Chapter 28
It had been a few weeks since her sister and Blake had gotten back from their honeymoon - they had spent a couple months out in Menagerie to help Blake find some closure with her parents and establish some peaceful connections between Raven and Ghira/Kali as a side project on top of the more… pleasurable experiences they partook in - and Ruby was starting to make some progress on helping Penny - Penelope - remember her and her friends. The irony hadn't been lost on her that Jacques' torture had resulted in the Maiden's memory ending up with amnesia. If nothing else, this gave her a deeper understanding for what Weiss had to go through with her after the initial battle with Paulette. At least she could take comfort in knowing that - according to what Penelope could gleam from some of the memories she could access in the here and now - that the angry A.I. had come to regret what she had done in her final moments. Still, she'd need to remember to give Weiss a kiss later: the heiress truly did love her if she had been willing to put up with her, especially if she were to assume that her situation had any similarities to what she was experiencing with Penelope, which she did.
Speaking of Weiss; the Schnee heiress had just finished cleaning up the mess she had made in the kitchen while the fruits of her labors finished baking in the oven. Weiss had been living in the Xiao Long household ever since they shut down Project Guardsman, refusing to go back to her abusive father. It had been a challenge adapting to a more modest life than what she'd grown up with, but she was determined to pull through. She had even sent in an application to attend Signal next semester so that she could finish her training and receive her huntress licence.
Just as she finished sweeping up all of the spilled flour, there was a knock on the doorway behind her. "Miss Schnee? Do you have a minute?" Taiyang asked.
"Certainly, Mr. Xiao Long." Weiss set aside her broom and took a seat at the kitchen table.
Taiyang sat opposite of her as he spoke. "Now, I want to talk to you about the aptitude test you took to enter my school."
Weiss held her head high with a proud smile. "Are you so impressed with my score that you wanted to say this privately to avoid making your daughters feel envious?"
"Uh… I'm having you retake it."
"WHAT?!" Weiss' jaw dropped. "But why?!"
"You didn't answer the questions." He explained, handing the sheet over for her to read. "You just wrote your name combined with my daughter's for every answer."
Weiss blushed bright red as she examined the answer sheet. Sure enough, every line was filled with names like; "Weiss Rose, Ruby Schnee, Weiss Schnee-Rose, Ruby Rose-Schnee, Mrs. Weiss Schnee-Rose" and so on. Weiss gulped, nervously, as she sank into her seat. "Uh, M-m-m-mister Xiao Long, I d-don't… I don't know what to say, I-"
"I was hoping to bring this subject up under better circumstances…" Taiyang began again. "But since you're still a guest in this house, I have to ask; what are your intentions with my daughter?"
"I-intentions?" Weiss blushed deeper. "Well, I haven't… haven't really thought much about long term, sir. But I do know that I have very strong feelings for Ruby."
"I see." Taiyang nodded. "Well, I can see that Ruby likes you, too, so I'll try to be fair. But make no mistake; if you hurt her in any way-"
"You'll kill me?" Weiss smiled, sheepishly. "Well, I'm afraid to tell you there's going to be a line."
"Right." Taiyang chuckled. "Yang can be pretty intense."
Just then, the oven's timer went off. "Oh! The cookies I made are ready!" Weiss slipped on the oven mits and pulled out the pan. She had forgotten to spray the pan, so scraping the cookies onto a plate was difficult at first. "It has chocolate chips and strawberries! I've spent days trying to get the recipe just right. Here, sir! Have the first one as a thank you for letting me stay here!"
Reluctantly, Taiyang selected one of the smaller burnt chunks and took a bite. Resisting the urge to gag, the veteran huntsman smiled as best he could. "Well… in all my years of cooking for two girls, I can honestly say I've never tasted anything like this!"
"Why, thank you, sir!" Weiss smiled, and carried the rest of the cookies off with a happy skip in her step. Had she stayed a few seconds longer, she would have seen Taiyang spit out the cookie.
"Poor Ruby…" He whispered.
Meanwhile, Weiss didn't find Ruby in her bedroom or in the living room. After checking the rest of the house, she yelled out. "Yang, get out here!"
As Yang ran out, the youngest Schnee daughter couldn't help but give a sigh of relief. "Okay, good, you aren't playing 'pet the cat' with Blake again…"
Yang shook her head, even as a teasing smirk graced her face. "No, I was trying to figure out where Ruby was...but I'll be sure to get to that as soon as I'm sure my sister's safe."
