"Why are we meeting with a human?" Lotus demanded. They were walking through the slums in the rain, on their way to see some woman that Widow said was good for information.

Widow rolled her eyes, "You want to get revenge, don't you? Do you know the names of the huntsmen that you want said revenge on? Do you know where they live?"

Lotus shook her head in response, leveling a glare at everyone they passed.

Widow sighed, "Then we need someone who does. Whether or not she's a human means nothing. She has her uses, little spider," she regarded Lotus for a moment, "Just calm down. You'll stir up all kinds of trouble if you go around with that look on your face."

With a very visible effort, Lotus let her shoulders slump back down, eyes relaxing a hair in their constant scan of their surroundings. Widow gave her one look and turned away, "Good enough. We're here."

It was a tall two story building they stood outside of, brick along the bottom half that turned into plaster above. A man stood posted outside the front door, leaning back against the wall. He regarded them closely as they approached, taking in the daggers on Widow's hips and the child with no visible weapons. He stepped between them and the door as they arrived, holding his hand up cautiously, "State your business."

"We come seeking information," Widow said simply.

After a short pause, the man seemed to be satisfied with her response, and stepped aside. Widow led the two of them into the large open room. Stairs on the left wrapped along the wall to a second level that was little more than a balcony for a few more tables to look out the windows. There were eight patrons, all sporting the same purple color on various garments they wore. Widow pointed with a nod of her head, drawing Lotus's eyes to a table situated at the back right corner. A larger blond woman sat smoking at it, two armed guards at her sides.

"Well, what have we here? A couple of customers, looking to do a little business?" the large woman asked aloud as they approached. Her henchmen took in the two of them and dropped their hands to their weapons. Lotus slowed, but Widow kept the same gait, eventually pulling back the chair across from the woman and sitting down in it. 'Do we have nothing to fear from them?' Lotus looked around the room again. They were all armed, now that she looked closer. Her sense was telling her that their auras were low, though. Hardly better than regular people. It was another one of the 'tricks' that Widow had taught her, feeling out how strong someone else's aura was. Hers and Widow's were strong. These people? 'They're weak.' Lotus regained her confidence and stepped up behind her companion, a smirk across her face that echoed Widow's.

"I'm Little Miss Malachite, the leader of these band of miscreants… but I'm sure you already knew that if you're here," she gave them both a smirk in return, "What can I do for you, ladies?"

"We're here for information. Seven huntsmen attacked a White Fang hideout three days ago. Four are still alive. We want their names, and locations," Widow replied evenly.

"Hmmm," Malachite's reply was slow, drawn out, "Well, that sounds easy enough. I charge one thousand lien per name and address, whenever its a huntsmen. Not that I care for them, but neither am I too keen on the Grimm. If you're going to be killing them, then that's the price for what you desire."

Lotus glanced down at Widow, 'We don't have that kind of lien,' her face spoke, even though her mouth did not. Malachite caught the look and frowned, "If you can't pay, then we have no business here."

Widow smiled and leaned forward. The two guards grabbed their weapons more firmly, drawing them an inch of out their sheaths, "Oh, I'm certain we could come to another arrangement. As you guessed, we want to kill these huntsmen. Ending the lives of another is of no concern to us, so if you happened to have someone that you wanted taken care of…?" Widow let her sentence trail off as if it was a question that was too obvious to bother asking.

Malachite looked at both of them with a considering look, "You," she glanced at Widow, "I can believe capable. The child…?" she also let her question hang in the air.

Widow laughed lightly and turned to Lotus, and then glanced around the room, "Perhaps a demonstration? Your best against her. If it isn't over in five seconds then we'll leave."

Malachite seemed amused by the offer and turned to one of her guards, "Be careful not to hurt the little dear too much." The guard grinned and stepped to the center of the room. A few others cleared a space and sat back to watch. All eyes turned towards Lotus as she walked calmly to the center. The man was grinning from across the ten foot space between them when Lotus turned back to Widow, "Death, or humiliation?"

Widow's lips flashed in a smile, "Humiliation. We wouldn't want to strain the relationship with our new friends now, would we?"

The man's smile faded as Lotus removed the sash from around her waist and wrapped it around her eyes, effectively blinding herself. She couldn't see anything of the room anymore, but she felt all of it. All of their eyes going wide. The twitch on Malachite's lips before she raised the glass to her mouth to cover the reaction. The man tensing across from her, his muscles getting ready to propel himself forward. Lotus calmly adopted the hand to hand stance that Jace had taught her, and wrapped her appendages down along her arms and legs. 'Five seconds?' Widow was being rude.

