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.

Fifth Case:

Gathering

Ruby was very pale as she stared at the obese ogre belching and picking its teeth. "Um… what do we do?"

Weiss sighed. "I don't really want to arrest it; the ogre acted in self defense, and frankly, we don't have the tools to restrain it. We'd need to call down SWAT, and I suspect more than a few people would be killed in the attempt."

"So we just… let it eat people?"

"Well, not normally, but… if an ogre causes trouble with Schnee property, the protocol is to offer it a chance to surrender, then attack with overwhelming force when it refuses," Weiss explained. "Since there's no way a murder charge would stick, we'd end up killing it for defending itself."

"And the cannibalism!" Ruby objected.

"Well… ogres aren't human so it isn't really cannibalism," Weiss pointed out. "Do you want to tell it it's under arrest?"

"No," Ruby grumbled. "I don't like this, though. He didn't have to go that far to defend himself."

"I know, I don't like it either," Weiss said. "Look, how about after we interrogate the other two White Fang members you call this in and ask what they want us to do. We'll need to report a shooting incident and get the coroner down here, anyway. Maybe someone will want to do… something about the ogre."

"Wait, we have someone to interrogate?" Ruby asked, looking pained and a little sick as she thought about the recent firefight. "I thought, um, I thought we killed them both."

"We did," Weiss agreed, heading back into the tent with Ruby on her heels. The two White Fang members were exactly as they had left them, lying dead on the floor of the tent with slowly spreading blood stains around them.

Weiss crouched next to the one that she had killed, removing his mask. Under it he looked like a normal person in his early twenties, someone she could pass on the street without realizing it. She had never really thought about the White Fang other than being a faceless horde of monsters trying to kill her family, and she couldn't help staring at him for a moment.

"What's wrong?" Ruby asked.

"He's just… normal," Weiss said. "It's silly, but… I always thought of the White Fang as monsters, but they don't look like it, do they?"

"They're terrorists, but they're still people," Ruby said, placing a careful hand on Weiss' shoulder.

Weiss enjoyed the warmth of the contact for a moment before clearing her throat and pulling off one of her gloves. She then leaned forward and touched his face, and immediately the body stirred. She pushed her aura into the fresh zombie, ordering it to be still before using the corpse as a conduit to seek out his soul. After a long moment the zombie's eyes opened, revealing a green glow as it sneered hatefully at her.

"Schnee… I'm going to kill you."

Weiss smirked slightly as she leaned back. "No, you won't."

After a moment the snarl on his face was replaced with confusion. "What happened… why can't I move..."

"You're dead," Weiss said bluntly. "I killed you, and now I've brought your soul back to answer my questions."

"I won't tell you anything," he snarled.

Weiss closed her eyes for a moment, concentrating on the soul that she had recalled. With a subtle twist of mana she began channeling more power from the afterlife, a chill spreading through her own body as she opened the door within her soul wider. Once she had enough power she focused it on the faunus' soul, binding it with mystical chains.

"I order you, shade, to tell the truth," Weiss intoned. "I order you, shade, to tell the whole truth. I order you, shade, to tell nothing but the truth. I order you, shade, to answer all questions put to you."

Weiss slowly relaxed, ceasing to channel quite as much necromantic energies. Even just that brief action had left her head spinning and her brow soaked with sweat. While necromancy allowed her to control the souls of the dead, it was very difficult, especially when the target struggled against her. Even worse, as a faunus the man had a strong aura of his own, which required much more mana to overcome than a normal human civilian.

Weiss opened her eyes and looked at the hatefully glaring zombie. "What is your name?"

"Nick Carmine," the zombie said.

"What was that all about?" Ruby asked.

"I do not know," Nick said.

Weiss looked up at her partner. "The dead don't lie, but… that doesn't mean they can't dissemble. Whenever I've done this in the past it was to ask the victims questions, and they wanted their killer to be found. I bound the soul so that it has to follow those commands I issued. I could… program it to do anything that I desired given enough time and effort."

