Disclaimer, I do not own RWBY

Chapter 2: The heist

"W-Weiss! Y-you tra…itorous… bitch! Y-you'll p-pah… forh… thesh…"

Weiss snapped awake and shot up in her bed, panting hard. Clutching her sheets tightly and soaked in cold sweat, her heart was pounding so fast she felt it was going to burst out of her chest any moment now.

"W-wha? O-oh… just a dream… just, a dream." Weiss closed her eyes and gulped down several mouthfuls of air, repeating the words over and over as a mantra to calm herself down.

Rubbing her tired eyes, she glanced at the digital clock next to her and sighed. "4.30 AM, hnnrgh… so much for sleep."

Stumbling out of bed, Weiss groggily made her way to the bathroom. Leaving the tap to run, she splashed herself with icy water and stared at her own reflection. Dark rings circled her eyes and her exhaustion showed on her gaunt face. She looked like shit and felt the part.

"Come on Weiss, you can do this. Just a bad dream, just a bad dream…" Weiss shuddered and exhaled, feeling a chill go right down to her bones. Glancing back towards her darkened bedroom, Weiss shook her head and shut off the tap.

Returning to her bed, she sat on it and hugged herself tight. Once more, the Schnee mansion felt like a prison rather than a home, cold and devoid of happiness, just a bottomless pit of misery. So much had changed since she left for Beacon years ago, but so much had stayed the same too.

Collapsing onto her side, Weiss grabbed the covers and pulled them over her head. Curling into a ball, she screwed her eyes shut and tried to fall asleep again, duty and responsibility wouldn't give her a break no matter what inner demons haunted her and weakness was something she could not afford to show.

"Everything's going to be okay, everything's going to be okay…" Resisting the urge to start crying, Weiss muttered the words over and over until she finally drifted off to an uneasy sleep.

(Break)

The rough start to her morning proved prophetic on how the rest of the day would go it seemed. A stakeholder meeting to hash out the SDC's path forwards had become bogged down again and devolved into arguments and angry shouting matches.

Everyone had 'pressing concerns' that needed addressing immediately, but no one was willing to compromise and work towards a solution that benefited everyone. Even as head of the SDC, there was only so much she could do to brute force the situation.

The fact that most of the execs had a better life under her father did nothing to endear her to them. And motivation to work with her was probably lower than it had ever been.

By the time the meeting ended and she made it back home, Weiss's minor headache had grown into a massive migraine. "Ugh, I've seen mountains less stubborn than these people. I should just fire everyone."

Fixing herself a cup of coffee from the pantry's coffee machine, the slow dispensing rate annoyed her to no end and she had the brief urge to smash the thing to pieces. The aggression vanished as quickly as it came, leaving her feeling drained.

It was too much for one person to handle and she could feel herself fraying at the edges.

"I'm not paid enough to deal with this." She grumbled.

"You could always just pay yourself more you know." A voice spoke up from behind her. Weiss's eyes widened and she spun around immediately, her spirits already starting to lift.

"Yang!" A face splitting grin filled her face when she spotted Yang and Blake standing in the doorway.

"Sup." Yang offered a cheeky smile and a wave before nearly being knocked off her feet by Weiss tackle hugging her.

"Oof! Heh, it's good to see you too Weiss-Cream."

"I've missed you all so much!" Weiss let go of Yang before wrapping Blake in a hug next.

"Klein let us in, and sorry, we got a little side-tracked on our way over, otherwise we'd have been here sooner." Blake apologised.

"No, no, it's fine, you're here now and that's all that matters. Ruby… isn't with you?" Weiss looked about unable to find her anywhere.

"She's running late, something about buying a cake first. Since we heard your old cake butler retired." Blake said.

"Oh Ruby, you didn't have to." Weiss sighed and smiled, feeling touched by the gesture. Her old cake Butler Walter had finally retired due to his old age, and thanks to her work she herself hadn't much time or energy to grab herself the dessert in a long time.

"Oh, let her have her fun, once she gets here Team RWBY will be back together again! That's definitely worth celebrating with a cake!" Yang's enthusiasm was infectious and Weiss felt some of her worries bleeding away.

"Hang on, Weiss, are you alright? Have you been sleeping well?" Blake frowned and took a closer look at Weiss's face, seeing the dark rings beneath her thick makeup.

"You don't look so good."

"I… no. Not really." Weiss sighed heavily.

"Bad dreams?" Yang said.