Weiss nodded. "Good to know we're on the same page. Uh, the part about where you want to make sure Ruby is safe, not the part where…"
"It's fine, I know what you meant…" Yang said with a chuckle, unable to keep an impish smirk from spreading across her lips. "Of course, if you feel like joining in, I might be able to convince Blake to make something work…"
Weiss couldn't help but groan in reply. "I swear, sometimes I wonder what Blake sees in you…" She sighed. "That aside, I'm guessing this means you don't know where Ruby is."
Yang shrugged. "I didn't say that: I managed to narrow down her location to somewhere around that simulation room Beacon installed a while back." She blinked. "...though I have to wonder, why are you looking for her? I mean, I'm her sister: it's my job to be concerned for her...but you? The only times I've seen someone other than family this concerned for someone else was when they…" Here, she paused, before giving Weiss a teasing grin. "Finally decided to give Ruby the booty call, eh?"
Weiss had to fight back her blush even as she leveled a glare at the blonde brawler. "Yes, Yang: I am definitely going to chain the girl two years younger then me to my bed when she's only recently been given 'The Talk'..."
Yang just gave her teammate a flat look. "Yeah, the sarcasm is very much appreciated."
Weiss sighed. "Look, I'll admit that I'm fond of your sister, but I'm not sure that she and I are quite that close at the moment." She raised an eyebrow. "Also, we're just going to have a sarcasm battle right now, right?"
Yang couldn't help but roll her eyes in reply. "Hey, you're the one who… Wait, were you being sarcastic right now by asking that?"
Here, Weiss couldn't help but wince. "...maybe we should drop this conversation and just get back to looking for Ruby."
Yang nodded. "Good plan."
At that moment, Ruby was exiting the school's basement with a heavy backpack slung over her shoulder. She was so close to finishing Penelope's new body; she just needed a few more pieces. "Hmm, I think there's some stuff in Beacon's old warehouses that you should be compatible with. We'll just have to go grab it and you should be good to go. I'm just sorry I couldn't find you something larger to store your core program in."
"It's okay, Ruby," Penelope declared from Ruby's smart watch. "I'm just lucky your watch is compatible with my program, period."
"Oh, Ruby, there you are," Weiss remarked as she too approached the empty academy. "I was hoping I'd run into…" ...and that was as far as she got before she found Ruby's lips on top of hers. She snorted as she broke the kiss. "Not that I'm complaining, but what was that for?"
"Oh, I need a reason to kiss my girlfriend now?" Ruby couldn't help but squirm a little as Weiss's cheeks turned a tomato red: she had to admit that her girlfriend was rather cute while flustered. "...but truth be told, I do have a reason. I've been working to help us access that information Uncle Qrow wanted us to, well, access, and it's been harder than I thought. Long story short, somewhere along the way, I realized that I haven't given you the amount of affection that I maybe should have."
"I appreciate it, Dolt, but it's not necessary," Weiss said with a grateful blush. "I knew when we started dating that I likely wouldn't get the same amount of affection as Penny did, but I'm not my father: I'm willing to take what I can get."
"Doesn't mean that I can't give you some more every now and then," Ruby declared, giving the girl another kiss on the cheek. "Still, other than trying to access the Maiden's memories and helping Beacon to rebuild, things have been rather quiet lately."
"True," Weiss nodded, "but like you said, we're still recovering from when we shut Project Guardsman down. Hopefully things won't get too hectic too quickly."
"You two." a harsh voice declared as an armed soldier approached them with a weapon at the ready. "Come with me. Now."
Ruby just sighed. "Weiss…"
"I know, I know. I jinxed it."
Sometime later, Dee, surrounded by a few dozen other huntsmen/huntresses, half of which were secretly corrupt in some way, shape, or form, fought to hide a smile as he readied to have Weiss and Ruby executed. "Ready, aim..."
Ruby quickly cleared her throat. "Uh, excuse me? Could someone explain to us what this is all about?"
Dudley, noticing that some of the non-corrupt half of the gathered huntsmen/huntresses briefly lowering their weapons, apparently having been asking that same question, quickly makes a show of emphasizing his very real frustration to try and get said huntsmen/huntresses back under control. "Is that really necessary? You're going to die anyways..."
