A.N. (9/4/20) - Sorry for the late update. Short chapter today, and an important message at the bottom.
Chapter 20 - Outcome
-10 Months Before the Fall of Beacon-
"She's still asleep?" Roman asked.
Neo pondered for a moment, tapping a finger to her chin, before nudging the red-clad female near her feet with her foot. Well, more like a kick than a nudge, but either way the woman didn't stir. She shrugged back at him.
"Fair enough," Roman said as he collapsed on a comfy chair.
Currently, the three of them (and a hidden Ana on the behest of Rin) were hiding it out in one of Roman's safehouses. It was a small apartment in a neighborhood that wasn't as populated as the rest of the city. The apartment building belonged to Roman under a false name, and the other tenants were all people he carefully had screened.
Of course, in a city like Vale, it was ridiculously expensive to own such a large amount of living spaces. Roman didn't really get the exact details, but the guys working for him made sure to keep things up to date and out of the police's radar.
Luckily, the woman remained unconscious for the whole time they brought her here. Roman idly watched as Neo got a marker and started to draw on Cinder's face.
"Do you really think that's a good idea?"
Neo rolled her eyes at him and continued to work on the tiny rectangular mustache she was drawing above Cinder's lips.
"Right, forgot who I was talking to for a moment."
To be fair, it was amusing watching this supposedly scary powerful woman getting pranked on by Neo. Rin had warned him multiple times to watch out for this woman ever since the two of them met. The way Rin talked about her, Roman was expecting some fire demoness witch who'd burn down anything in her path without caring for the consequences.
He was kinda having trouble remembering her worries as he watched Neo drawing turd doodles on Cinder's cheeks.
"How long is she gonna stay unconscious anyways," he questioned out loud. After all, if the fire bitch was gonna wake up anytime soon, he didn't want to be in her crosshairs when she did. Come to think of it, it would probably be a good idea to restrain her right now while she's unconscious.
"Neo, can you check to see if we have any rope around?" After all, there should be some emergency tools slash supplies in case he ever needed them.
The mute eventually came back with several pairs of handcuffs and two rolls of duck tape but shook her head when asked if she found any rope.
"Hm, it's not great but I can probably work with this. Luckily the handcuffs are made to deal with Aura-enhanced individuals."
The two of them picked up Cinder's limp body and threw her onto the bed. Roman snapped the cuffs on each of Cinder's limb and connected each cuff to the metal frame of the bed.
"Hey Neo, catch." Roman threw one of the rolls of duck tape to her and the two got to work. Peeling the first tape off, the two quickly covered the red villainess and wrapped her torso and limbs to the bed.
The two stared at their work.
"...you know, now that I'm looking at it all at once."
Cinder's body must have moved while they were manhandling her because she wasn't lying perfectly straight and was in a crooked position. One side of her dress was rolling up slightly, showing a lot more thigh to Roman than he was comfortable with. The limbs were bound to the bed with vasts amounts of tape and handcuffs, but Roman was suddenly aware that it looked like something out of a Mistrillian underground porn flick.
"This... is a bit much. I'm not averse to this kind of play, but I'm kinda going for the 'roughish gentleman' persona, not creepy perverted kidnapping middle-age man."
Neo made a couple of gestures at him, agreeing with his words.
"That, and Rin would kill me if she saw me in this situation," Roman leaned in close to see if he could somehow cover her up with the bedsheets to hide her appearance. Even if it looked sexual, as long as he covered it up it'd probably be okay.
A snap and a flash warned him that something was wrong, and he turned to see a grinning Neo holding up her Scroll. Judging by how compromising he looked with his body leaning over the bound woman, Roman knew that this was only going to end in trouble.
"Neo, no!"
The shit-eating grin on her face told Roman what she thought about his warning.
"I will get rid of literally all the ice cream in the city if you don't delete that picture," he warned her.
She pouted and made a few rude gestures with her free hand.
"No, Rin won't find it funny if she sees that. In fact, she'll kill me if she even takes a look at it."
Her blank eyes expressed how little she cared for the thought.
