Disclaimer

I don't own anything. RWBY is not owned by me. It is owned by talented people. I'm a nobody. Please don't sue me.

Third Case:

The Museum

"Huh, I never knew there was so much interesting stuff here," Ruby said as they strolled slowly through another section of exhibits.

"Yes, my family has donated quite a bit to the museum system over the years," Weiss said. "I think I've visited every museum at one point or another for fundraisers, but it's nice just browsing without idiots trying to get my attention."

Ruby beamed as they continued into another section. "I'm glad my sister got stuck talking with the director."

"I thought I'd need to use my connections to get us permission to stay here overnight," Weiss said. "I'm thankful not to have to deal with him. If I recall the director of this museum was quite annoying."

"Is that it?" Ruby asked, pointing ahead.

"Yes," Weiss said.

The section had the oldest artifacts on display in the entire museum. They strolled past stone tools and various crude items of art before they reached the display with the final statuette. It was sitting on a podium by itself, covered in a round glass enclosure, both to keep it safe from theft or damage, and to help contain any influence the dark magic could otherwise work on visitors.

It was the first time that they'd seen one in person, and visually it wasn't very impressive. It was made from plain gray stone, carved into the blurry shape of a two legged dragon roughly the size of a football. It had no more detail than a child's clay sculpture, and if she didn't know what it was she wouldn't assume it had any value from a casual glance.

As they looked at it Weiss didn't even have to activate her aura sight to know that the statuette was wrong. It didn't move. Didn't make a sound. Didn't do anything but sit there, a solid chunk of crudely carved stone, but somehow, in the depths of her soul, Weiss knew that it was looking at her.

Ruby gasped, and Weiss saw that she was paler than usual as she stared wide eyed at the sculpture. "It- it's like it's looking at us. Into us."

"It is," Weiss said grimly. "Remember, magical objects of a certain age and power have a will of their own."

"How can this be sitting in a museum? How can people not completely freak out whenever they walk by?"

"They don't notice it," Weiss said, returning her gaze to the statue. "It doesn't have eyes, so it doesn't 'see' like a normal person. It can sense auras in some fashion, so normal people are quite dim and hard to see for it, so it doesn't bother to focus on them. More than that... it can't only see us, but it knows that we know what it is. And it knows that we know that it knows."

Ruby shivered. "Are you sure we can't just destroy it?"

"We can't," Weiss said. "They are keeping it safely contained, and the danger posed by trying to destroy it isn't worth the dubious rewards of doing so. No, we just need to stop Torchwick from stealing it tonight."

"Fine," Ruby said. She started to turn towards Weiss, but stopped, facing the statue again with another shiver. "Can we go... somewhere not here."

"Sure," Weiss, said. She hesitated for a moment before managing steel herself into turning around and walking back towards the museum offices. Ruby followed, slowed at first by walking backwards. "What are you doing?"

"I just... I really don't want to turn my back on it," Ruby said.

Weiss only nodded, understanding completely. "It doesn't matter if you do; it's well contained, both by treated glass and wards, but even if it wasn't, there's nothing facing it could do to help protect you. Curses can't be dodged, and if it conjured a guardian it could do that in your blind spot no matter where you're facing."

Ruby gulped. "That's not very reassuring."

"No," Weiss agreed after a moment. "I suppose it isn't."

The walk back to the offices was quiet, and they arrived just as Yang was leaving them. "Hey, sis, the statue still there?"

"Yeah," Ruby said, shivering.

"What's got you spooked?" Yang asked.

"Just... didn't expect the statue thingee to be so- so..."

"Evil?" Blake asked, stepping out of the office beside Yang. "Yeah, it's pretty disturbing the first time you run into a dark artifact."

"Any thing with a personality is just wrong," Yang said. "I mean, seriously, how can they be, you know, thinking or whatever? They don't have brains."

"That doesn't seem to stop some people, either," Weiss said, looking at Yang.

"Well, I always thought people needed hearts to live, but I've learned otherwise," Yang replied glibly.

"Guys, can we not do this?" Ruby begged. "Especially on the case? In public?"

"Let's check the surveillance footage," Blake said diplomatically.

The security office was close to the director's office, and in a few minutes they were safely ensconced in front of a computer, Yang operating it as she skimmed through hours of footage looking for Torchwick, or at least someone wearing his distinctive clothing.

After a while Ruby started to fidget, bored at only standing and watching security footage. Weiss frowned at her, a little annoyed, but she'd long ago accepted that her partner had the attention span of a ferret on a sugar rush, although she did better when she was being more actively involved. "Yang, why don't you let Ruby take a shift at the controls?"

Yang turned her head and glared. "Look, ice queen, I can use a computer. I'm actually really good at going over surveillance. I'm not going to miss Torchwick-"

"Stop!" Blake shouted. "Rewind – I think I saw him."

Yang turned quickly, reversing the feed and then starting it up again. After a few moments she spotted the target as well, swiftly switching cameras to get a better view of him.

"Does he own any other clothing?" Weiss asked.

