A Brief Rooftop Interrogation
"Pyrrha," Sunset said. "I'm going to need the keys to the team garage back. For tonight at least. I'll give them back later…until I need them again."
Pyrrha looked up from the history book she was reading. "Of course, but why?"
"Because I need to take my bike out tonight," Sunset said, as she pulled her helmet out from under the bed and put it down on the mattress next to her jacket.
"Where?"
"I'm not sure yet."
"What time will you be back?"
Sunset smirked. "I'm not sure, Mom."
Pyrrha flushed a little. "I'm sorry, but…it is a little sudden, don't you agree?"
"Maybe," Sunset said. "But some things come on you suddenly."
Pyrrha put her book down on the desk and got up. "Is something going on?"
"A lot of things, I imagine."
"Sunset," Pyrrha said, wielding her name as an admonition.
"Sorry," Sunset said. "Look, I can't talk about this, okay. You're going to have to trust me."
"I see." Pyrrha threw her the garage keys. Sunset caught them in one hand and put them in her pocket.
"Thanks."
"Will you be back before curfew, at least?"
"Probably not," Sunset said. She grinned. "Don't wait up, okay?"
Pyrrha shook her head. "Are you leaving right now?"
Sunset checked the time. She still had thirty minutes before the time that she and Blake had agreed upon. "I don't have to go right away."
Pyrrha was silent for a moment. "Before Ruby gets back I'd like to talk to you about her silver eyes."
Sunset nodded. "I wondered which one of us was going to say something first. You don't want me to try and teach her how to use them, do you?"
"It's nothing personal about your tuition," Pyrrha said. "I'm not sure that she needs to learn how to use this…this magic at all."
"Isn't that her choice?"
"Aren't we allowed to care about our friend?" Pyrrha countered. "I don't see the need for her to go through this."
"Just because we don't see the need now doesn't mean that there isn't one," Sunset said. "It just means that we haven't seen it yet. And besides, you talk about her going through this…who says there's anything to go through? I'm not going to kill her to try and shake magic out of her; if it hurts her to try and do it then we'll stop." Frankly, Sunset was a little hurt that Pyrrha thought – or might think – otherwise. She was a lot of things, and she worked hard and she'd expect Ruby to do the same, but there was a difference between working hard and breaking yourself – or someone else. She wasn't going to do that to Ruby and she'd thought that Pyrrha would know that by now.
"I'm not talking about physical damage, I know that you wouldn't hurt Ruby that way," Pyrrha said. "I'm talking about…I don't think Ruby understands – or you, for that matter – what her life will be like if she starts using…magic. What people will think of her, how the world will see her."
Sunset frowned. "And how do you think the world will see her?"
"As a silver-eyed warrior you know as well as I do that she'll have no chance of a normal life."
"You're assuming that Ruby wants a normal life," Sunset said. "I'm not sure she does."
"Ruby wants to save people," Pyrrha said. "But I don't think she wants the circus of fame and glory that goes with it."
Sunset was silent for a moment. Then she snorted.
"What?" Pyrrha asked.
"I was wondering…is there any chance that we're both projecting ourselves onto Ruby a little bit?" Sunset asked. "Or projecting each other, maybe. I say that she doesn't want a normal life, you say that she doesn't want fame and glory. All we're really saying that is that she's not Pyrrha Nikos and she isn't Sunset Shimmer either."
Pyrrha looked briefly mortified, before she covered her mouth with one hand and let out a tiny giggle. "I suppose you're right. I am thinking a little too much of myself."
"I get it," Sunset said. "And, sure, I'd be lying if I said that the idea of this power, of obtaining it, of unlocking this magic within Ruby, didn't excite me. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't think this magic could be a good thing for us as a team. But if Ruby didn't want to do this I wouldn't force her to."
Pyrrha nodded. "I suppose that I'll have to be satisfied with that. I just…I don't want her to end up like me."
Sunset said, "I get it. But, honestly, she could do a lot worse."
"Really?"
"Sure. She could end up like me." Sunset grinned. "Anyway, I'll have to go in a minute: what do you think?"
"About what?"
Sunset's face fell. "My new gear!"
Sunset had a cuirass strapped across her chest, mostly plain grey metal but with a small image of her cutie mark set in the centre, roughly where it sat on the shirt she was wearing underneath. A pair of plain round paudrons protected her shoulders, while she had cowters wrapped around her elbows and a pair of metal vambraces – infused with fire dust - wrapped around her forearms.
She had a red sash wrapped around her waist, just above her overskirt; Jaune had taken to doing the same. They weren't copying Pyrrha, but…okay, they were copying Pyrrha a little bit but it looked good
"Oh, you mean your armour."
"Not as fancy as yours, I admit," Sunset said. "But I like it anyway. And that's not all." She picked up her new coat from up off the bed and pulled it on. "I had my jacket infused with fire dust as well."
"And you're taking your weapons, I suppose."
"Yeah," Sunset said. "So?"