Weiss shrugs and pointed to Ruby. "I can't speak for the dolt here, but this isn't the first time I've been on the wrong end of a gun, and at least they had the courtesy to let me know why I was about to die."
Dee briefly panicked as several of the legit huntsmen/huntresses dropped their weapons in shame at being compared to the White Fang and/or any of the other people/organizations that tried to attack the Schnee Dust Company and/or take any one of the Schnee children hostage. Managing to calm down for a while, he gave said huntsmen/huntresses a growl. "I'll deal with you later." He then turned back to glare at Ruby and Weiss. " ...and for the record, you should know full well what you did: you were in charge of our ammunition, and you lost it all." He blinked as Ruby briefly snorted in amusement. "...and exactly how is that funny to you?"
"Sorry, I know this isn't the best time, but really, you have to admit that it's kind of ironic that the reason you're about to shoot us is because we don't have enough ammo." Ruby smiled as some of the huntsmen/huntresses, both legit and corrupt, let out a chuckle of their own, quickly pointing them out. "See? They get it."
Weiss held a hand over her mouth to conceal her own brief chuckle before clearing her throat. "...and for the record, we didn't lose that ammo: we lent it to our teammates...and made sure to arrange to have said ammunition replaced as soon as possible."
One of the legit huntsmen couldn't help but blink. "Wait, was that the document Dudley ordered me to shred? And come to think of it, Dee never did let me see what exactly was in those crates he had me put into alternate storage." He lowered his weapon and turned towards the door. "Well, it'll be a simple measure to gather the crates, shredded papers, and some tape for said papers and we can..."
Dudley, having officially lost his patience, angrily shot the huntsman in the head before aiming it at everyone else, giving a growl as he did. "Nobody's going anywhere until Team RWBY's down to just two members!"
Weiss couldn't help but glare even as she held a startled Ruby close. "Wow, not even pretending to be anything more than a common thug now, are you?"
One of the corrupt huntsmen merely gave an arrogant smile. "Insult us all you want, but you'll be dead soon enough. So, any last words?"
Ruby, despite the obvious danger, couldn't help but suppress a smile. "Yeah: anyone else hear music?" Needless to say, she was practically squealing as Raven came barreling through the wall driving the Warthog, taking out Dee, Dudley, and the majority of the corrupt huntsmen/huntresses as she did. "Nice timing, Auntie Raven."
"Only the best for my niece." Raven said with a smirk before giving a quick look at her surroundings. "That's all them, right? Everyone else is on the level, right?" She paused as one last rogue huntsman tried to charge them...only for him to be stopped by one of Weiss' Glyphs.
"Yes, that's all of them." She said with a smile before she turned to the other huntsmen. "Can I trust you to hold them?" She turned to Raven after the huntsmen gave a nod of confirmation. "I'll join you in a bit: I need to find that alternate storage space that one guy mentioned before Dudley snuffed him out."
Raven shrugged. "Fair enough, but hurry up: we've got a lead on who was giving Dee and Dudley orders."
Weiss merely nodded. "Shouldn't take too long." She began to walk off before pausing. "Oh, but before I go: Ruby?" She gained a teasing grin. "Shotgun!"
"Fuck!" Ruby cursed, but then gained a wicked grin. "Shotgun's lap~!"
"FUCK!" Weiss blushed brighter than ever before.
A few minutes later, Weiss was desperately trying to hide her excitement as Ruby rested in her lap during the entire trip. "Where did you get this information?" She asked Raven.
"Well, your friend Coco mentioned seeing someone wearing armor similar to Qrow's talking to them on her scroll." Raven explained. "Apparently, Dee and Dudley were hired by this person to prevent Beacon from reopening."
"Where did she say she saw them?" Weiss rolled her eyes. "A sex shop?"
"She said it was 'someplace with some sand.'" Raven shrugged. "But last I checked, Team CFVY was just leaving an abandoned temple in the desert. And I think I know exactly where she's talking about. As soon as we pick up Yang and Blake, I'll create a portal and we can check it out."
Hours later, Team RWBY and Raven stepped through one of her portals. Yang was upset to see that she was once again coated in the strange yellow liquid, despite the others stepping through and remaining perfectly clean. "Just me?! Seriously?!" She fumed. "What is this yellow stuff?!"
"Oh, calm down, honey." Blake winked. "We can wash it off in the shower later tonight."