"Yeah. They've been… pretty bad lately." Weiss's shoulders slumped. The next thing she knew, she was being pulled into Yang's bosom, courtesy of a hug.

"There, there. We're here for you." Yang rubbed circles on Weiss's back, comforting the Schnee to the best of her ability. Blake too placed a hand on her shoulder in solidarity.

"Thanks… both of you." Weiss took a moment to compose herself before pulling away, offering her friends a wan smile.

"If you're having problems, you can just give us a call you know." Blake said.

"Yeah, and if anyone's giving you trouble, we can lean on em a little, if you know what I mean." Yang grinned and cracked her knuckles, making both Weiss and Blake sigh.

"Thank you for the offer, but no beating up my subordinates thank you. I need them in one piece-one healthy piece." Weiss corrected once she saw Yang start to open her mouth.

"Drat. Ahrgh, more problems should be solvable by punching." Yang grumbled.

"Is this about the reforms?" Blake asked.

"Yeah. The SDC… haaah… well, you know the score. Too many prefer my father's way over mine and try their best to resist change." Weiss shook her head.

"Then there are those that think this is just some PR stunt and do the bare minimum to look good. It's honestly really frustrating."

"I don't know, that does sound like something that can be solved with by leaning. You are the boss and a councilwoman, you've got the power. And if you don't want to get your hands dirty, well…" Yang trailed off with a hungry grin, the unspoken offer hanging in the air.

"Yang, stop thinking with your fists." Blake huffed and flicked her on the forehead.

"But maybe you should take a break, you can't do much if you collapse from stress. Reforming the SDC is important, but not more important than your health Weiss. For now, just keeping the SDC from backsliding into its old ways will have to be enough."

"…I have been working a lot lately. Maybe I do need a break." Weiss furrowed her brows, the conflict evident on her face.

"But my responsibility-"

"Can wait. You've already done a lot, and the SDC's mess is something Jacques made, not you. Stop blaming yourself for someone else's mistake." Blake insisted.

"Maybe what you need is to get your blood pumping. There's always more Grimm in need of smashing, i-if you're up to it of course." Yang offered cautiously.

She immediately regretted her choice of words when a look of pure panic appeared on Weiss's face and she started hyperventilating.

"Damnit Yang, why'd you have to say that? Breathe Weiss, breathe… slowly… slowly…" Blake shot Yang an annoyed glare before hurrying to pat Weiss on the back until her breathing eased.

"Sorry, I thought… sorry." Yang looked away in shame.

"No, no. It's fine. It's just, I don't have time to be a huntress you know. Between the SDC and the council, I don't have a lot of free time." Weiss excused herself. Blake and Yang exchanged a glance but didn't call her out on it.

"It's alright. Just take however much time you need Weiss, we're your friends and we'll always be here for you." Blake reassured.

"Mmm…" Weiss nodded. Bitterness welled up inside, becoming a huntress was her dream once, now it was a nightmare. Some days she managed to drag herself into joining the rest of RWBY for some Grimm hunting or if she was feeling particularly good that day, even light sparring.

But most of the time, she could scarcely stand to see the sight of her beloved Myrtenaster. Once her pride and joy, her multi-action dust rapier was usually left to languish in its case, out of sight and forgotten.

And she hated herself for it.

A sudden burst of rose petals pulled her out of her self-loathing, Weiss blinked and looked up, seeing an out of breath Ruby holding a box and sputtering gibberish in her haste to say something.

"Whoa, slow down sis, you're starting to sound like Professor Oobleck." Yang said.

"There's going to be a robbery!" Ruby gulped down precious lifegiving air before continuing.

"The SDC train to Mistral!"

"Are you sure?" Blake asked.

"Yes. The info came from the usual place, it has to be accurate." Ruby nodded.

"Alright, let's go bust ourselves some crooks." Yang grinned excitedly.

"No. Don't. I already know about it." Weiss shot down the idea after a moment to mull it over.

"You… want to let the train get robbed?" Blake asked slowly and Weiss nodded.

"Yes actually. Hear me out, would you? There's only one train going to Mistral in the next few days. The only thing it's supposed to be carrying is dust and a full AK unit." Weiss sounded out her thoughts.

"But there have been… rumours about things being smuggled across the borders along with the dust. Nothing's ever been found, but if that's only because a 'robbery' happened to remove the evidence earlier…"

"An inside job?" Blake frowned.

"Maybe. Could be nothing, but the tipoff came from Robyn herself. It's worth looking into if nothing else." Weiss said.

