"Doctor October Fall?" Marron asked again, making sure she heard the convicted criminal correctly.
"Yeah, Doctor Fall. Cinder's dad." Mercury reiterated.
"How is that possible? According to Ozpin, after he was arrested, Cinder and her sisters were separated by the foster departments and separated into different kingdoms." she explained, thinking the story of what the Huntsmen had on Cinder Fall was all they needed on intel for her.
"Well, considering Cinder's downward spiral into a life of crime and being an anarchist, she made up with dear ol' dad." Mercury shrugged before leaning in. "And that's really all I know. The only reason I know about that is because my dad worked the case that brought him in before I ran away from home."
"If your dad was a cop, you must've fell pretty far from the tree." Marron deadpanned.
"Nice insult. I'll be sure to use it if I ever run into cop kids behind bars." the silver-haired ruffian sarcastically quipped. "Also, I thought you were the one begging me to stay on topic."
With a slight smirk at that remark, Marron decided to heed his words. "Alright, you've answered my questions; now help me with a theory." she ordered.
"And what do I get in return?" Mercury asked.
"The opportunity to keep that face of yours pretty for your court appearance in the next few minutes." she threatened with a crack of her knuckles.
"You don't punch as nearly as hard as Yang Xiao Long." he sneered.
"Wanna put money on that bet?" she fought back. Weighing his options, he decided not to go out there and face the music looking like he just got in a prison brawl. As he leaned back in his chair, he gestured for the halberdier to ask away. "Good choice. Now, if it isn't Cinder, who is it, and would they want anything to do with the Schnee Dust Company?"
Mercury pondered for a moment with an audible 'Hmm.' before answering. "Well, Doctor Fall was Old Man Schnee's top egghead from what I heard. If it's him pulling the strings for whatever this is, he's bound to have someone you wouldn't expect acting as a man or woman on the inside for him."
Marron gave it some deep thought at who could be a possible double agent for Fall before her head turned to face the door at the sound of the locks disengaging. In stepped Commissioner Slate as two bailiffs passed between him and the seated blonde to gather Mercury. "I'm sure I'm interrupting a thrilling conversation, but that's all the time I can allot you, Marron." he apologized. "We're behind schedule enough as it is."
"I've got what I needed anyway." Marron shrugged as the click of the handcuffs being attached to Mercury's wrists was heard throughout the room. "Go easy on him. He was a good boy for once." she joked.
"If he wasn't partially responsible for one of the greatest attacks on one of our allies since the war forty years ago, I might take you up on that request." Slate answered, arms crossed over his chest, as the bailiffs lead the young criminal out and towards the courtroom. "Whatever it was, it better have been worth it."
"It'll do. Thanks again, Commissioner." Marron nodded gratefully.
"It was little trouble." the police commander said as he returned the nod. "Now this took quite a while. I suggest you get back to that team you were chaperoning."
The blonde's eyes grew wide as she remembered Team RWBY. "Oh, right! I could use a ride to the SDC."
The next few tests came and went as Team RWBY were pitted against different iterations of armored mechs poised to replace the Paladin-class. They ranged from the Vulcan-class, a glorified Paladin with built in flamethrowers that met an explosive end at the combination of Blake and Yang cutting the fuel lines and lighting it up with incendiary rounds, to the Reteiarius-class which ended up being ensnared in the binds fired from its own net gun before the girls could even land a hit on it. After defeating a forest-variant of the Paladin, complete with an axe and cannon that dubbed it the Port-class and named after their esteemed professor and famous Huntsman, another break occurred as the maintenance teams entered and went to cleaning the remaining pieces of the mech freshly destroyed by the four girls. Speaking of which, Team RWBY stood or knelt at different parts of the testing arena as they caught their breath and licked their wounds. Blake had a cut across her arm she was still in the process of healing from a near-miss from the axe. Yang was now sporting a decent-sized bruise on her stomach from catching a cannon blast she caught while off guard.
"It seems we're going to have to reinforce the armor and increase stabilization on the legs..." Weiss heard Rojas mumble as he surveyed the damage done to this prototype.
"It's something you can handle though, right?" Silbern asked. "My brother's already scheduled a testing for his foresting protection divisions in Mistral."
"I'll get our technicians working on it immediately." Rojas nodded before the men turned to face the girls.
"I'm afraid that's all we have for today, ladies." Silbern announced as he turned to face a clock on the wall behind the opaque protective barriers. It was only two hours away from the end of the work day.
"Aw, and to think I was just getting fired up!" Yang complained, ejecting the spent shells from Ember Celica and showering the floor with them.
