Yang was sitting in the driver's seat. She looked down at the hanging mess of wires under the steering column. The car had been reported stolen by now. Had to be. She'd have to boost another tonight. Uncle Qrow had taught her the trick to hotwiring. She hadn't understood why, then.
Ruby had told her it would take no more than a minute. It had been almost 40 seconds. Yang leaned over and tugged on the passenger door's handle. A push with one finger sent the door swinging outward. Yang was counting the seconds in her head. Her, seated in the stolen car, passenger door wide open, in the parking lot of a Walmart. Wouldn't this be a lovely description of what she was doing while her sister was inside, alone.
Ruby appeared in the passenger seat, swinging the door closed. She held a large bag in her lap. Yang took a quick inhale, and sat up a little straighter. Ruby was already removing the spoils of her trip inside from the bag, laying them out on the center console.
"So, two balaclavas, a red one and a yellow one, take your pick," Ruby said, "A new hoodie if you want it, I'm good with this one."
"Were you seen?"
Ruby looked up at Yang, her brow piqued in confusion.
"I don't get seen," Ruby said, "It's my thing. It's a perk of my thing."
"Rube."
"I know, Yang," Ruby said, "You worry, I know. You don't have too. Nobody saw me."
Yang looked down at her sister. The warm smile, the glimmer of concern in her eye. Yang remembered seeing a dozen limbs snapping at once in a Cleveland interrogation room. She'd seen armour and weapons literally taken apart before her eyes. She'd had to come up with a wild, baseless theory to convince the kid that she couldn't simply waltz over the border.
This wall, her mother's voice, does this look like one of the ones they capture?
Yang threw the car into drive and pulled away. There'd been a cop car cruising through the parking lot, tinted windows hiding just how closely the occupants were peering into the windows of parked vehicles. Ruby reached back and pulled her seatbelt on. Yang realized she wasn't wearing her own seatbelt, and went through the awkward process of buckling up while keeping one hand on the wheel. They rolled through the business section of town, moving towards residential.
"So, where we doing crime?" Ruby asked.
"Where don't we do crime?" Yang asked, smirking.
"Well, we're illegally evading capture at, you know, all times," Ruby mused, "So, nowhere, I guess."
Yang took a purposeful turn off the main road. The road she'd turned onto was marred with potholes and lined with businesses that in most towns would look unusually sketchy. Here, it was a more subtle distinction. You had to look close to notice that all the unusually burly mechanics at the car wash had matching neck tattoos, or that cars rolled into the auto mechanic's garage daily, but never drove back out.
"So... no sexy crime today, then?" Ruby asked.
Yang laughed, and gave Ruby a raised eyebrow.
"What's a sexy crime?" Yang asked.
"An elaborate heist," Ruby offered, "Drawing maps, synchronizing watches, all that stuff. I wanted to see you rip the door off a bank vault."
"That doesn't sound very elaborate."
"Well, if you ripped the door open," Ruby thought aloud, "I could do all the money grabbing myself. Actually, you could just sprint through the building, and then I could make a few trips while everyone was frozen... so, yeah, no, not that elaborate."
"Not as safe as you're picturing, either," Yang said, "You think the cops are gunning for us now, try fucking with rich people's money."
"Fair enough. So, where we doing crime?"
Yang pulled to the side of the road. They were next to a strip mall, devoid of cars despite it being the middle of a Monday afternoon. The store fronts were all bare bones, with dull white text proclaiming accounting, Blu-Ray player repair, a mattress store. Ruby looked the row of dull grey buildings over.
"What's here?" She asked.
"Money laundering, I imagine," Yang said, "Look further down the street."
Ruby obliged. A much more colourful building stood out on account of the vacant, undeveloped lots around it. The unusually well-maintained structure had a line of customers moving to and from it, most walking back towards the public housing further down the street.
"'Cash Mart'," Ruby read off the gaudy sign on the front, "'Money when you need it'. Well, we need it. So, like, they sell money?"
"It's called predatory lending," Yang explained, "They give you 500 bucks when you're in an emergency. Once you're in debt to them, they start piling on the hidden fees. You end up in debt to them for thousands. They get a lot of desperate people stuck that way."
"That's fucked up," Ruby nodded.
"Sure is," Yang said, "Want to rob 'em?"
Ruby produced a stolen candy bar from the Walmart bag. She ripped the end of the wrapper open and nibbled on the chocolate, looking deep in thought.
"...yeah."