"Which admittingly doesn't really mean much to you, but come on. I thought we were partners! You and me, ruling the city together."
She waved one of her hands in dismissal and then made a few lewd gestures with both her hands, one particular one being two fingers in the shape of scissors pressing against each other repeatedly.
"You're saying you'd rather get into bed with Rin?" he asked incredulously.
She nodded cheerfully at that.
Roman was still confused. "Wait, like as in you'd rather get rid of me and switch sides, or that you'd rather seduce her?"
She stared at him slowly, before giving him a single nod.
Roman palmed his face. "Right, stupid question." He started to massage his head as he tried to think of something else to convince her. "Alright, what will it take for you to delete that photo?"
Neo smiled, and not the cute smile she usually faked, but the one that usually graced her face when Roman sent her on the messier kind of jobs. Swiping something on the screen, Neo turned the Scroll into his direction to let him see what was on it.
Roman winced. "Really? You want a vacation now of all times?!"
A happy nod was her answer.
"You know, Rin isn't gonna be happy once she finds out."
Neo smiled evilly.
}-{
"I'm really sorry for all of this," Rin bent her body forward into a deep bow, causing the man in front of her to look slightly flustered.
The damages around them weren't exactly small. Rin and Qrow didn't really care for their surroundings when they went at it against each other. Plus, even though the damage wasn't as bad as the one caused by the two, the various other damages caused by the scuffle with capturing the White Fang part made it so that it wasn't exactly looking great for the night club. It was almost a certainty that they would have to close their normal business for the day.
Junior coughed in his hand before speaking. "Er, don't worry about it. I can't exactly blame you for this."
"Send an invoice to my email anyways. I'm sure Beacon will be willing to cover the costs once I have a word with them." Rin jerked her head to where Qrow was listening. "Either that or Qrow can cover the damage costs out of pocket."
After all, wasn't he the one to provoke the White Fang presence in the first place?
Qrow looked taken aback by that. "Wait, wha—?"
"Did I say you could talk?" Rin leveled a powerful glare towards the older man.
"Shutting up now."
Rin glowered at him for another moment before turning back to Junior. "What are you gonna do with the White Fang grunts you've captured?"
"Meh, I'll just call the cops on them. Throw them in jail."
Qrow gave Junior a strange look when he said that. The idea of the local gang leader calling the police to clean up after them did seem a bit unorthodox. Rin didn't bother informing Qrow that Junior probably had a few guys in the local force specifically there to gather information or nudge things in their favor.
Rin continued to fiddle with her wig as she talked. "Qrow and I will make sure that their leader won't trouble you anymore. It might not solve the White Fang side of the equation, so watch out for the next few days."
Junior shrugged. "I doubt they'll be back to cause trouble so soon."
"I'll talk to Tukson and see what he can do. Either way, you have my number."
Rin and Qrow soon left the building, with Rin in her complete male disguise minus the hat and sunglasses. Hm, this actually felt nice to Rin. Maybe she should dress like this more often.
"So... when were you gonna tell me that you were secretly moonlighting as the boss of the local gang?"
It took Rin a moment to process what he said.
"What? Me, the boss?" Rin scoffed at that. "Please, I'm not the boss."
Qrow gave her a look. "Pretty sure Junior was just taking orders from you just now. And Roman Torchwick, if I'm remembering right."
"Well, yeah. But that doesn't make me the boss. They just listen to me cause I take care of their injuries once in a while." After all, all she does is heal their injuries to practice her Healing Magecraft. Sure, she's not exactly a normal associate of theirs. And maybe she has a higher standing in their organization with all the goons who follow her orders. Even Roman and Junior listen to her once in a while...
Qrow saw the look of realization on Rin's face and laughed out loud. "Face it, kid. You're the boss of a gang."
"W-Wha, but how?!"
"Don't ask me. I've never exactly taken over a criminal organization before." He continued to chuckle. "Taken out a couple, sure. But unlike my dear sister, I never ruled over one."
Rin tried to recall when exactly her change in standing started but found it difficult to recall. Throwing her hands in the air, she exclaimed, "I didn't even try to! I just wanted to make sure that Cinder didn't take over the underworld."