"That… that doesn't seem okay," Ruby said.

"I agree," Weiss said. "I've never done this before, but in my research into my abilities I discovered I could do it. Anyway, I'd rather not force him to remain any longer than I have to."

"Okay," Ruby said, still frowning.

"Nick Carmine, how many were in your cell of the White Fang?"

"There were three of us."

"What were the names of the other two?" Weiss asked.

"Roy Gainsboro and Barney Amaranth."

"Who was the leader?" Ruby asked.

"Barney Amaranth," he said, turning his hateful gaze on Ruby for a moment.

"Which one of you was Barney?" Weiss asked.

"He escaped."

Ruby and Weiss exchanged a look before Weiss sighed. "Ugh. That's going to make this much harder."

"Why?" Ruby asked.

"He was the leader because he had been a member for longer," Nick said. "He survived as long as he did because he was a coward, and he proved that again today."

Weiss ignored the zombie's response to a question being asked in its presence. "The White Fang have a cell structure, where only the leader of the cell knows anything about other groups. We can ask both of them, but most likely they've never seen any other members without their masks on, and they probably don't even know any names besides some of the famous ones Intel already knows about."

"Maybe he knows where they were taking the dust," Ruby said, looking at Nick while he didn't say anything. "What is this, Jeopardy? Where were you taking the dust?"

"I don't know," Nick said, glaring smugly up at her. "We would take it to a different warehouse each week, and only Barney knew which one."

"What happened when you made a delivery?" Weiss asked.

"We would arrive at the warehouse, and Barney would unlock the door," Nick said angrily. "We would use dollies to move the crates of dust into the warehouse. It was always empty, with nothing in it and no one around. The warehouses looked abandoned. We'd drop off the crates, lock them again, and go home."

They tried several more questions, but they weren't able to get anything useful out of him. Eventually Weiss sighed. "Well, this is a waste. With the amount of effort my family and the police have put into finding the White Fang over the years it's not surprising that they're this cautious, but it still makes our job much more difficult."

"Nick, why did you join the White Fang?" Ruby asked.

"My father worked for the SDC," he said, glaring fiercely at Weiss. "He signed a five year contract when I was ten. He never came home."

"Mining is dangerous," Weiss said tightly.

"We didn't get anything besides a letter once a month," Nick growled. "My mother didn't let me read them, but when he went missing she ended up killing herself, and I found them after the funeral when I was packing to go live with my aunt. He hated his job. Hated everything about it. And he couldn't leave. The Schnees wouldn't let him"

"He signed a contract," Weiss said. "It was magically binding. Letting him go would've had unpleasant consequences for everyone involved, including both him and my family."

"Wait, your family uses magically binding work contracts?" Ruby objected, blinking as she remembered that being mentioned before. "How can that be legal?"

"It normally isn't," Weiss acknowledged, not looking at her partner as she spoke. "We received a special exemption because of necessity. It's dangerous even for faunus to stay in Faerie for prolonged periods, but our family has the ability to extend protections and aids to our employees, but in order for it to work fully the workers have to be magically bound to the family. That's why we use them."

"It means they can't ever quit, or break the rules!" Nick shouted. "They have to follow the contract no matter what, and that means they have to mine everyday. No vacations. No sick days. No rest. Mining all day, seven days a week, for five years. Living in tiny barracks shared by dozens of other miners, trapped in some freaky hellhole of another plane! And they can't even quit!"

Weiss finally glared at him. "My family does not hide any of this. The work contract itself states that the contract is magically binding."

"My father isn't a lawyer!" Nick shouted. "How was he supposed to know! The contract was almost as big as a book, in fine print, and all in legalese! All he knew was that he had to take care of his child, and that nowhere else was willing to pay a faunus enough to support a whole family!"

"What, are you blaming my family now for the state of the world?" Weiss demanded. "If we didn't offer jobs to faunus, do you think things would be better for your people? Would his life have been better if he'd starved in the streets? Turned to crime like you did? We offer jobs that pay a fair rate, and we let the workers live for free at our mines. The people that work hard and do their jobs for the five year contract walk away with swollen bank accounts! It's unfortunate that your father died, but our accident rate isn't any higher than deep mining operations on this plane."