"No need for worry, Miss Xiao Long. We'll have plenty of targets for you to take on tomorrow morning." Silbern nodded. "As for now, feel free to take a look around the offices if you so desire. Your work for the day is done, and you've all done a satisfactory job despite your supervising Huntsman not being here."
"ALL of us?" Weiss spoke up as the five turned to face her. "All of us really did satisfactory in these tests? Because I swear somebody basically said I haven't improved at all or impressed you in the slightest!" she snapped before storming off before a now confused Silbern could respond.
"Weiss, wait!" Ruby called, but the heiress did not heed her team leader's words and back towards the exit. Looking between Blake and Yang, the door, and Mister Schnee, who seemed to be doing his best to hide some sort of upset emotion Ruby couldn't make out. "Mister Schnee, I'm like, really sorry for Weiss' behavior. She's never done something like that before. Well, she has, but that was during an argument with Blake, and-"
"Miss Rose, please." Silbern interrupted, stopping the brunette reaper from continuing her apology at a mile a minute. "Just go calm her down. I have an idea what this was."
With a hesitant nod, RBY ran after their distraught teammate, discovering the few seconds of a head start was all she needed to baffle her friends where she ran off to. She wasn't in the lobby of the testing lab, as well as waiting in front of the elevators. "Damn, she could be anywhere now!" Yang complained.
"Let's split up. You and Blake check upstairs and I'll check downstairs." Ruby suggested as she walked towards one of the elevators and tapped the "call elevator" button. Complying, Blake and Yang did the same for the center elevator out of the three. "And, girls? Remember the real reason we're here, okay? If you find anything, find a way to let me know, but be discreet." Ruby reminded as her elevator arrived and she began taking it down to the ground floor. A moment later, Blake and Yang's arrived, only for one person to walk out of it onto the floor they were waiting on.
"Ah, Miss Belladonna and Xiao Long." Winter nodded as she stepped out of the elevator. "Is everything alright?"
"Not exactly. Have you seen your sister around?" Yang asked.
"Weiss? No, I haven't since I left the lab earlier." the elder Schnee sister shook her head. "Did I miss something?"
"Somewhat." Blake answered. "You wouldn't mind if we looked around upstairs for her, would you?"
"Not at all. Just be sure to show your VIP passes for the guards to know you're allowed up there." Winter reiterated before the two Huntresses could enter the elevator. With the permission, Yang decided to hit the top floor button that read "Floor 25: Executive Offices". It wasn't until the realization they'd be visiting one of the most upper class offices in all of Remnant that she and her raven-haired companion realized the two of them worked up quite the sweat. A pungent, almost metallic scent now filled the elevator.
"Heh...Probably should've hit the showers first." Yang quipped, fanning the smell away from her own nose.
"No turning back now." Blake shrugged as the elevator stopped in an almost blindingly white room out of the elevator into a hallway adorned with portraits of former CEO's and board members. Before they could even step out, two Atlesian Knight drones met them as they stood in front of the elevator doors at attention.
"Please show clearance cards or descend from this floor." one ordered in a heavily synthesized voice. Without hesitation to the security drone's order, Blake produced her's from her pocket, as Yang swiped hers from between her bosom and held it up for the robots to see. Confirming their authenticity, the drones stepped aside. "Thank you: VIP members. Please enjoy our hospitality." the drone complied as it let the two huntresses pass.
"Well, that was easy." the blonde shrugged as she re-pocketed her pass. "So, where should we start?"
"I'd say Silbern's office." Blake suggested as she stopped in front of two huge glass doors with the Schnee family crest carved into it. With a surprisingly easy picking of the lock on the door, Blake pushed it open and stepped into the large office. Above his desk in front of them and the huge bookshelves sat the same family portrait Weiss showed the ninja before they left for Atlas, but in a traditional painting form. Around the room seemed to be two smaller offices walled off from the rest of the office, the only light in the whole room either coming from the skylights above the smaller offices of the giant Dust crystal above them that made up a chandelier. "Weiss? Are you in here?" Blake called, getting no response, even after a few silent seconds of waiting for one. "Damn." she cursed.
"It's okay, Blake. We'll find her." Yang reassured her as she walked around to give the office a look. "But, we might as well look for clues while we're here." she smirked as she unceremoniously plopped into the swiveling armchair that sat behind Silbern's desk, immediately pulling up the desktop to his computer without hesitation. "No password? No wonder this company keeps getting stolen from." Yang muttered as Blake looked around. Scrolling through the number of files on his desktop alone, it took Yang a while of looking before she came across one open file labeled "Losses and Thefts". Intrigued, the blonde began scrolling through that, seeing it as an opportunity to find some of the dirt they were looking for.