"You're going out into the night with no idea of when you'll be back, armed and ready for a fight, and you don't expect me to be concerned?" Pyrrha asked. "What's wrong, Sunset?"
"Nothing's wrong," Sunset said.
"Then why can't you tell me where you're going?"
"Because this isn't my secret to tell," Sunset replied. "I'm helping out a friend and they don't want this spread around. You wouldn't want me to break a promise, would you?"
"Of course not, but…" Pyrrha hesitated. "Stay safe, won't you?"
"Of course," Sunset said. "I promise, you haven't a thing to worry about."
She strapped on her sword, slung Sol Invictus over her shoulders, and grabbed her motorbike helmet before she left the dorm. Thankfully Professor Goodwitch didn't see her – or any other professor for that matter – as she made her way through the corridors out into the courtyard, and from there down towards the garage. Though it was almost seven thirty, the sun was still up – although it was starting to set – and the sky was still mostly blue. Nevertheless, with curfew fast approaching, there was no one around as Sunset got her bike out of the team SAPR garage.
"Okay," Sunset said, as she listened to that engine purr beneath her. "Let's go for a ride."
Blake – who had changed out of her usual outfit into a white jacket - was where they had agreed to meet, at the edge of the courtyard where the rows of arches marked the edge of the school grounds. She looked a little surprised as she wandered over. "What's that?"
Sunset pushed up the smoky visor on her helmet so that she could see Blake a little better. "Did you think that we were just going to walk into Vale?"
Blake didn't answer that. "I snuck out. The rest of my team don't know where I've gone. Do you think…do you think they'll worry?"
"Probably," Sunset said. "Pyrrha wasn't happy about this either."
"And Ruby? Jaune?"
"I didn't tell them," Sunset said. "But what can we say, really? We can't tell them we're going to take on the White Fang. What's the plan for that, by the way?"
"The White Fang holds regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members," Blake said. "I thought we'd slip into one and see what we could find out."
"Okay," Sunset said.
Blake folded her arms. "What's the problem?"
"I didn't say there was a problem."
"Yes, you did."
Sunset pulled off her helmet for a moment so that Blake could get a better look at her face. "Listen, I love the new outfit, but the White Fang know me and they certainly know you. What if we get made?"
"Can't you just teleport us out or something?"
"I need to be able to see where I'm going."
"Oh. I still think this is our best chance of finding out what's going on."
Sunset was a little more sceptical of that; even if they could sneak into a White Fang chapter meeting then how where they supposed to inconspicuously ask about a guy who'd been murdered recently? "Listen, these regular meetings, how do people find out where they are? The new recruits especially?"
"Markings, hard to spot unless you know what you're looking for," Blake said. "They'll show you where to go, and there are agents there to make sure that any 'new recruits' are legitimately that, not undercover cops."
"Makes sense," Sunset said. "So there are people outside the location?"
"Sure. Why?"
"I've got an idea," Sunset said. "Hop on and I'll tell you about it on the way. Do you have something to cover your face?"
Blake reached behind her, and pulled out a White Fang mask decorated with swirling red markings around the eye-slits. "I never thought I'd have to wear this again," she murmured. She glanced at Sunset. "So, what do you have in mind?"
"Who killed Tukson?" Sunset demanded. She had her motorbike helmet on, visor down, to hide her face, and she'd cast a spell on herself to alter her voice: she sounded disconcertingly husky, even to herself.
The White Fang agent whom they'd waited until it got dark for, jumped in an alleyway, grabbed, and dragged up a fire escape so that they could dangle him off the top of a building squirmed and writhed in the grip of Sunset's telekinesis as she held him suspended out over the street below. He was an older man, with distinguished grey hair and a full beard, dressed in a smart jacket, waistcoat, shirt and tie. He reminded Sunset of a professor, the sort of person who ought to have spent his life immersed in mouldy old tomes at a seat of learning not been lurking down a dark alley to welcome new recruits to a terrorist movement.
She couldn't tell what kind of faunus he was. He was hiding his animal traits; maybe he had to in order to get by in whatever he did when the sun was up; maybe that was why he was a part of the White Fang.
"I…I don't know who that is," he gasped. "Please, please, you can't let me fall."
"Don't worry," Sunset said. "From this height the fall probably wouldn't even break your aura."
"I don't have aura!"
"Oh," Sunset said. "Guess the fall will break both your legs at least, then."
"Please, no!"
"Then talk!" Sunset snapped. "Tell me something interesting and I'll let you go."
"I have never heard that name in my life, I swear!"
"Then how about Forever Fall train robberies, do you know anything about that?" Sunset asked.
"I've never been to Forever Fall! I've never been outside the Kingdom in all my years!"
"You must know something," Blake said, her voice issuing out from behind her White Fang mask. "Why is the White Fang working with Roman Torchwick?"