"You make me sick," Nick growled. "One day the White Fang will kill every last Schnee, and we'll all dance on your graves."

"You won't," Weiss snarled, releasing his soul and stopping the animation of his corpse. He slumped limply, eyes going dark again.

All was quiet for a long time as Weiss regained control of her temper before finally moving over to the other body. "Weiss?" Ruby tried tentatively.

"I just need to verify that the other one doesn't know anything," Weiss said sharply.

"O-oh, okay," Ruby said quietly.

Weiss didn't look at her partner the entire time she interrogated Roy Gainsboro, and in the end she didn't learn anything else useful. If anything, Roy was less observant than his partner, and knew even less about the White Fang. Finally she released him as well, and she sent a quick text message to Klein to inform the people dropping off her payment to the slug man to express her family's displeasure about the way she was given her information while Ruby called the police about what had happened.

There was a long period of silence when Ruby finished her call, until finally she broke it. "Um, Weiss?"

"Yes, Ruby?"

"Are you… are you okay?"

Weiss finally looked over at her girlfriend, and a surge of relief filled her as she realized that she was actually concerned for her. Weiss sighed and nodded. "Yes… are you… are you okay… with all of that?"

"All of what?" Ruby asked.

Weiss gestured vaguely. "The- the contracts, and my family, and… and the necromancy."

Ruby stepped closer, and Weiss had to resist the urge to take a step back. She slowly reached out her hands, taking both of Weiss' re-gloved ones, before giving them a firm squeeze. "Of course, Weiss. I've always been okay with you doing necromancy. Don't even think for a second that it bothers me, okay?"

Weiss felt herself relaxing. She hadn't done very much necromancy in front of her partner since they had started dating, and she had been worried that it would bother her. She smiled, feeling a little silly, before she realized what Ruby hadn't said. "And… my family?"

Ruby was quiet for a while. "I don't like the stuff about the contracts. But… I don't know enough about it to really say. And… and even if I think your family isn't doing the right thing, you aren't your family."

Weiss thought about that for a moment before sighing. "Okay."

It didn't take much longer of the police to arrive and take control of the crime scene. Many of them were obviously nervous at the supernatural nature of the Traveling Market, and the people of the Market were upset at the police presence. Within the first half hour the area was completely cleared out, although it took another two hours before Weiss and Ruby could go home.

The next morning Weiss and Ruby spent several more hours filling out paperwork and answering questions about what had happened. Supernatural Affairs had looser use of force regulations than any normal department, but killing several people, even White Fang terrorists, required a thorough investigation. It was a relief to finally return to their desks, but only a few minutes later the phone began to ring.

"Hello?" Weiss asked. After a moment of listening she nodded. "Alright. Thank you, captain."

"Goodwitch wants to see us?" Ruby asked.

"Yes," Weiss sighed, standing and leading the way to the captain's office. This time she was ready for them, and they walked in, taking seats in front of her desk.

"The two of you have been busy," Goodwitch said neutrally. "Have you found anything about the dust?"

It took a while, but over the course of an hour they explained what they had found to the captain, who stayed silent except for the occasional probing question. Eventually they finished telling her everything, and Goodwitch took a few minutes to process before speaking. "So the White Fang have moved hundreds of crates of dust through the Traveling Market. What's your next move?"

"We've interrupted the shipments, but they'll just start up again," Weiss said. "Unless we want to do something about the Traveling Market we have to shutdown the other side, not just put a halt to it here."

Goodwitch nodded thoughtfully. "As a Schnee… do you have a safe way to investigate the Green Hill Mine, or anywhere else that might be involved in shipping the dust from Faerie?"

"I visited the original Schnee Mine as a child, and I know how to deal with Faerie. As long as the trip is short I should be safe."

"We," Ruby said.

"What?"