Blake was seated, her legs crossed beneath her, on the cot. A folder was open in front of her, the papers inside laid out in chaotic fashion. Watts hadn't been lying when he said landing a hit on Rose would earn her credit; Weiss and Blake had earned briefing printouts. Looking over the pictures of what Rose was documented doing, Blake couldn't believe she'd gotten out alive. Her bruises were still sore enough without the knowledge that the kid had apparently been trying like hell not to kill her.
Across the hall, on the other side of two sets of bars, Weiss was on the edge of her own cot. Her right leg was folded over the left in a lady-like fashion that was bizarre to see, given its surroundings. Ever since Blake had noticed the way Weiss sat, she'd had the hardest time ignoring it. Something about it pissed her off that she couldn't put her finger on.
"We think they've been in Detroit a few days now," Watts said, "Less than 6 hours after your little scuffle, a car was reported stolen in Toledo, which is where we think they ran to. That car was later photographed by a security camera at a toll booth going into Detroit. The driver matched the description of Xiao Long."
His voice was broadcasting from the small speaker on the table between Blake and Weiss's cells. The communication line was covered in several layers of encryption, and his voice had been garbled for good measure, but his drawl, his almost bored musings, were unmistakable.
"And the mess they made in the streets matches the description of Rose," Ironwood said, pacing the hall between the cells, "They're here to jump the border."
"This mess," Blake said, "How did it start?"
"Apparently, they were looking to get their hands on some cash," Ironwood said.
Yang stood in the shadows in the alley behind the Cash Mart. The only light came from a dull streetlamp, casting a weak beam past the corner of the building opposite the Cash Mart, into the alley's entrance. There was a security camera above the Cash Mart's back door, the half-sphere of tinted glass suspended on a strut sticking out from the brickwork. Yang had her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket, a baseball cap pulled down tight over her eyes. Her long blonde hair was tied back in a tight ponytail. Ruby's cue was whenever the streets around them were momentarily free of cars, which made it Yang's cue as well. A truck lumbered past in the distance, then faded into the distance.
The security camera shattered of its own volition, glass shards raining down to the pavement. Yang marched forward, flicking the hat off and pulling her balaclava over her head in its place. There were a few moments when, if their timing was bad enough, a vehicle might roll by the end of the alley, and spot her casually sauntering up to the door with her face covered, well past midnight. She reached the door and broke it open with one hand. From her pocket, she drew a piece of broken metal. It was half of the hooked end of a crowbar, which Yang had snapped off earlier in the day. She dropped it down beside the broken door. Making it look a little more like a typical break-in had been Ruby's idea.
She slipped inside and glanced about. All the security cameras inside were already destroyed. Ruby was inside, kicked back in one of the chairs behind the front desk. Her own balaclava was pulled on, her hood pulled up around it.
"Safe in the corner," Ruby said, "There."
"Broke into a cash loaning business," Watts said, "But they slipped up. They'd used a stolen vehicle to case the place."
"Rookie mistake," Blake noted.
It was a level of arrogance she'd learned to adopt around Ironwood. Speaking his language wasn't likely to get her anywhere, but it didn't hurt to try. After that moment in the gym, she needed the brownie points. Ironwood glanced at her, and as easy as Ironwood was to read, she couldn't tell if she'd earned them.
"So, they knew Xiao Long and Rose were planning to break into the place," Weiss said, "Why not rig the door with flashbangs and knockout gas? Why not rig the safe itself with flashbangs and knockout gas?"
Ironwood stopped walking and glanced curiously at Weiss.
"That might have worked," Ironwood said, "From what we know now, it's unclear if Detroit PD had time for that sort of set-up."
"I'm sure they considered all tactical options before busting out all their biggest toys," Watts said.
Yang approached the safe. It was set into the wall, a digital keypad next to the lever that opened it. The safe door was a slab of steel, bumps placed around its edges that seemed intended to look like rivets. Yang walked over and crouched down. The door wasn't very large; the whole thing looked about the size of a shoebox. It didn't look like it would store all the cash they needed, but Yang didn't want to dash their hopes yet. She crouched down and tapped 1234 into the keypad. A small light next to the digital readout blinked red.
"Tried that," Ruby said.
"Could you try out different combinations with your Ability?" Yang asked.
"Can't open a safe that's frozen, can I?" Ruby asked.
"Could you bring the safe into the frozen time with you?" Yang offered.
"Uh... hmm."