"I don't know," he moaned. "Believe me, a lot of us weren't happy when he showed up, but Adam said that it was important that we work with him. You…you're one of us, or you were…you remember Adam, don't you? You know that nobody disagrees once Adam has spoken."
"Yes," Blake growled. "I remember that."
"So Adam just told you to obey Roman Torchwick and that's it?" Sunset demanded. "No questions asked."
The scholarly-looking White Fang agent shook his head. "You don't know Adam, do you?"
I know him well enough, Sunset thought.
"What does Torchwick want with the White Fang?" Blake asked. "What does he have you doing?"
"Don't you watch the news, we're robbing dust shops."
"What about the train heists?"
"I don't know anything about that. Field operations outside the city are completely separate. Adam's the only man who knows everything that goes on in the kingdom."
"Is that all you know? Do you expect us to believe that you're really that clueless? Perhaps I'm wasting my time holding you here?" Sunset hesitated. "Or perhaps you think this is all a bluff? Perhaps you think we're too nice to actually go through with it."
The White Fang agent said nothing. He just stared at Sunset with his eyes wide.
So Sunset dropped him.
She caught him again after he fell about ten feet towards the ground, screaming as he went, but hopefully that was enough to get the point across.
It would have to, since Sunset wasn't actually about to drop someone to fall to their death from the roof of a tall building.
She wasn't a complete monster, after all.
She just had to convince this guy that she was.
She glanced at Blake, but the latter didn't object and if she had any reservations they were hidden by the mask covering her face.
"Have I made my point?" Sunset asked.
He nodded frantically. "Yes. Crystal clear I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I…I don't know this man Tukson, but I do know that after the kidnap of the Schnee girl turned into a fiasco Adam started cleaning house in the Vale chapter. People died."
"Deserters," Blake said.
"Not just deserters, anyone suspected of disloyalty to the cause," the man said. "Only…look, you have to understand, this is mostly rumour-"
"We'll take it anyway," Sunset said.
"They say…they say it often wasn't Adam doing the killings, or even hunting down the traitors. It was three humans, given free rein and Adam's authority to do as they pleased."
"Torchwick?" Blake demanded. "Who else?"
He shook his head. "No. Not Torchwick. Three others. Y-you think Torchwick is pulling the strings on this? He isn't. There's someone else, someone much bigger than him, standing in the shadows."
"Who?" Blake asked.
"I don't know! Nobody knows but Torchwick, Adam and their running dogs."
"Someone else must know," Blake said. "What about Walter, or Perry?"
"Walter's rotting in a prison cell, and Perry only knows what Adam tells him."
Sunset growled. Torchwick, Adam, or a group of people that only they know – if they even exist and this guy isn't just stringing us along.
"What are you doing with the dust?" Sunset asked. "What are you doing with the weapons? You must know what happens to the goods you rob?"
"I know there's a base outside the city, to the south-east. Most of the new recruits get sent there, the dust too. I don't know why or what's out there or what they need all of the dust for and I don't know anything about weapons. Please, please, I've told you everything. Absolutely everything I know. You have pull me in now. Please, you can't just let me fall."
Sunset turned her head towards Blake. "What do you think?"
"There are no camps to the south-east, he's lying," Blake growled.
"It's a new base!" he squealed desperately. "You…it must have been set up after you left. Very new. I swear on my mother's grave I'm telling the truth."
Blake was still for a moment, and silent, before she nodded tersely. "He's told us everything he knows."
Sunset reeled the guy in, until he was safely on the roof with them.
"Thank you," he gasped as he collapsed onto his knees. "Thank you, I-"
Sunset knocked him out with a single punch and let him fall down at her feet. She reversed the spell on her voice and coughed at the strain on her vocal cords before she took off her helmet. "We might not have got much out of him but I'm glad it ended when it did."
"That's a neat trick," Blake said, as she removed her mask. "Could you teach me to do that?"
"I'd have to charge you up front," Sunset muttered. "Are you sure he told us all he knew?"
"I can't be sure," Blake said softly. "But operations are segregated precisely so that no one can reveal too much information. What he said made sense…mostly."
"Mostly?"
"He still couldn't explain why the White Fang would be working for a human."
"Assuming Roman Torchwick isn't working for a faunus," Sunset said. "We don't know anything about this mysterious person behind him."
"A faunus wouldn't need to hide behind a human in order to work with the White Fang," Blake said. She turned away and walked towards the edge of the building, looking up at the shattered moon shining above them. "What have you done, Adam? Why are you doing this? Why have you forsaken everything we stood for?"
"Sounds almost as though you're going to have to ask him that yourself," Sunset said. "Killers with free rein, Roman Torchwick has a master, and there's a new White Fang base in the south-east. Is that what you were hoping to find out?"
"I was hoping for the name of Tukson's killer," Blake said.
Sunset thrust her hands into her pockets. "What we got tonight isn't nothing."
"No," Blake agreed, looking pensively up at the moon. "But it's not what I was hoping for."
Sunset nodded. "So, what do you want to do now?"