"By taking it over first?"
"Qrow!"
"Heh, you're even dressed like a mob boss." Qrow took a look at Rin's appearance again, still dressed as a male. "Speaking of which, nice work going there. Totally didn't figure out who you were until you blabbed."
"Thanks. I didn't want Cinder to know what I looked like yet, so I improvised. Speaking of which, we need to decide what to do with her."
Qrow's mood quickly changed from light-hearted to serious. "We'll have to take her to Oz."
"Agreed. I'm sure Dumbledore can call Ironwood over later to help secure Cinder, if not with an entire fleet of airships from Atlas. Still, there's always the possibility that she can escape. Either on her own or by one of her underlings."
"True. Think you got any crazy magic that can solve that?"
Rin took a moment to think. There was one thing she could use, maybe a bit different from what she remembered. "I think so."
"Good. Until Ozpin comes back from his little trip, we might need you to use that till he's back."
"Speaking of which, why is Ozpin in Mistral anyways? I thought the Lionheart case was taken care of already."
He shrugged at that. "Dunno. I just came back from Atlas, and I wasn't exactly keeping up with the local news. It's why I came to Junior's in the first place."
"Atlas?" Rin questioned.
"Oz said to drop off Amber with old Ironwood to keep her safe. The guy was happy to take her in, even if Amber herself didn't take to the idea."
"Is it safe for two Maidens to be near each other?"
Qrow wiggled his hand side to side. "Ehhh~ kinda. On one hand, you're putting all your eggs in the same basket. On the other hand, what kind of attack can take out two Maidens working together?"
"Working together? Isn't one of them an old lady?"
"You do know that I don't actually know who the Maiden at Atlas is, right?" He paused for a second as a thought passed his mind. "How old are we talking here."
Rin scoffed. "Not one in your strike zone."
The Maiden is safe in Atlas, the White Fang's plan to hire Vale criminals was foiled, and Cinder was captured. All in all, the entire day was great.
The two continued to walk back to Beacon in silence until Rin broke it.
"...you know I was holding back when we fought, right?"
"I know." Qrow was smiling as he said that.
Rin pouted. "I'm serious. If I used my Jewelcraft, I would've destroyed you."
"I know," he said in that same placating tone from before.
"Good."
Short chapter and released outside normal post times. Hope you enjoyed anyways.
Okay first off, I'd like to apologize for releasing this so late. I could make an excuse and say that it was due to the large amount of homework I've recently got. But after procrastinating from Monday to Thursday, that reason doesn't really pan out.
I got the worst case of procrastination ever since I started writing this chapter. I just didn't want to write, and it took me a while to find something I felt was good enough to put effort into writing. And even then, I only managed to write a short chapter that I completed in parts over a couple of days, unlike my usual modius of completing it in one go under a few hours.
Sure, the homework was a big part of why it took so long. I don't know how many of you know this already, but school just started a while ago for me.
I'll give you a few hints about my private life (*gasp* *shock*) and state that I'm getting into my Junior year in college, taking on the appropriate classes to complete my degree. That means I'm not gonna be spending much time writing anymore.
I know that this is usually the point where a lot of fanfic writers drop out of the community entirely (at least, based on what I know) so this piece of news may worry a few of you. And I can't deny that I might have to switch my concentration from writing to my schooling. Still, if it ever comes to the point where I have to focus entirely on school, I'll make an honest attempt to inform everyone if I plan to stop writing altogether.
But now that I've scared a few of you with that piece of bad news, here's another bit of slightly-less bad news. With the amount of work I'm piling up, I'm gonna be switching from a weekly schedule to a bi-weekly schedule. I already stated that this was a possibility, so hopefully, this isn't that much of a disappointment to some of you.
(Plan: Inform readers with worst news followed by slightly-better-but-still-bad news - Check)
This decision came about due to various reasons, one being that I'm gonna be busy next weekend and unable to write (since I usually only have a general plan and only write the majority of the chapter content the day before I post something). So yeah, the next chapter will be posted probably on September 13th if things go as planned. If not, I'll try to post any changes on my Profile page otherwise.