Ruby appeared suddenly, standing next to Yang.
"Nope," She said, 'But maybe that's because it's set into the wall. Even then, I'd have to sit there trying out combos."
"Well, it was a thought," Yang said.
She took hold of the lever and pulled. The metal handle was ripped from the side of the safe, leaving the door still sealed. Ruby raised an eyebrow at Yang. Yang smashed her fingers into the brickwork above the safe, wrapped them around the door, and pulled. The safe was torn open, sending a few loose bills scattering. Yang was treated to the bizarre sight of Ruby seemingly blinking in place, her hand reached out to each spinning, airborne bill for a fraction of a second, until the floating papers were stacked into her hand.
"Still practicing," Yang said.
"Dad said..." Ruby began, before trailing off.
Yang looked around. The alarms were disabled. The cameras were out. Why couldn't they take a minute? She stood, and leaned against the wall.
"Go on," she said.
Ruby smiled sheepishly, almost embarrassed.
"He said I should always be trying to find new ways to use my powers," She said, "He said... someday I might need to be clever to survive. I didn't know what he meant, then. But..."
"Dad knew what being special in this world means," Yang said.
"Did they die because of what we can do?" Ruby asked, looking at the floor.
The question seemed to cut through Yang. A question she'd been afraid of for years, suddenly out in the open, and Yang felt like she hadn't prepared for it at all. Ruby had her hands in her pockets, looking at the floor, as if embarrassed to ask a question so obvious.
"Sweetheart," Yang whispered, "Hey. No, Ruby..."
Yang wrapped her sister in a hug. She felt a whimper pass through her sister.
"They knew the police would come for us," Ruby whispered, "Dad, Raven, Qrow. They all taught us what they knew so that we could survive after they died."
"Listen to me," Yang said, "Nothing that's happened is your fault. The people hunting us..."
Ruby sniffled.
"But they knew, Yang," she said, "When I realized what I could do, I was so... happy. I- we were both special, and I- I didn't realize what it meant."
Yang pulled her sister in tighter. She reached up and pulled her balaclava off, fearing it being smeared with tears and snot.
"As soon as they knew what we were, they knew they would have to die for us," Ruby said.
"Ruby, if they knew you'd be safe, they would have-"
Yang's ears perked up. She looked out the back door, still hanging open. Ruby wiped her eyes and looked about, curiously.
"There's about three grand in the safe," Ruby said, "Let's grab it and-"
Yang put a finger to her lips. Ruby fell silent. The hairs on the back of Yang's neck were standing up; intuition telling her something was wrong, more than any of her senses.
"I'll check it out," Ruby whispered.
She vanished, and was gone almost a full second before reappearing closer to the door. Her balaclava was gone, her eyes wild with panic.
"Get down!" She screamed.
Blake turned her attention to the last few pages in the dossier. Aerial photos of the crime scene. Transcripts of radio communications, most ending in screams.
"As you can imagine, Detroit PD's efforts were inadequate," Ironwood said.
"This damage... it doesn't add up," Weiss said, "The girl we fought in the valley was powerful, but she wasn't trying to kill us."
"Rose has shown willingness to kill in the past," Watts said, "But I agree, this is a notable change to her usual MO."
"Maybe she wants to us to know she's not playing around anymore," Ironwood suggested, withdrawing his pack of cigarettes.
"Maybe she got tired of being pushed," Blake said.
The front windows of the Cash Mart shattered inwards. Something was flying into the room, too large to be bullets, but travelling with considerable velocity. Most of the tin can sized objects were spewing smoke; there were three that weren't. Yang broke into a sprint, her boots tearing the floor apart with the force she put into pushing off. She pounced for Ruby, aiming to shield the girl's body with her own.
The world turned silver. Ruby saw Yang's body frozen in mid-leap, her arms outstretched, her eyes wide in desperation to reach her sister. She looked at the projectiles that had come through the windows. Smoke grenades and flashbangs. One of the flashbangs had already burst apart, the sphere of powerful sound expanding around it in mid-air. Ruby saw the glowing light building from within the deforming shape, and turned away. Her harsh shadow was cast on the backwall by the blast of light, then faded away.
She looked back, and confirmed that the other flashbangs hadn't detonated yet. The soundwave was spreading, getting closer to Yang. Ruby hurried over to Yang, holding out her hands, not sure of what to do. After a moment's thought, she cupped her hands over Yang's ears, positioning herself to be slightly further away from the approaching sphere of diffracting light. She felt the pressure of the sound wave on her hands as it enveloped Yang, and once it had engulfed her, Ruby withdrew her hands, backing away. She had to hope that would be enough for the moment.