In the case of the other member of Team RWBY present in the room, Blake was going between the two smaller offices. Upon closer inspection, she discovered the plaques hanging on their doors read the names of both Schnee sisters, Weiss and Winter. These were offices especially for them. While Weiss' was completely empty, save for a desk, chair, and a box of files, Winter's was more furnished being an active executive for the company. Her desk sat surrounded by plaques and accolades from her diploma from graduating Beacon to a mounted set of bladed revolvers that sat on the wall to the right of her desk. Like her teammate who took the initiative to check the computers first, Blake was about to check Winter's before something that glinted off the afternoon sunlight caught her attention from the alabaster desk in front of her. Picking it up, Blake took a good look at the bronze telegram with suspicion before the sound of Yang exclaiming something caught her ears.
"Blake, you might wanna take a good look at this!"
Pocketing the telegram, Blake speedily walked back into the main office and up to the CEO's desk as Yang waived her over. "Yang, I swear, if this is just you showing that video of the two girls and the cup again-"
"This time, I'm serious, Blake. Okay?" Yang defended before pointing to the screen. "Take a look at these files."
With a shrug, Blake looked over the documents Yang had on screen. At first glance, they just seemed to be a list of their products that had been lost or stolen. As she looked them over, she noticed something interesting. From the shipping dossier of a certain stolen train the Faunus girl remembered awfully well were labled with a few dozen Paladin mechs. Instead of them being labeled 'stolen' in the document, they were listed as 'paid in full'.
"You see that? Why would paid merchandise be thrown in with their stolen shipment files?" Yang asked.
"I'm not sure. Get this on your Scroll. We'll need it as evidence." Blake suggested. With a nod, the brawler attached her phone to a port at the base o the screen projector, and the file transfer began. Just as Blake started looking around, she heard footsteps coming from the hall. Thinking quickly, she dove under the desk, dragging Yang down underneath it and out of sight as the doors were forced open
"Bah, that troublesomen girl of mine!" The girls heard the recognizable voice of Silbern Schnee curse.
"Father, Weiss did...well for her first year. What has you so upset with her?" another voice asked, the hidden Huntresses identifying it as Winter's.
"For her to embarrass me like that in front of my own employees and business partners, that is the most disrespectful thing she has ever done to disgrace the family name!" Silbern practically shouted. "Winter, as of this moment, you are the sole heir to the company."
Winter sounded like she let out a shocked and exasperated exhale before responding. "Father, just reconsider this for a minute. You don't expect Weiss to be somewhat upset with your criticism of her first year at Beacon?" she then asked.
"Are you questioning me now, Winter?" her father asked, his voice becoming threatening.
"No. I'm just giving reason as to why she may have went off on you like that." the elder Schnee sister defended.
"Either way, she has the next few days to make me change my mind." he replied with a huff before the sound of footsteps grew closer, and Blake and Yang saw a shadow of someone coming behind the desk. Holding their breath, they tried to keep quiet as Silbern now stood in front of the desk. "Hmm? What's this? I left my computer...open...Huh." they heard him mutter to himself.
"Something wrong, Father?" Winter asked as the executive started walking away. The girls hidden in plain sight let out a silent sigh of relief.
"I need to have a word with the shipping department. They listed those stolen Paladins from last year under Completed Sales." he answered as his footsteps left the room. Blake and Yang were about to reveal themselves before hearing Winter's footsteps again, noticing she hadn't left the room. She now replaced Silbern's position in front of his desk as she looked over the files on the computer in question.
"Hmm. I'll need to be more careful covering my tracks." they heard her murmur before she shut down the computer and waited for her to leave. It wasn't until both girls were sure they were alone that they crawled out from behind Silbern's desk.
"What did she mean by that?" Yang asked.
"Read this. It'll give you the answer." Blake told her partner as she handed her the telegram she took from Winter's office, giving the brawler a moment to inspect it before understanding what the raven-haired girl was getting at.
"No way. Weiss' own sister?" Yang gritted her teeth, nearly going to crumple the piece of parchment before remembering it was evidence.
"We were told the double agent may be someone high up in the company. We probably should've expected something like this." Blake solemnly nodded.
"But still, this is going to be a pain in the ass to break to her." Yang grimaced as she looked at the telegram again. "What does it mean though? A new queen on the board?"
"We'll figure it out soon. Right now, we need to focus on finding Weiss." Blake reminded as they began walking out of the office to continue their search.
I'm just going to cut it short there for now. I'm sorry for keeping you all waiting this long for the next chapter. This was supposed to be longer, but I promised myself two things about this fic: To get the next chapter out before 2016, and get it out during the break RWBY has been taking for the new year. There's supposed to be a moment you'll have to wait until next time to see (Sorry btw), but I'm glad I was just able to get this out. Leave a comment down below to tell me what you think of it so far, and I'll see you lads and lasses in 2016!