"I don't know," Ruby said. "He probably does. I mean, I doubt he sleeps in that."

"He could sleep in nothing," Yang said, grinning, only to be hit on the back of the head by Blake. "What? I'm just saying..."

Weiss covered her eyes with a hand and sighed. "That was rhetorical."

Torchwick hadn't bothered with any form of disguise, either clothing or magical, as he casually strolled through the museum until he reached the statue. He stared at it for a moment, before smirking and looking around. He then made his way to the nearest men's room and went inside. A few minutes later he walked back out and exited the museum.

"Come on, Weiss, we need to make sure he enchanted the mirror," Ruby said.

"What?" Weiss asked, making a disgusted face. "Of course he did. Why do we have to check?"

"'Cause it's our job?" Ruby offered. "Besides, we need to figure out what the room is like if we're gonna try to ambush him in there."

"What, afraid to get your hands dirty?" Yang teased.

"I assure you, I won't be touching anything in there," Weiss said with a disdainful sniff.

The bathroom turned out to be as bad as Weiss had feared. While the men's room at the Bank of Vale was certainly unpleasant, it was actually kept clean almost to a polish by nightly janitorial work designed to reinforce the bank's position as an elite institution. The museum was cleaned to average public standards.

"Ugh," Weiss groaned, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Weiss, we went into the sewers together below the docks," Ruby said.

"I know!" Weiss whined. "And that was really gross, too. But at least when we went there we were chasing someone, not checking what we already know. Besides, this is the men's room. Do you have any idea how bad it would look if I was caught in here?"

"Worse than a sewer?"

"Yes. Much worse."

"Just check the mirrors," Ruby said with a smile. "We're lucky no one's in here right now."

Weiss strolled through the bathroom quickly, stopping in front of one as she studied it. "Yes, he enchanted it. He'll be coming through here."

"Could you move it?" Ruby asked. "Like you did with the first one?"

"Can, yes," Weiss said. "Should, no."

"Why?"

"He can almost certainly see what's on the other side before he travels through it," Weiss said. "It was dangerous to move the first, but worth the risk. He wasn't likely to check it, and if he does he just learns that we know about his mirror enchantments. He won't pass through the mirror if he doesn't see it leading to here, and if he waits we'll miss our chance to catch him."

"Right," Ruby said. "I guess we'll just have to set a trap."

"Exactly," Weiss said, walking towards the exit. "And we can figure out the details... anywhere else."

When they returned to the security office they found Yang still casually flipping through surveillance, while Blake was reading a book. "Find it? Yang asked.

"Yup," Ruby said. "So, how are we doing this?"

Yang shrugged. "Wait 'til he shows up, arrest him, go party?"

"We need a more detailed plan that that," Weiss said, crossing her arms. "That's an outline at best."

Yang scoffed. "Please. Not everyone needs to fill out forms in triplicate to powder their nose, princess. This isn't anything complicated – there's just four of us. All we have to do is kill time 'til the museum closes and we get into position."

"Ruby?" Weiss demanded, staring at her partner.

"Um... I mean, I guess she's not wrong?" Ruby offered weakly. "What else can we do?"

"Fine," Weiss huffed, stalking across the room and sitting down, arms crossed.

The hours crawled by slowly. Weiss eventually removed a glove and spent her time filing her nails for lack of anything useful to do. She made a mental note to bring something to occupy her time when on future stakeouts. Usually Ruby was so distracting that she would've expected her partner to fill her spare time, but instead she was talking to her sister while sending the occasional look in her direction.

Weiss sighed. Maybe she shouldn't have been so irritable about everything, but Yang didn't seem to care about doing things properly, and Ruby was being dragged along by her sister's irresponsibility. Unfortunately Weiss couldn't think of anything that could actually be done to improve the situation, so... was she upset over nothing? Was there no point in planning when they didn't need something more complex than 'wait for the target to show up'?

"It's time," Blake said, closing her book and standing.

Weiss sighed in relief, replacing her glove and waiting for Ruby, who walked cautiously over to her. Weiss gave her a strained smile, and Ruby grinned back, practically skipping the rest of the way over. Weiss wanted to be annoyed, but for some reason she found herself relaxing as Ruby joined her.

"Alright, they're closing up," Yang said. "No telling how long it'll be 'til Torchwick shows, so we might as well get ready."

The museum felt strange after closing. It wasn't normally crowded, but they could always feel the presence of people, or hear the distant echo of their movements. Only minutes after closing and it already felt abandoned, like no one had been inside in years.

When they reached the men's room Weiss spoke up. "Wait."

"What?" Yang asked.

"He can probably see through the mirror," she said. "We need to make sure that everyone stays out of sight."

"We should also probably keep some people out here just in case he tries to break in some other way," Ruby added.

Yang rolled her eyes. "You just don't want to hang out in the men's room."

"Just because you have 'fun' in them, doesn't mean I'm interested," Weiss replied snottily.