She walked out the door, back out into the alley. Three SWAT officers were rushing the door, having made it a few steps closer since Ruby's quick recon. There were more SWAT out on the street, and marksmen on a couple nearby rooftops. They'd been in this city mere days, and already, the local goons were throwing everything they had at them. Just like they had in Cleveland. Just like they had at their home.
Ruby walked up to the nearest SWAT cop. He was holding an assault rifle. She recognized the shape; it had been in her mother's hands the night her family died. His finger was already on the trigger. She looked up into his eyes, hidden behind a tinted visor, peering over the edge of the mask covering the lower half of his face. He was focused on the door with cold intent. There was something emblazoned on the side of the gun, just above the bit that the magazine was inserted into. Ruby had to look close to make it out through the silver shimmer. It was a stylized skull, with elongated teeth; a Punisher logo. Ruby shoved her thumb against the magazine release, then took hold of the bolt. Her fingers were shaking.
She dropped her hand to her side. She looked back to the door. She didn't want to risk blundering back into the sound wave, so she approached the door at an angle, giving her a view inside. The sound wave had dissipated. She slipped back in and saw Yang. She was still leaping for the spot Ruby had been. A tear was forming on her left eyelid, threatening to spill over and be left behind in the air.
"They would have done it over again," Ruby said, "That was what you were going to say, wasn't it? They died for us to live. And someday, maybe, you're going to do the same. That's it, isn't it? That's all we can have. Running until they catch up, then dying for each other. And who will I die for, when everybody is gone, and I'm alone? No. From now on... if somebody tries to hurt us..."
Ruby wrapped Yang in a hug. She could feel Yang's muscles, taut and tense. She placed her forehead against Yang's.
"I've made a choice," She said, "And you won't like it. I won't like it. But it's like you said- if they die, and you live... I can live with that, too."
"So, what does this mean for our deployment?" Blake asked.
"Still hoping for a rematch?" Ironwood asked, "After she did all that?"
Watts' dark chuckle was made all the more menacing by the distortion of his voice.
"I'm sure Intruder still has a few tricks up her sleeve she's eager to show off."
Blake gave the radio a glance but didn't let it throw her off.
"If Rose shows restraint when facing other Post Humans, you have more reason than ever to use us," Weiss interjected, "No less because she's apparently decided it's open season on anybody else."
This did catch Blake by surprise. Weiss was, as per usual, glaring at Ironwood, but she gave Blake a glance so quick, Ironwood might have missed it.
"No doubt," Ironwood said, "Matter of fact, if you two are looking for a fight, this is good news. The timeline is accelerated."
"Why?" Weiss asked.
"Because all of Detroit is looking for them now," Blake said, "And ICE."
"I would expect the army to be called in by the end of the week," Watts said, "If we want either of those girls as Atlas assets, we have to move fast."
"And if they want to stay alive," Blake noted, "They'll be doing the same."
The windows shattered. Grenades flew into the room, arcing to land at Ruby and Yang's feet. Yang broke into a desperate run, leaping into the air in the hope that she'd shield Ruby's body with her own. It was an instinctual response, a need to defend the girl, even from an attack she could evade on her own. As Yang reached out, Ruby vanished. One of the flashbangs detonated mid-air, it's high-pitched screech strangely muffled. Yang hit the ground, and the smoke grenades landed around her, spewing thick clouds of opaque white. One of the other flashbangs clattered onto the floor in front of her. Before Yang could move to shield her eyes, a helmet with a tactical visor appeared over the flashbang. The other flashbang hit the floor, bounced, and was suddenly wrapped in a red balaclava. The blasts of light and sound barely managed to escape their improvised containment. Yang could hear screams of pain from outside. She pushed off the floor and rushed out.
There were three cops in the alley, decked out in SWAT gear, laying on the ground. The first was motionless, his neck broken. The second was twitching and grabbing at a combat knife buried in his throat. The skin on the sides of his face was shredded where his helmet strap had torn along it. The third had his own knife buried in his chest. He made the mistake of trying to get back up. For a split second, Ruby appeared over the second cop, and just as quickly vanished, along with the knife. The wound where it had rested spewed blood, and the third cop's throat seemed to open of its own volition. He fell back down.