The clink of Malachite's glass seemed to start the fight. The man rushed at her, charging across the space. Lotus flexed the appendages on her legs, and snapped forward in an instant. Her fist met the man's sword as he raised it in a desperate attempt to block. The steel snapped in half under the strength of her attack as it blew past, slammed into his chest, and sent him flying into the wall across the room with a sickening thud. Lotus felt his aura fail after hitting the wall. He would be fine when he woke up. She sighed and removed the sash from around her eyes to put it around her waist.

Lotus couldn't bring herself to feel satisfied by the shocked expression on Malachite or her henchman's faces. That had been too easy to feel pride over. Widow smirked from her seat and turned back to Malachite, "Well, we are after huntsmen. Could there have been any other way that might have ended?"

Malachite coughed and turned her eyes back to Widow, "I suppose not. I'll find the huntsmen you're looking for. In the meantime, speak with Maca over there," she pointed to a woman that was still staring aghast at Lotus, "She'll provide you with a name and location to fulfill your end of the bargain. Once that's done, I'll see what I can dredge up. Deal?"

Widow nodded her head once in confirmation and stood, getting Maca's attention, "Shall we?" The girl quivered under Widow's and Lotus's combined stares before heading behind the bar. She pulled out a folder and set it down on the table.

"Alright, one target worth four huntsmen, eh?" Her eyes focused on the pages she turned, each a profile with information beneath. There were a lot of people. After a couple minutes, she finally settled on one of them and turned it around to slide across the counter to Widow, "Biscotti, the Chief of Police. He's been sending his officers deeper and deeper into the slums to try and sniff us out."

Widow silently read over the information before sliding the folder back, "Simple enough. We'll take care of him tonight, and let you concentrate sooner on the task at hand."

Maca's eyebrows shot up, "Tonight? Aren't you going to scope the place out first?"

"Who says I haven't?" Widow winked and turned back to Malachite, giving the woman a final nod. She headed for the front door, and Lotus followed close behind. All eyes followed them as they left. Once they had put some distance between themselves and the door guard, Lotus decided to speak up.

"You've already scoped out the Chief of Police's house?"

Widow laughed and gave her a secretive smile, "Nope."

"Then…."

"I scoped out the Precinct. We'll hit him there to prove a point."

"Shouldn't we be in more of a hurry?" Lotus asked, taking another bite out of the burger that Widow had bought her. They were sitting outside a small food shack a little after dark, "Wouldn't it be best to strike when he's, ya know, actually there?"

"Oh, silly spider. He will be there. It's Monday," Widow replied, as if that solved everything. She sipped her drink through the straw and waited for Lotus's response.

"And the day of the week is important because…?"

"It's important because our dear Mr. Biscotti goes home late on Mondays. Long after the majority of officers and workers have left the Precinct, he'll be there, filing away paperwork that he didn't bother to do over the weekend," Widow bit into her burger with a self-satisfied grin.

"So instead of sitting on a dusty old rooftop waiting for him to be alone…"

"We're enjoying a nice meal, only three or so miles from where we need to go," Widow finished.

They continued eating in silence for a while, and Lotus let her mind wander. Inevitably, she ended up thinking about all of her comrades. She listed them off in her head. All the names she would avenge. Lotus reached one name on the list and paused in annoyance, "Do you know what Crim's real name was?"

Widow raised one eyebrow at her, "Does it matter? What importance is there in a dead name, one cast aside while still alive?"

Lotus frowned, "I was… curious, I guess. I have all their names jumbling around in my head. It's all I can think about sometimes, so I just… wanted to know what he was really called. 'The Crimson Terror' doesn't exactly blend well with the rest…"

Widow smirked, "I didn't know you found out his real name. Did Jace tell you?" At a nod from Lotus her smile grew, "Little brat always was bad at keeping secrets." Her expression softened as she regarded the girl in front of her, "His name… His name was Clay."

Lotus rolled the name around on her tongue, testing it out, and nodded. Another thought rose to the surface as she watched Widow take another bite. "What was yours…?"

Widow froze in place, then slowly set the burger down on her plate. She looked at Lotus with a considering frown before finally shrugging, "No point in hiding it, really. Once upon a lifetime... my name was Garnet." She waved offhandedly at her deep red hair as she said it, "But that was a long time ago, little spider. It was… It was the name of someone weak. Garnet couldn't save herself. Couldn't save the people she cared for... So I left her behind and took up the name Widow instead, as a reminder to never go back. I will do whatever it takes to make the humans pay."