"So, the train is… bait?" Yang hazarded a guess.

"You could say that. The situation is being monitored, if you go in and bust them, you'll spook the mastermind we'll lose our only lead. The shipment is insured too, so its loss won't hurt the SDC too much." Weiss nodded.

"Alright, I don't like it, but I'll trust your plan." Yang grimaced.

"Thank you, now about that cake." Weiss smiled and changed the subject, wanting to move on from such heavy topics. It wasn't often she got to meet her team nowadays, and there were better ways to spend their time together than stressing about work.

"O-oh! Here! I got us the biggest chocolate cake there was, and it's got lots of strawberries!" Ruby beamed and held up the massive box in her hands.

(break)

Jaune yawned and watched his breath mist over in the freezing night air. Remnant's shattered moon and a sky full of stars hung overhead, providing just enough illumination for them to not be stumbling around in the darkness.

"Ah this brings back memories. Standing around in the middle of the night twiddling my thumbs when I could be sleeping in a warm bed." Jaune grumbled.

"Oh wait! At least back in Vale I wasn't freezing my ass off."

"Suck it up. It's just a bit chilly." Emerald snapped at him.

"I'm just saying, I became the boss precisely so I wouldn't have to deal with crap like this." Jaune shivered as a stinging cold breeze slapped him in the face. He, Emerald and Grey were perched above a tunnel exit, waiting for their target to pass underneath. And that meant being completely exposed to the biting cold, no trees or walls to block out the wind up here.

"Train's running late." Emerald ignored Jaune's bitching to look at her watch. It should have passed under them thirty minutes ago, but the slight delay was still within expectations. All they needed to do was wait until it passed and then jump onto the last car.

"You've got your part down right?" Emerald looked at Jaune who shot her a flat look.

"Gee, your faith in me is really encouraging. Don't worry, the Manta is waiting near the estimated break point. It'll come as soon as I give it the greenlight."

"How the hell did you get that thing anyways? I thought Atlas was out of your reach." Emerald asked.

"It is, and that's why I love the black market. Yeah, I had to pay a pretty penny to get it all set up, but I'd say it's more than worth the investment." Jaune shrugged.

"…Atlas has a black market?" Emerald blinked in surprise.

"Yes? Oh come on, if there ever was a kingdom that defines the phrase 'every man has his price' it's Atlas. Of course there's a black market, you just have to know where to look." Jaune rolled his eyes.

A low rumbling in the ground interrupted them and all three were on high alert. Slowly, the rumbling grew stronger and they could hear something approaching from inside the tunnel.

"That's our ride." Emerald said, getting ready to jump, Jaune and Grey following her lead.

Soon, the rumbling became a deafening roar and the train came surging out of the tunnel. A quick check confirmed it was the SDC train they were planning to hijack and they waited for their moment.

One by one the train cars passed underneath, when it got to the second last one, they stepped off, landing on the very final car. Hitting the roof with several thuds, the three of them froze in place and waited to see if they tripped anything.

Nothing, no sudden alarms blaring, no sudden onslaught of AKs, just the howling wind rushing past. Exchanging nods, they made their way down and to the train's backdoor. Emerald bit her lip and input the security codes into the door, exhaling softly when a small beep sounded and the door slid open noiselessly.

All three of them slipped inside and sealed the door behind them. Grey took up position near the door at the other end while Jaune and Emerald lingered at the back.

"Phase one complete." Emerald eyed the deactivated AKs standing in their racks dubiously. None of them had been activated just yet, but it was only a matter of time. Once the fighting started, it was on her to keep her semblance up and them beneath notice.

"Now we just wait for the spiders to arrive."

"So, are you going to tell me what's in it for you now? Or am I just going to have to wait for a full hit squad to try and kill me first?" Jaune asked.

"You're getting paid, that's all that matters." Emerald grunted.

Jaune huffed and looked at the ceiling. "Oh yeah, sure, because nobody has ever hired their enemies to go on suicide missions before."

"Heh, if you're expecting me to betray you, you can at least be sure it's not going to happen until after you get me the details on Agent Orange." Emerald cracked a mirthless smile.

"So, what's in it for you then? You hire me to rob a train but you're letting me keep basically all the good stuff? Somehow, I don't think you're interested in fencing several hundred tons of basic dust, so you're after something else." Jaune pointed out.

"True enough. I got word that the SDC-some people in the SDC at least, are now in the business of smuggling some seriously hot contraband by hiding it in dust shipments. Really expensive contraband." Emerald said after a moment and smiled.