Yang put a hand over her mouth in shock. There was a scream from above. She looked up in time to see a man plummeting from the roof of the building opposite the Cash Mart. His shoulder hit the pavement first, with an awful crack. There was a scoped rifle secured around him with a strap. He sprawled out on the ground and squirmed in pain. Ruby appeared over him, holding a handgun, and fired. She had disappeared again by the time the bullet went through his head.
"Ruby!" Yang screamed, "Oh god."
She sprinted down the alley, back towards the car. More screaming from the street. The spinning lights of a police vehicle were flashing down the alley. She heard desperate gunfire; from a dozen guns at first, but each was quickly falling silent. A cop came into view, sprinting into the alley, a combat shotgun held tight to his chest. Yang tensed, but the cop wasn't looking at her. He was running in blind terror. He stopped as if slamming into a brick wall, his feet flying out from under him. The shotgun vanished from his hands, and reappeared directly in front of him, held in Ruby's grip. Again, she fired, then vanished, and the cop hit the ground, his head a pulverized mess of viscera.
Ruby appeared in front of Yang, tossed the shotgun into her hands, and disappeared. Yang stared at the weapon in her hands, dumbfounded. Ruby reappeared on her other side.
"Use it!" She shouted, before disappearing again.
Yang ran out into the street, and stumbled to a stop. Her jaw fell, and she looked around at the scene of carnage. There were at least a dozen cops laying dead in the street. The few who still lived were gripping broken limbs while they bled out. The back doors of the armoured police van flew open, and the cop inside locked eyes on Yang. In a panic, he raised his weapon. The fingers on his hand bent away from the weapons grip, and the pin vanished from the grenade on his belt. Then, the van doors slammed shut. The explosion blew out the van's windows, but the door held.
Ruby was standing beside Yang again. Yang dropped the shotgun. She ran to embrace the girl. Ruby seemed to flicker in place, and another gunshot rang out, far above them. Another marksman fell from the roof of the building across the street from the Cash Mart. Yang wrapped Ruby in a hug as the man's body struck the ground. Ruby accepted the hug, but didn't return it.
"Ruby," Yang whispered, "What did you do?"
Ruby didn't answer. She was sniffling softly, taking short breaths in between. There was a screech of tires down the street. Yang looked up and saw two more patrol cars speeding towards them. Ruby put her hands to Yang's arms and worked to pull herself free. Yang made a desperate attempt to keep hold of her.
"Let me go, Yang," Ruby said, "I'm not done."
"No, no!" Yang begged.
Though her arms were still wrapped around Ruby, the girl vanished from her grip. The driver's side door of the car in the lead flew open, and the driver was torn from his seat, not so much tumbling down the street but scraping along it. The windshield of the second car exploded inwards, and a magazine's worth of spent rifle casings appeared in the air above the hood. Bullets and glass cut the men inside apart. The first car hit a lamp post, and came to a halt. The passenger made an effort to crawl out. Before his boot could meet the ground, his shin bent in half, and he tumbled forwards onto the ground. His gun vanished from its holster, and Ruby appeared over him. She shot him through the head.
This time, she didn't disappear. She was a few meters away from Yang now, a few of the scattered bodies between them. She looked up at her sister, tears falling from her eyes. Yang walked forward, unable to stop herself from looking around at the mangled bodies in horror. She reached Ruby, fell to her knees, and wrapped her arms about Ruby again. This time, Ruby returned the hug, burying her tear-streaked face into Yang's shoulder.
"Ruby..." Yang whispered.
"I'm sorry," Ruby said, "I'm-"
She pushed away from Yang, and for a moment, Yang was terrified that it wasn't over. That more cops had shown up, and she was about to see her sister kill them too. Instead, as soon as Ruby had managed to turn away from Yang, she sprayed vomit into the street. She put her face in her hands, leaving a gap to spit out the last bits of bile. Yang put her arm around Ruby's shoulders.
"I shouldn't have-" Ruby whimpered, "I didn't want to..."
In an instant, the girl was limp. She fell into Yang's arms, her head lolling back. Yang supported her head and tried to look into Ruby's eyes, but they were closed, the irises flitting about beneath the eyelids. Yang hoisted her sister up into her arms. She heard the crackle of a radio, and saw the antenna sticking up out of the pocket on the front of Ruby's hoodie.
"Report! Alpha Team, report! Somebody answer me, god damn it!"
There were more sirens in the distance. Yang held Ruby's body closer, and ran.