"Do you two ever stop?" Raven grunted, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, really?" Yang arched an eyebrow. "I'm going to get slut shamed by my mother who still wears thigh-highs?"
"I'm not slut shaming, I'm horniness shaming." Raven corrected. "You think just because I dress like this, I'm constantly trying to get in your dad's pants?"
"Well, why else do you hang out with him so much?"
Raven just shrugged with a modest smile. "He makes me laugh."
After Raven left to take care of Holly, Team RWBY went off to inspect the temple Coco had mentioned. Suddenly, the group spotted a small platoon of mercenaries being led by someone in Project Guardsman armor. They appeared to be a female, but the helmet seemed to distort their voice. "Damn it!" They cursed. "Alright, listen up! Dee and Dudley's ploy has failed. It won't be long before a group of huntsmen find out about our operation. We need to speed this up! Get inside!"
Ruby readied Crescent Rose with an anxious smile growing on her face. "Okay, this is it." She whispered to herself. "The final challenge between me and my best friend's new body." Suddenly, the hooded huntress felt the barrel of a firearm press against her head and heard the undeniable click of a bullet entering a chamber. "... crap." She muttered.
The mercenaries confiscated their weapons and shoved them in front of the leader. "Well, well, well…" They chuckled. "If it isn't the infamous Team RWBY?"
"Trifa?! Is that you?" Blake, eyes wide in shock/recognition, couldn't help but ask.
"Heh: I haven't heard that name in quite some time," came the reply of a male voice. With the voice-synthesizer deactivated, the leader took off his helmet, revealing a wicked grin. "Hello, ladies."
"Who are you!" Blake fumed. "Where's Trifa?!"
"Dr. Merlot is my name. I am what your society considers a 'mad scientist.' And as for Ms. Trifa…" The mercenary leader almost looked regretful as he slipped the helmet back over his head. "If it makes you feel any better, she went down fighting."
"What should we do with them, boss?" One mercenary asked, not noticing Ruby reaching for one of his grenades. "Kill 'em?"
"Not so fast, my good man." Merlot soothed. "They're no good to us dead… although, I suppose I could perform their autopsies…"
"Okay, start with theirs!" Ruby threw the grenade right in front of the mercenaries' feet. When everyone scattered away from the impending explosion, Ruby grabbed Crescent Rose and tossed the bag of other weapons to Weiss. "RUN!" She shouted.
The explosion kicked up a cloud of sand, blurring everyone's vision. Weiss and the others grabbed their own weapons and blindly fired into the mild sandstorm. Unfortunately, the mercenaries were equipped with special goggles that let them see clear as day. Soon enough, Team RWBY had just barely made it to the temple when they were surrounded by their attackers. One mercenary fired and struck Weiss in the leg, much to her teammate's dismay.
"Ha ha! Direct hit!" Merlot laughed. "Excellent work, Jones! You just earned yourself a raise!"
"Thank you, sir!" The mercenary replied. "But my name's actually pronounced 'Jo-An-Nes!'"
"Crap! We're surrounded!" Blake shouted. "What do we do?!"
Just then, a stone door slid open, revealing the missing Team JNPR. "Get in!" Jaune ordered.
Team RWBY entered the temple just in time before the stone door slammed shut. While the rest of the group coughed from the dust kicked up and tried to catch their breath, Ruby spotted a disabled Atlesian Knight-200. "Yes…" Her eyes sparkled. That's what I need."
While the hooded huntress took off her backpack to resume her project, the others caught up with JNPR. "Jaune, what's going on?" Blake asked. "Who are those people?"
"Hell if I know." Jaune shrugged. "All I know is that they can't break in. CAN YOU, ASSHOLES?!"
Suddenly, they hear a noise that came from the inside.
Jaune yelped. "Whoa! Did they break in?"
Blake blinked. "Wait, where's Ruby?"
"Ow! Hey, watch it!"
Ruby winced. "Ah, sorry! Sorry! Just hold still for a little longer!"
She then heard someone clear her throat. Turning, she saw that everyone had followed their voices until they found her...holding a severed Atlesian Knight-200 head with glowing green eyes, which no doubt must have looked odd without any context. Needless to say, Ruby couldn't help but give an embarrassed/sheepish grin. "... uh, I can explain."
Penelope, meanwhile, couldn't help but smile upon realizing that these were the friends Ruby had told her about. "SALUTATIONS! It's a pleasure to meet you!"