"Oooh you're good, making me think I got the better end of the deal. Ah, should have asked for a percentage cut instead." Jaune gave a round of applause.

"You're still walking away with millions." Emerald said.

"Sure, assuming it isn't the hardlight dust shipment that got tampered with. Fucking hell, so not only do you want me to do the heavy lifting, you want me to sort through the dust and find anything that doesn't belong too." Jaune sighed.

"That was the idea, you will have to verify your payment, won't you? I'd say this is win-win." Emerald chuckled under her breath.

"Haaah… this deal is getting worse all the time. What sort of contraband is it anyways?" Jaune muttered and shook his head.

"Chronos." Emerald answered and Jaune's face blackened instantly.

"Ah… well, a deal's a deal, if it is here, you can have it." Jaune spat.

"But you try and sell that drug in Vale, I will kill you for it."

"…Sounds personal." Emerald blinked in surprise, not expecting that level of hostility.

"It is, I lost four of my best men to a druggie hopped up on that shit. It's too much of a wild card and I will see all of it burned before it enters my city. Don't cross me Emerald, I'll know if you try anything funny and you will pay for it." Jaune grunted, fixing her with a piercing glare.

They lapsed into silence after that, each lost in thought and letting the sound of the train lull them back into a state of calm. The minutes slowly ticked away until the lights went out all of a sudden and the wheels squealed at having the emergency brakes applied.

Jaune braced himself against a container and pulled out his scroll. Trying to activate it yielded no results, the thing was dead. "Fuck me, this was brand new! Rgh, EMP huh, guess they're here."

The three of them backed into a corner, Jaune lay a hand on Emerald's shoulder and activated his semblance, flooding her with power and amping her own semblance.

A minute later, the Atlesian Knights on standby came online, their programming kicking in upon the train's unscheduled stop. One by one they deployed from the racks and readied their rifles, and already gunfire could be heard from other sections of the train.

Emerald watched each of them like a hawk, making sure to hit each one with her semblance as soon as they looked in their direction, making their little corner appear empty. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she focused on maintaining the illusion, unlike with actual people, AKs didn't have minds to help fill in the missing details to sell the illusion and that meant she had to be perfect.

Three took position inside their carriage, the rest headed out to deal with the spiders trying to hijack the train.

The sound of fighting intensified and got closer and closer, until it started dying down. Emerald held her breath, unsure whether that meant the spiders had overrun the rest of the train or the SDC mechs had actually managed to repel them.

Her question was answered when Grey gestured to the door and held up four fingers. Emerald exhaled slowly and waited for the door to open, as soon as it did, she had to hit them with her semblance, make them overlook their presence too.

The door slid open with a hiss and gunfire poured through, shredding one of the AKs instantly. Bullets pinged off the walls and containers as the spiders stuck their guns through the gap and fired indiscriminately.

The remaining two AKs returned fire, shooting through the wall and gunning down one unlucky soul if the scream and unceremonious thud was anything to go by. Angry cursing came from the surviving spiders and pulled back for the moment.

The Atlesian Knights advanced when the shooting stopped, only for a body to come flying through the door seconds later. Targeting systems kicking in, the AKs tracked and opened fire on the grievously wounded hijacker, filling him with lead.

This opened up a window of opportunity for the other hijackers to rush into the room and gun down the AKs. But despite the success of their callous distraction, one of the mechs still managed to put a round through the lead hijacker's gut, dropping him to the floor screaming.

Emerald said nothing, suppressing her shock to work her magic. Hitting all three of the surviving spiders with her semblance, she breathed easier once she noticed their eyes simply skating over her position, nothing to see, nothing to find.

"That's the last of them. The train is ours!" The apparent leader cheered.

"It hurts! Oh god-it hurts!" The downed spider screamed when the train jolted and started to move again, aggravating his gut wound.

"H-help me!"

"Ain't no doctors around Zeek, you're on your own." The leader said.

"F-fuck! You can't l-leave me here like this!" Zeek cried in agony.

The leader huffed and rolled his eyes. Raising his rifle, he put a round right between Zeek's eyes, silencing his cries instantly. "Problem solved. Io, check the containers, see if the dust is there. I gotta report to Peglegs."

"Sure boss." Io saluted lazily and moved over to the nearest crate, bashing the lock off to open it while his boss left. Not a whiff of concern for the two fresh corpses on the floor from either of them.

