't!" Weiss replied angrily to Blake. "I bought them to help me sew my new dresses! The best fashion malls are in neighborhoods still under Ember control, and it's been risky to go shopping there lately".

"Oh, right…" Blake said, her eyes lighting up with embarrassment. "Uh, you can have them back now if you want".

"Thanks for the generosity, but I think I'll take just take the one that's still standing if you don't mind" Weiss said dryly before walking up to Emerald and picking her up by the waist.

She then carried the 'dummy' up to the dormitories while Emerald sweated nervously in her arms whenever they came close to groups of other Saints. Fortunately for her, however, they were all either far too drunk or too distracted to notice anything out of the ordinary, so she made it past them unnoticed. Emerald wished that Weiss was their level of inebriated, though, since that would have made getting a blade into position against her throat a hell of a lot easier.

Eventually they arrived back at Weiss's room and she plopped her dummy/Emerald right in the middle of room. She then turned around and started digging through one of her many large white dressers, which finally gave Emerald the chance to ready her wristband daggers and begin carefully sneaking up behind her. She was right about to drive a blade into Weiss's back when the former heiress suddenly turned around and slammed a large white dress onto Emerald's body, which ended up covering her wristbands in the process.

"There we are!" Weiss said as she straightened out the dress. "Now, be a good dummy and hold still while I put on the finishing touches…"

Emerald rolled her eyes but did as she was told regardless. After all, her pride was the one thing she could afford to have wounded that day.

"Alright, that's one side done" Weiss said as she stored one of her spare needles in the dummy's exposed thigh. "Now for the other side…"

She then spent a few moments sewing around the other leg before storing both her needles in the other thigh, allowing her to take out two new ones with a new spool of thread and move up to the upper part of the dress.

"Just a few more seconds and… perfect!" Weiss announced as she finished up and stored her last two needles in the dummy's exposed chest. She then put her spools of thread back into her sewing box before finally retrieving the needles and taking the dress off her makeshift model.

"Now for your next job…" Weiss said as she turned towards the dresser once again.

Emerald grit her teeth as she tried to avoid crying and prepared her arm blade once again. She tried walking forward to get in range but stumbled a little from the pain, which gave Weiss just enough time to turn around and put a large, garish sweater onto Emerald's upper body. That sweater was soon followed by another, and another, and another…"

"There we are!" Weiss said proudly as she forced the last sweater onto the dummy. "If there's one thing I don't miss about my family, it's their terrible holiday gifts. Hold these for me until I get back from downstairs. I have a special plan for these…"

Weiss then walked out of the room and closed her door just in time for Emerald to fall onto her back from the sheer weight of the sweaters crushing her chest. She didn't even bother trying to stand back up and simply slipped herself out of the clothes, muttering to herself, "Stupid, stupid, stupid! Always go for invisible if you get the chance! Always!"

Free of her wooly prison, Emerald made her way to the door and peeked outside to try and reacquire her target.

"Last chance to watch Pumpkin Pete's with me, Yang!" she heard Ruby shout from the left side of the hall.

"Sorry, but like I said before, I've got a 'nap' to take!" Yang replied from the right side of the hall.

"Fine! I hope you sleep yourself tired then!" Ruby shouted back, which was followed promptly by a loud door slam.

Emerald then carefully opened the door the rest of the way and, after making sure the coast was clear, she began making her way towards Ruby's room. However, right before she made it to the redhead's door, Emerald realized something very important: if she went for Ruby now, there was a good chance she could end up alerting the entire compound even if she succeeded. But the great thing about sleeping targets was that they don't usually get the chance to scream until it was far too late. Turning back around, Emerald decided that Ms. Rose could wait for a few more minutes before slipping quietly into Yang's room. There, she found the place to be a complete mess with clothes, gun shells, and pizza boxes strewn everywhere, but it was otherwise completely empty. The light emanating from underneath the bathroom door let Emerald know that Yang was still freshening up before bed, allowing Emerald to take out one of her longer knives and slip unnoticed under Yang's bed.

"Finally, something easy" Emerald said smugly to herself as she got into position. "Though, I may need a moment to find the exact spot to stab - she's got a weirdly big bed for one person".

After waiting patiently for a few more minutes, Emerald heard the bathroom door open and Yang step out of it.

"Ahh, that's better!" she heard Yang say as she stretched out out her body. "Now, time to go get to bed!"

The blonde then dashed towards her mattress and launched herself towards it, landing on it with a thud that nearly caused the bedsprings underneath to smack emerald in the face. The assassin was too delighted to care, however, and simply got her knife ready underneath Yang's back.

"That's right, go to sleep, my little bimbo…" Emerald thought to herself. "And never… wake… up!"

"Alright boys, come on in!" Yang suddenly shouted.

"Wait… boys?!" Emerald thought worriedly as she stopped her knife at the last second.

This was followed by the sound of a bunch of new people entering the room and climbing onto the bed. The added weight caused the bedsprings above Emerald to press down even further, to the point there they were pressing down on top of her face and pinning her to the floor.

"Alright, boys, I hope you brought the condiments~" Yang said sultrily, which was met by several cheers of affirmation.

"Ew… that's something I never needed to hear" Emerald thought to herself.

She then heard several gross squishing noises above her that was followed shortly by moanin and rhythmic thrusting that caused the bed springs to smack Emerald's face over and over again.

"Oh fuck!" Emerald swore in her head. "I can smell her sweaty ass from here!"