Lotus nodded in understanding. She shared the sentiment. Even if it had taken her too long to come to terms with the truth. They ate in silence, watching as the general throng of humans dispersed over time. The shop closed behind them, and Widow finally stood.

"Let's go."

It was only twenty minutes at a casual walk to get to the Precinct, between the Shopping and Residential Districts. The Precinct was a tall building that overshadowed all those that surrounded it. If they climbed on to a nearby building to try and get a vantage point, they would certainly be spotted from one of the many windows. They stayed in the shadows of the alleyway and watched. The parking lot was beginning to thin out. Now off duty police officers were headed home, taking their police issued vehicles with them. There were around twenty still in the parking lot when they began to make their way towards it, but Widow assured her that was the norm.

"There's always at least ten officers on hand at any time. A few of the others will be dispatchers, a couple others are maintenance, and the rest are just there for show to make the place look more populated than it actually is," Widow explained. Together they shifted from shadow to shadow, using the vehicles as cover as they crossed the parking lot in short bursts. Lotus could already see the key slot on the front of the building as they approached.

"How are we going to get in?"

Widow gave her a mischievous smile, "There's a poor lost girl outside that wandered to the police station, because her mummy and dada told her she could always trust the police to help her find her way home~"

Lotus glared at her as they finally reached the door. Widow crouched down into the bushes nearby, and waved at her to do what needed to be done. Lotus huffed and bit her lip hard, eliciting at least a few tears to her eyes. She walked over to the door and started knocking, holding a hand up to her mouth to hide the bleeding until her aura could fix the cut, and to help with the act. She stared up into the camera, letting her eyes go wide and turned back to the door to knock again, this time more forcefully.

Through the glass pane she could see an officer cautiously turn the corner and look for whatever was making the noise. His eyes fell on the small child with tears in her eyes, and he quickly strode across the remaining space. The officer pulled up his keycard from where it had been laying against his chest on a lanyard, and slotted it into the console on his side. There was a buzz, and the door unlocked. The officer pushed the door open and stepped in front of her, looking down with pity in his eyes.

That turned to pained shock as Lotus stabbed him through the chest. She caught the door to hold it open for Widow, and waited for the woman to get past her and grab the man's keycard before tossing his body into the bushes they had just vacated. 'Fool.'

"Now, little spider. Tell me how many humans you can sense in the building?" Widow gave her an approving smile and closed the door as Lotus walked inside. She let her semblance deactivate to get rid of the blood covering the limb she had used, then brought it right back.

Lotus stood in the center of the small lounge area and concentrated, "I can feel… at least two more on this level, and one on the floor above us. Beyond that…"

Widow smiled, "You're getting better, at least. I wouldn't have expected you to feel the one on the second floor yet, and definitely not any above that. Not from here, anyway."

The way she put focus on that word made her frown. Lotus opened her eyes back up and noticed the familiar smirk that Widow always had when she knew something you didn't. "Alright, I'll bite. Where would be better?"

"Let me show you," Widow replied, then began walking down one of the hallways. She brought them both to the stairwell and used her semblance to open the thick metal door silently. They stepped halfway up the first set of stairs and stopped, "Try again."

Lotus concentrated again, closing her eyes and feeling outwards with her sixth sense. 'The two from before… one above…' Her eyes opened in surprise, staring straight into Widow's smug face. "I can feel all of them from here."

Widow nodded happily, "What we sense is basically a more finely tuned version of sound. They are both vibrations through the air that your body perceives," she rapt a knuckle against the hard walls that surrounded them in the stairwell, "The harder the surface, the further it travels, and the more hard surfaces…" she gestured around them to the echo chamber they were standing in. "Always go for a location like this if you really need to know where people are. Even my semblance can't totally dampen it."

Lotus nodded her understanding, "So, I would assume the Chief is on the top floor with those five other people, right?"

They started going up each flight of stairs as they spoke.

"Correct. He's also in the furthest corner from our entry point. We'll have to get past all five of those other officers to get to him."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Lotus scoffed.

"These ones will at least have their auras unlocked," Widow pointed out as they continued to climb.

"So did the one that opened the door."

"True enough. He was exceptionally weak, though. Overconfidence breeds recklessness, little spider," Widow chastised, "We'll see when we're close enough to feel their aura levels."

Together they ascended the last few flights of stairs to the door that would lead them into the main office. Widow paused and closed her eyes, concentrating beyond the metal door, "I'll get a better sense of their aura levels once we crack the door open. There's no one nearby." With another use of her semblance, Widow pulled the large metal door ajar and focused again, "Three are of average strength, still less than either of us. Three are exceptional, including the Chief himself," her eyes opened and glanced at Lotus as she considered their chances, "We need to kill at least one of the stronger ones before the true fight starts."