Yang's eyes flashed. "Alright, that's it princess. I might not have any problems with being a sex bomb, but I sure as hell am not gonna put up with a prissy little bitch like you trying to slut shame me."

"Whoa!" Ruby yelled. "Stop this, please! You guys... can't you even pretend to get along? For the job? Or am I the only one that cares about stopping Torchwick from summoning some demon god or something?"

"She started it," Yang mumbled.

Weiss grit her teeth, the urge to place the blame on Yang almost overwhelming, but she managed to restrain herself. As much as she wanted to insult Yang, she also refused to be made to look bad in front of her partner. "Getting involved in this argument was most indecorously of me," she said with a haughty sniff. "You're right, Ruby. The important thing is stopping Torchwick.'

"Thank you Weiss," Ruby said, giving her a beaming smile, to which Weiss replied with a restrained smile of her own.

"Thank you Weiss," Yang mouthed at Weiss while her sister's back was turned, an expression which turned into an agreeable smile when Ruby looked at her. "Sure thing, sis. Stopping the bad guys is why we signed up for this, right Blakey?"

"Right," the cat faunus said neutrally. "How about I wait out here – I'll be able to hear anything that happens inside, and I can make sure Torchwick doesn't try the direct approach while we're distracted."

"Fine," Weiss said, annoyed at the plan being too good to object to. She really didn't want to hang out in the smelly men's room any longer, especially not with Yang.

They settled agains the wall with the door, since the main part of the restroom was visible from the mirror. Before long Weiss was leaning against the wall, reading the news on her phone, while Ruby and Yang played some kind of multiplayer video game on theirs.

She almost missed it, but at the last moment she looked up, focusing her aura on her eyes as she felt a subtle shift in the air. With a glance she could see that the mirror was active, the glass swirling with purple dimensional magics to her enhanced vision. "He's coming," she hissed quietly, putting away her phone and pulling out her pistol.

In moments Ruby and Yang joined her, weapons at the ready, and she cleared her vision to keep it from distracting her when things began. Several long moments passed, and Weiss was just about to activate her eyes again when the glass of the mirror rippled as fingers reached out of it, wrapping around the frame.

Torchwick pulled himself out of the mirror like someone climbing through a window, but with the glass rippling around his body like a vertical pool of silver water. He flipped onto his feet as he left the mirror entirely, one hand reaching up to adjust his hat to the perfect angle, while his other lifted his cane as he stared at them, his surprise evident.

"Freeze!" Yang shouted. "Get down on the ground!"

"In the bathroom?" he demanded, completely appalled. "You can't be serious. This is a nice coat!"

"Drop the cane," Ruby added.

"Oh, ho, ho, what is this," Torchwick asked with a slow grin. "If it isn't little red. Or should I say Detective Red, now?Still trying (and failing) to catch me?"

Ruby growled, taking half a step forward. "Why does everyone mention that! I stopped your thefts and got all of your goons arrested!"

"Sounds like a consolation prize, and a pretty slim one at that," Torchwick said, shaking his head sadly. "Did those buffoons even know who I was? I kept expecting some kind of APB out on me, but then nothing."

Ruby blushed. "Sh-shut up! Drop the cane – I know what that thing can do!"

"Do you?" he asked casually, waving it slightly. "Zhech!"

As he said the word Weiss saw tiny, almost invisible runes on the head of his cane flare red and pulled the trigger on her gun even as the ability of the magic item took effect. Instead of shooting a fireball the guns in their hands suddenly heated up, and before the bullet even left the barrel the metal of the gun turned red hot and warped, jamming the weapon.

Ruby shouted in pain, dropping her gun, and Weiss and Yang then did the same. Weiss' hands stung from the heat, but her gloves had protected her a little, and she was just glad that the gun hadn't exploded in her hand from the failure that had occurred.

Torchwick turned back to the mirror in the distraction, but before he could reenter it Yang charged at him, screaming. "You'll pay for that, asshole!"

Her hands suddenly caught on fire, and she pulled one back, ready to punch him in the head as he spun around to meet her charge. "Vliyaniye," he said cheerfully, choking up on his cane and swinging it at her like a baseball bat. "Fore!"

The hit had been hard, as it involved quite a bit of windup, but Weiss didn't need to see the flicker of runes on the cane to know that it had been enhanced by the weapon's magic. With a loud crack the cane slammed into Yang's arm, which she'd brought up to block, snapping bone and then connecting with Yang's center of mass. She flew backwards through the air with impossible force, slamming into the wall of the restroom and not stopping.

"Yang!" Ruby screamed in horror as she stared at the hole in the wall where her sister had passed through. Before she even turned around her scythe formed in her hands. "You..."

"Me?" Torchwick asked.

Weiss drew her sword, ignoring the stinging in her palms as she took her stance beside her partner. "This is your last warning," she said, eyes narrowed dangerously. "Surrender, or you might not live long enough to be arrested."

"Ooh... scary," Torchwick said jovially. "Before we fight, one thing... do you think that swing was a home run?"

Ruby growled and charged.