She tried her best to get her knife ready to stab once again but she ultimately didn't go through with it and put the knife back down.

"Dammit! I don't know where she is, and I can't afford to stab the wrong one!" she thought angrily to herself. "Although, killing them all is quite tempting at this point…"

Putting her murderous urges behind her for the moment, Emerald managed to squeeze her way out from under the three or five people fucking above her and made it to the edge of the bed. There, she glanced out towards the exit and saw that the bedroom door was still open.

"Augh! You didn't even bother to close the door!?" Emerald thought in disgusted horror. "You really are a bimbo!"

She then quietly crawled her way out from underneath the bed, safe in the knowledge that the people on top were far too distracted to even glance in her direction. She still made sure to make it to the hallway as fast as she could, however, since she didn't want to risk looking at the castup covered disaster that she knew lay behind her.

Once she was sure she was safe and alone in the hallway, Emerald let out a long sigh before finally making her way back towards Ruby's room.

"That's it, no more distractions!" she told herself in her head. "It's time I ended this once and for all!"

Once at Ruby's room, Emerald opened the door just a crack and saw the infamous gang leader sitting in front of her wide-screen TV in her pink bunny pajamas and a pirate hat and eating out of a massive cereal bowl while colorful images flashed across the screen in front of her. Most importantly to Emerald, however, Ruby was also completely alone.

"Alright, let's keep this one simple" Emerald said as she took her knife back out and slowly pushed the door open, taking care to make herself invisible from Ruby's perspective as she quietly stepped inside. She then flipped the knife around in her hand and prepared to thrust it down into Ruby's back when, suddenly, she was blinded as the TV screen abruptly flashed red.

"Are you ready kids!?" an annoying cartoon voice shouted, causing Ruby to jump up and hit Emerald in the chin, sending the assassin stumbling backwards.

"Aye aye, captain!" Ruby shouted at the screen.

"I can't hear you!" the screen shouted again.

"Aye aye, captain!" Ruby shouted even louder as she tossed what was left of her cereal into Emerald's face.

"Alright, kiddos! It's time for the Captain Crush show!" the TV announcer happily proclaimed. "The last we left our intrepid hero, she was in the middle of a sword fight with the deadly spider pirate Serket, who fights with eight swords… because she's a spider!"

"Oh boy, oh boy!" Ruby said excitedly as she took out her toy sword. "I can't wait to see how this fight turns out!"

"Yar-har! You may think you're winning now, Serket, but I know I've got ye on yer last four-or-so sea legs!" a new voice said from the TV.

"Oh, that's it… no more Ms. Nice Assassin" Emerald grumbled as she took out a second knife and lunged herself at Ruby's back.

Ruby, however, simply rolled out of the way just like her hero onscreen, so Emerald just ended up impaling the ground.

"Gerr…" Emerald growled as she got up and rushed over towards Ruby, swinging her knives while a character on the TV screen shouted "Take that! And that! And that!"

Ruby dodged out of the way every time, however, mimicking the movements of Captain Crush perfectly much to Emerald's bafflement and frustration. The last straw for Emerald came when Ruby suddenly shouted "Hiya" and jabbed her toy sword forward and jabbed Emerald right in the eye.

"Why you little…" Emerald grumbled before breaking out in a sprint towards Ruby, not even caring if she got caught anymore as she swung her knives wildly through the air.

Ruby rolled out of the way in the nick of time once more, causing Emerald to miss her target completely. Emerald's momentum was too high for her to stop immediately, though, so she ended up stumbling all the way to Ruby's open window and fell right out of it.

"Aaaaah!" she screamed wildly as she fell headfirst into a dumpster below. She tried desperately to think of some way she might be able to break her fall before hit the ground, but that thought was quickly cut short as she hit the ground and everything went black.


Emerald woke back up about half an hour later at the bottom of a heap of trash and her number of dead targets still squarely at zero. Sighing, she dug herself out of the dumpster, took out her cell phone, and dialed a number.

"Hey, Cinder? Can I get a pickup at Beacon?" she said into the phone. "Things didn't exactly go as planned…"

She then heard some hacking and wheezing noises above her before suddenly being covered in a thick orange slurry that rained from above.

"I warned you about all that cereal!" she heard Yang shout somewhere in the school.

"... things really didn't go as planned" Emerald continued. "We're going to have to do something else to deal with The Saints".

"How… disappointing" Cinder replied. "I will see you back at the mansion soon".

Emerald then hung up and put away her phone before moving to climb out of the dumpster. Right when she was about to lift her first leg out, however, she heard some people walking towards her around a nearby corner and so she ducked back inside to avoid being seen. A few seconds later,Weiss and Blake both emerged from around the building, each of them holding a massive bundle of sweaters.

"Alright, Blake, right this way! And… heave!" Weiss instructed as they tossed all the sweaters into the dumpster. "About time I finally got rid of these things".

"If you hated them so much, then why did you keep them for so long?" Blake asked curiously.

"Eh, I used to think they had some kind of sentimental value" Weiss replied as she poured oil on top of the sweaters. "But then I realized that they weren't important to me then, so they shouldn't be important to me now".

"So, you've been thinking about the past a lot lately, huh?" asked Blake.

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Weiss said coldly as she lit a match and tossed it into the dumpster.

Blake let out a long, tired sigh as Weiss walked away but followed behind her anways. Emerald took the moment to sigh as well, though hers was muffled by old pizza boxes.

"Not even being ignored by these guys is easy…"


Chapter beta-read by Mr. Stark357