At a nod from Lotus, they quietly hefted the door open the rest of the way and entered the room, footsteps obscured already by the soft carpet beneath them. The room was full of cubicles, and Lotus could feel the officers spread out among them, going about their paperwork or filing things on to their computer systems. There were three among the cubicles to their left, and two to their right, with the police Chief in a closed off office on the right behind the other two. They stealthily entered a row of cubicles.

"There is one strong aura on the left, and two on the right," Widow whispered as she took in their surroundings again, "the one on the left is further apart than the others. We'll have a better chance of killing him before anyone can respond. If we are noticed, I want you to engage the other two on the left side. Take them out as quickly as you can. I'll keep the Chief and the other two busy until you can join me."

Thanks to Widow's semblance masking the area around them, the two were entirely silent as they made their way through the rows of cubicles, heads down and with their senses on high alert for anyone that might feel the need to stand or walk around. They remained at their desks, though, and after a minute, the two assassins were positioned behind their first target.

Lotus could feel his exact position. She didn't need to turn the corner to see what her appendages were doing, or where they were. She raised two of them above the cubicle walls, and the other two around its side. With one last moment to prepare herself, she lashed downwards with the two that had been above. They slammed down on to his shoulders and forced him to the ground out of his chair. Widow's semblance kept the resulting clatter and scuffle from being heard, as Lotus repeatedly rammed all four appendages against his aura. The man was defenseless, and incapable of pulling himself out of the hold.

After the eighth strike, she finally broke his aura and pierced down through his chest into the floor beneath. 'Eight?' That was by far the most it had ever taken. Without turning the corner, Lotus felt his body go completely still, last breath escaping his lungs even as his blood soaked into the carpet beneath him.

They both breathed out a sigh of relief that they had managed to get the first down without anyone noticing. Widow pointed down another row, towards their second target, "We may as well get rid of the other two weaker ones on this side while we're at it."

Lotus let her semblance vanish then reappear to remove the blood that stained them. 'Never know when a human might suddenly realize they have a sense of smell.' The two continued their grisly task, and managed to take down both of the others in a similar fashion before crossing the room back to where the two others and the police chief were. They had gotten halfway back across the room when they felt the Chief step out of his office.

"Spruce! I know you can see my emails! Send me that report I asked for!" Biscotti yelled across the office. The two assassins froze, 'Welp, there goes our cover.' The Police Chief frowned, looking out across the cubicles, "Spruce…?" The other two nearby noticed the commotion and also stood. Biscotti raised his voice again in uncertainty, "Officer Stone, Officer Sage…?" Silence was his only reply, "What is going on here!?"

Widow whispered to Lotus, "Change of plans. Just kill them all."

Lotus grinned, 'Might as well make this more entertaining, right?' She flexed her appendages in preparation for a leap. The snap of her extra legs propelled her towards the ceiling. She flipped midair, piercing her appendages through it and holding her regular feet up against the ceiling as if she was crouched against it, upside down. Clinging to the surface somehow felt more natural than she would have thought. Three faces stared up at her in shock and fear. Lotus didn't bother waiting for them to recover, but instead launched herself at them in a flurry of invisible limbs.

Shots bounced off both aura and appendage as the 'exceptional aura' man recovered, whipping out his pistol and firing shots at her. Lotus spared an extra appendage on his side, putting three between herself and him, and dedicated her focus to the weaker man still struggling to pull his gun from its holster. 'A bullet will do the same damage no matter who shoots it.' Lotus kept a barrier of limbs between herself and the exceptional man and used her last available to jab at the other repeatedly. 'One, two, three!' Lotus counted the blows she slammed into his aura before the final one stabbed through his abdomen and out his back in a burst of blood and gore.

Widow had already engaged Biscotti, leaving Lotus free to take on the exceptional man. His eyes were wide as she turned back to him. He was reaching down to change out another magazine for his pistol when Lotus decided it would be best to stop that. From behind her shield of invisible limbs, she hurled the man that was still on her fourth leg. The limp body slammed straight into the other man, knocking him back a few paces and interrupting his reload. Lotus used that limb to then launch herself forward at him, other three raised to strike.

The man recovered quickly and threw himself to the side, likely realizing that something was about to collide with him that he couldn't see. He shifted his gun's form mid-roll and came back up to his feet with a sword in hand, edges aflame with the fire dust that powered it. Only then did Lotus notice the scaled tail protruding from behind him. She paused in her attack.

Cold fury twisted her face as she realized that a faunus was helping the police, "Traitor! Why are you working with the humans!?"