"We need to be safe," Ruby said, her face set stubbornly. "I'm not letting you go without me."

"It's dangerous," Weiss said. "You've never been to another plane, and Faerie is quite hostile to non-native life."

"I don't care," Ruby said.

"Would her presence endanger you?" Goodwitch asked.

"No," Weiss said after a long moment.

"Can you keep her reasonably safe?"

Weiss looked back at Ruby, who now had a pleading expression on her face. While she wanted to say no, she found it difficult to lie while her girlfriend was looking at her that way. "It's dangerous, but… not much more so than I'll be in… if she listens to my warnings."

"Then you should take her along," Goodwitch said decisively. "Just a moment..."

Goodwitch placed a quick phone call while Ruby leaned over to talk quietly to Weiss. "Thanks."

"Don't think me," Weiss grumbled. "It's really going to be dangerous… I didn't want to risk you like this."

"I know," Ruby said, taking her hand. "But I didn't want you going there, either, you know?"

Weiss sighed. "You need to listen to me. There are so many things that can go wrong, so you can't just be impulsive while we're there."

"Ladies," Goodwitch said, clearing her throat. Weiss and Ruby quickly dropped hands, blushing brightly as Yang and Blake entered the office.

"Hey, Rubles," Yang said. "Ice queen."

"Sis, Blake!" Ruby said brightly, smiling at them. "What are you here for?"

"I'm splitting your case," Goodwitch said. "Weiss, Ruby, you two will be going to Faerie to find the source of the dust shipments. You have great latitude when dealing with interplanar cases, as you are outside all human jurisdiction, and it will be almost impossible to transport prisoners to face justice. Still, I expect you to behave in a manner befitting the trust given to officers of the law."

"Understood," Weiss said.

"Wait, you're sending them to Faerie?!" Yang objected. "Alone? That place is dangerous!"

"Why aren't you sending us along?" Blake asked. "Or instead? I'm a faunus."

"Have you ever been to Faerie before?" Weiss asked. She'd never thought about the faunus' history, but from her hatred of the SDC, it was entirely possible that she or her family had worked for the company, although she was young to have been a miner.

"No," Blake admitted. "I know it's more dangerous for humans to go there, though."

"Ms. Schnee has experience with Faerie, and her SDC connections will be useful for finding the source of the illegal dust," Goodwitch explained. "The two of you have a different task. The group responsible for smuggling the dust is the White Fang, and they have acquired a vast stockpile already. I need the two of you to find out what you can."

"The White Fang?" Blake repeated, paling slightly.

Yang took a step closer to her partner protectively. "Are you sure that's a good idea? The White Fang… I know Uncle Qrow's looked into them, but hasn't found many leads."

Goodwitch nodded. "It's something of a long shot, but we have one advantage now. No matter how careful the cell structure, or how sneaky they think they're being, even the White Fang can't hide hundreds of crates of dust without some evidence of where it went. This is our highest priority, as even the White Fang wouldn't acquire that much dust without plans to use it."

"That's a lot of dust," Yang whistled. "You could… I don't even know what you could use that much for."

"It's significantly less than was used to make the Great Barrier, but is more than enough to disrupt it locally," Weiss offered. "They could also move an army though interplanar portals, which would circumvent almost any defense… or let them seize the SDC's dust mines in Faerie. Or they could make an army's worth of minor magical items or weapons. Or create a truly devastating magical explosive, or summon-"

"Okay, okay, I get the idea!" Yang interrupted. "Yeesh. Guess this isn't a case we can let sit around collecting dust."

Weiss slapped her hand to her forehead, and Goodwitch just ignored the blonde. "This will be a long term assignment for the two of you. Hopefully Ms. Schnee and Ms. Rose can cut off the flow of dust into the White Fang's hands, but we still need to put a stop to whatever they have planned with what they've already stolen. I hope I don't need to remind you to be cautious; this case is extremely dangerous."

"Hey, Careful is my middle name," Yang said. "No sweat. Come on, kitty cat, we've got some bad guys to beat up."