Signalling to Grey to watch the door and keep a lookout for anyone approaching, Jaune drew a knife from his boot and slowly approached Io from behind. The thug was completely oblivious to Jaune's presence, up until he had a hand wrapped around his mouth.

"Mmrpghkk!" Io flailed about as Jaune wrenched his head back and buried the knife blade in his jugular. Blood spurted from the mortal wound and slowly, the muffled cries and struggling faded to nothing.

Dragging the body and leaving in a corner, Jaune wiped the bloody knife down on Io's shirt before sheathing it. "Let's get this show on the road."

"Heh." Emerald smirked, drawing Jaune's attention.

"Something funny?"

"Just remembering, once upon a time you couldn't even punch someone without flinching." Emerald recalled.

"That was a long time ago and I've had a lot practice since then. Now come on, Malachite's goons won't off themselves-" Jaune paused and glanced at the two other corpses on the floor.

"Then again, maybe they might." He shrugged.

"Grey, use your semblance, make sure no one sneaks up on us, Emerald, just keep them from noticing me. Sooner we finish this, the sooner I can go home and sleep."

Grey nodded, silent as the grave, dropping back and drawing a silenced pistol. Anyone trying to get the drop on them would get a nice little hole between the eyes. Emerald watched them warily before shaking her head and focusing on the mission.

"Grey has a semblance?" Emerald blinked.

"Yep, nothing extraordinary, just weapon detection. It ain't much but it's surprisingly useful when it comes to watching your back." Jaune said and opened the door to the next carriage.

The three of them worked in silence, moving through the hijacked train and picking off unsuspecting spiders with ruthless efficiency. Emerald kept everyone blissfully unaware, Jaune moved up and slit their throats while no one was looking and Grey provided some ranged support with throwing knives, silencing the few grunts who picked an unfortunate moment to move into their current train car.

It was a simple plan and a frighteningly effective one if Emerald had to be honest. Her original plan was more of a frontal assault, board the train after Malachite's people had already taken it and then clean house.

Jaune had promptly laughed it off and suggested they just get on early, wait for the spiders to attack and then dispose of everyone starting from the back. After all, it was a train in motion, no one was getting past them and no reinforcements would be coming either.

If they did everything right, the first sign of trouble Lil Miss Malachite would get would be a single locomotive pulling up minus the rest of the train.

"Trouble."

Emerald blinked at the unfamiliar and clearly synthetic voice. It took her a second to realise Grey had spoken, the first word she'd heard the enigma speak.

"Haaaa… of course, things were getting too easy. What sort of trouble." Jaune looked up from his latest kill, still cradling the dying body in his arms.

"Weapons detected ahead, metal… legs…" Grey said, Emerald hearing the question in there despite the robotic tone. Then Grey's words registered.

"Metal… you're kidding. He's here!?"

"Ah peglegs… well, I knew Merc became a mercenary to live up to his name. Looks like Malachite's his current employer." Jaune chuckled.

"Shame, I think that business partnership is going to conclude very soon."

"Oh goodie, I get to kill him finally." Emerald brandished Thief's Respite and Jaune shot her a blank look.

"How about no."

"It's Mercury, no one will miss him." Emerald shot back.

"True, but I do owe him a few favours for some jobs he did for me. You want to kill him do it on your own time, leave me out of it, at least until I pay him back." Jaune said, his tone brooking no argument.

"If he's working for Malachite, he's in our way. How do you plan on dealing with that?" Emerald challenged.

"Ah, I have a few ideas. Simplest one is you hit him with your semblance, make him see and hear nothing out of the ordinary and then we just decouple the train. Might have to lose the first car though." Jaune shrugged.

"That… could work. The first car doesn't have any dust in it, that's where the anti-Grimm spider droid is stashed." Emerald reluctantly admitted and holstered her weapons. They had already cleared seven of nine sections, only one more to go, then spider droid and locomotive.

Fortunately for them, Mercury himself wasn't in the eighth carriage, only a few hapless grunts stacking dead bodies and broken mechs in piles. The dust crates had already been opened and several dust crystals had been tossed on the floor.

But Jaune's attention was focused on the bags of blue liquid sitting nice and pretty on top of the containers. A cursory look at the open containers revealed more of those bags inside, hidden under dust crystals.

"Chronos." He growled.

"So it is here after all. Jackpot." Emerald whispered.

"Mmrgh." Jaune grunted and went to work, slitting throats and dropping targets left and right. Within five minutes, the pile of dead bodies had grown and they were the only three left standing.