The man's eyes narrowed, but he seemed keen on delaying his own death long enough to answer, "Because humans are not the only ones capable of committing crimes." He nodded back towards the body that had been thrown into him, Lotus's previous kill. The sounds of combat rang out from behind her, but she knew Widow could hold her own.

"The faunus are only retaliating against the humans for what they've done to us for hundreds of years!" Lotus launched back into the fight, but was holding herself back still. 'Why!? Why would a faunus take the side of the humans!?'

"The men you killed hadn't done anything to the faunus! They had sworn themselves to upholding the law, for both man and beast! You're too blinded by revenge to see it!" the reptile faunus yelled, desperately trying to block Lotus's attacks. He was doing better than she would have expected, likely due to his own increased senses, but her attacks were overwhelming. Already she had hit him with four blows, dropping his aura level by half.

"Humans kill faunus! They don't care to judge them by their own deeds!" Lotus's attacks continued with increased vigor, "Jace didn't deserve to die!"

"Neither did the man behind you! He was my partner! I knew him better than you ever will! the man screamed it at her, now pressed back to the breaking point. His aura was shattered, and each blow that got by was leaving gouges in his flesh. His body was trembling with the effort, but still he kept trying to block, kept trying to dodge, kept trying to survive.

Lotus's attacks eased up again, 'Partner?' she scoffed, but there was a seed of doubt now planted in her heart, "A human and a faunus working together? It would never work!"

"It was working!" tears reached the man's eyes, his body moments away from giving in, "He was my best friend!" The faunus's eyes grew wild, hatred searing its way across his face, "And you took that away from me!" In one final act of desperation and anger, he ripped his ammo belt off, dust rounds lining the length of it, and ignited his sword one last time. It slashed across the belt, cutting its way through all of the dust ammunition it held.

The resulting explosion blew Lotus back against the far wall, lightning, ice, and fire arced through the air in a concussive blast that annihilated the surrounding cubicles. The faunus was caught up in his own explosion, and died instantly with no aura to protect himself. Lotus felt her own flicker. She was close to losing it, losing access to the limbs she needed to stay alive in a situation like this. Her eyes whipped to the side, towards Widow's fight with Biscotti in time to see her take a blow to the chest. Widow's aura broke.

There was no time for rational thought. Lotus screamed in rage and launched herself once more into the fray. Her appendages created an impenetrable wall between Biscotti and Widow, blocking off his next attack that had been aimed for her throat. The sword glanced off her limbs instead, and Biscotti had time for his eyes to widen before all four wrapped around him in a death grip. His aura shattered in only a few moments as Lotus sawed the edges across his entire body. With one final twist they sank through, slicing both flesh and bone. Blood and gore gushed out from between the appendages like a waterfall.

Lotus threw his body through the glass window back into his office, where he collided with the desk and lay still, a bloody mess of blood and exposed bones. She didn't care. She had eyes only for Widow.

"Are you okay!?"

Widow breathed heavily, "It's… about time… we got out of here…" She sheathed her daggers and strode towards the stairwell, "The others will have heard that explosion."

Lotus nodded and took the lead, bounding down the stairs four at a time. The door to the third floor opened as she got there, 'Weak.' One appendage was sufficient to end the life of the maintenance worker that stepped through. Lotus felt a stab of guilt, 'Did he have a family? Friends that will miss him the way I miss my comrades?' She shook herself, now was not the time for second guessing. Still, when the bottom door opened and another maintenance worker stepped out, eyes opening in fear, she only knocked him unconscious in her passing.

The two assassins left the building in a dead sprint, crossing the parking lot with none of the stealth they had on the way in. In thirty seconds they were out of the parking lot and back into the shadows of the alleyway. They dipped into hiding as police cars began arriving, sirens wailing and lights flashing as they came to a screeching halt in front of the Precinct.

"Let's not stick around long enough for them to find us," Widow huffed out one final ragged breath and stood back up. They left the way they had come. The sirens grew quiet in the distance.

After a few minutes of silence, Lotus brought up the thought that was refusing to leave her in peace, "One of them was a faunus."

Widow growled low in her throat, "A traitor. Think nothing of it, little spider. Some faunus are misguided into believing the humans could ever be something besides our enemies."

Lotus nodded, but deep down, the seed of doubt was beginning to sprout. 'What had their names been?' Ren… and Nora. They had been… 'I didn't know them long enough to call them friends… but… I liked them. I liked those humans. Would they have cared if they knew I was a faunus?' Somehow, she doubted either would have held it against her.

The seed blossomed.

'Is what we're doing… right?'