Approaching the last car, they could hear voices coming from it, some kind of argument between Mercury and someone else. Emerald pressed herself against the window and peered through, ready to use her semblance if need be.

"I don't think you understand Bob, my job is just to get rid of this little bugger here." Mercury was seated atop the smoking wreck of what used to be the spider droid. Kicking his heel against the broken machinery to illustrate his point.

"I am literally paid to just make sure you chucklefucks don't all die before the train is hijacked. Since we're having this conversation, clearly, my job is done."

"You were supposed to get rid of the witness! Not let him go! The boss will hear about this."

"Sure, sure whatever Bob. I'm a professional not a charity, I don't kill for free. Tell Lil Miss that if she wants me to get rid of someone, it'd better be in the contract." Mercury rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"My name's not-"

"Tell me, do I look like I give a single flying fuck about your name? This train is already on its way, so right now, you're expendable. Keep pissing me off and you'll be part of the casualty list, because you? You, I'll kill for free. Keep that in mind, won't you Bob?" Mercury cocked his head and grinned maliciously.

Malachite's goon grit his teeth hard enough the grinding was audible. But there was nothing he could do, the train engineer was long gone and that man had gotten a good eyeful of the goods while he was hiding from them.

Since Mercury didn't off the son of a bitch when he had the chance, he was definitely going to squeal and possibly jeopardise their entire operation. Lil Miss was not going to be happy about this.

"Run along now Bob, don't you have to verify the shipment is intact? If you'll excuse me, I'm going to chill in the front, seats there definitely more comfortable than this hunk of junk." Mercury laughed and stood, stepping off the smoking wreck and heading further into the train, leaving Bob to stand there shaking with impotent rage.

As he moved off, heading towards Emerald's group, she hit him with her semblance immediately. As such, he didn't even notice them standing in front of him when he slid the door open. A knife found its way into his neck instantly and his body went tumbling off the train when Jaune gave it a little push.

"Oh yeah, Mercury's so getting fired. Might be time to send him another job offer." Jaune chuckled and pulled the bolt holding the train sections together free. Once decoupled, the front simply continued on its journey while their section slowly came to a stop.

Pulling out a small transponder, Jaune hummed quietly as he checked to make sure the EMP pulse earlier hadn't fried it like his scroll. Satisfied with its condition, he activated it, calling his Manta over to their position. Once it arrived, it was just a matter of loading up his hardlight dust and Emerald's drugs, despite his distaste.

"ETA twelve minutes and counting. Good, just enough time to check all the containers and make sure we got everyone." Jaune said.

Working their way backwards, they painstakingly checked every crate. Most contained exactly what they were supposed to, dust and nothing else. But several had the extras, packets of Chronos stashed away inside. And… several had robotic parts in there too.

"What are these? They don't look like what Atlas uses." Emerald held up a robotic arm and compared it to a scrapped AK lying nearby. Compared to the mech, the arm was very thin, almost skeletal, certainly nothing like what they were used to.

"I… have no idea actually. Someone trying to create their own mech force? But then you could just buy regular bots from Atlas, it's not even illegal. You mind leaving it with the hardlight dust, I think I want to look into this." Jaune muttered with a frown.

"You think it's important?" Emerald asked.

"I think it's out of place. That's enough to make me worried." Jaune said.

"You're paranoid." Emerald said, but nonetheless tossed the arm onto a hardlight dust crate and continued digging out more robot parts for Jaune.

"Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean I'm wrong." Jaune said.

Once all the parts had been uncovered, they ended with a nice collection of arms and several torsos, no heads or legs anywhere to be found though. It was a discovery that left Jaune ill at ease.

Finally, they reached the last car just as the Manta touched down outside, ready for pickup. Emerald slammed the lid of the final container down and dusted her hands. "That's the last of them, just ice dust, nothing more."

"Good, now… ugh… now the heavy lifting. One day I'm going to hire someone with a telekinesis semblance, because this is bullshit. Come on, let's get this done before sunrise, sky's already getting brighter." Jaune groaned and squared his shoulders for the ordeal ahead.

He and Grey headed back through the door to pick up their loot and start loading up their transport. Only Emerald stayed behind, surveying the empty train carriage with a frown. Something was off to her but she couldn't quite place her finger on it.

"Dust, body one, body two…" Emerald rattled off, staring at the two corpses caused by 'friendly' fire.

"Yep everything's fi-wait. Wasn't there one more?"

Silence was her only answer.