Weiss could only blink. "Wait a minute, I recognize that voice... Penny?"
Ruby shrugged. "Uh, kinda. I mean, not exactly. See, technically, this isn't really Penny. This is the memory of Penny. Her name is Penelope."
Penelope smiled. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"
"You already said that," Weiss declared, already feeling a strange sense of déjà vu.
"... so I did!"
Yang blinked, feeling a sense of déjà vu herself. "Wait, she has all of Penny's memories?"
"Uh, almost," Ruby said with a shrug. "Uncle Qrow mentioned that she had been damaged when the two of them were separated, which seems to have resulted in some repressed memories. Odds are that if she remembers them too fast, it could hurt her."
Ren raised an eyebrow. "So wait: does that mean that she doesn't remember us?"
Penelope smiled. "Oh, fret not, new friends! Ruby has told me all about you while I was trapped inside the unit! I already know you all!"
Despite how proud she was of how Ruby was handling the situation, Weiss couldn't help but have her doubts. "Oh, really? Then who am I?"
Penelope gained a thoughtful expression. "Hmmm... white hair, white clothes, grumpy face... you must be Weiss, the princess of Atlas?"
Blake snorts. "Well, she's not that far off. Who am I?"
Penelope smiled. "Oh! You must be Blake, the cat who likes to read filthy books and then reenact them with your wife, Yang, who is also Ruby's sister!"
Blake blushed. "N-no I don't!"
Yang smirked. "Funny: I don't remember saying 'No' to the possibility."
Penelope blinked even as Blake blush grew even brighter. "Oh, you're Yang? I thought it was the other yellow girl."
Jaune growled. "I'm not a girl!"
Penelope winced. "Apologies, but if you're not Yang and you're not a girl, then you must be John-"
"JAUNE!"
"And he's the boy who vomits on planes. The red one must be Pyrrha Nikos, the warrior whose judgement is clouded by one-sided love."
Nora smirked even as her two teammates both gave their own grumbles about that statement. "Do me! Do me!"
Penelope snorted. "You are, Nora. The crazy one."
Ren sighed. "And me?"
Penelope nodded. "And the last one must be Ren, the voice of reason among Team JNPR."
Ren blinked. "Huh, that's actually very accurate."
Weiss gave a bittersweet smile. "Wait for it..."
"And also, the tragic edgy ninja with a tortured past?"
Weiss snorted. "There it is."
"Wait a minute, where'd you get a fragment of Penny?" Blake asked.
"Oh, don't you remember, Blake?" Ruby smiled, proudly, as she explained. "Uncle Qrow gave it to me when we took down the SDC. I tried putting her inside Penny's first body, but it wasn't going to last very long. So, I've been looking for parts of other robots to give her a better body!"
"Wait, you mean the memory unit?" Weiss spluttered. "Ruby! You were supposed to give it to the authorities!"
"I'm sorry…" Ruby stammered. "But, aside from how the memory unit had a case of amnesia that I was trying to alleviate, Penny is my best friend, and I'd do anything to keep her safe. When Coco told us JNPR was at a place with lots of robot parts, I knew I could save her!"
"Wait… you guys didn't get our distress signal?" Jaune frowned.
"No, we did." Weiss shrugged. "It just didn't sound important at the time. We came because of what Coco told us."
"Oh, I see!" Jaune fumed. "We call you asking for help; nothing serious. Coco tells you some weird threesome story; red alert!"
"Yeah, pretty much." Yang grinned, enjoying Jaune's frustration.
"We must fight!" Penelope shouted, floating towards the entryway. "I am combat ready!"
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" Ruby protested, hugging the floating head to her chest in a vain attempt to keep her safe. But the head just dragged her along. "I am not losing you again!"
"You'd rather the sacrifice of Penny - the original Penny - have been in vain?" Penelope barked back. "Because that's what'll happen if you let everyone be sacrificed to keep me safe. I might not remember everything, but I do remember enough in the here and now to do some serious damage to Jacques' operation. Besides, Penny Polendina wouldn't just stand by and let that happen, and neither will I!"
"I...I'm sorry." Ruby declared as she bowed her head and shame. "I just...I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye to her or my Mom. I loved them, you know?"
"I miss Summer, too, Rubes," Yang remarked as she brought her sister into a hug. "But she wouldn't want you to be tied down by her memory… especially while she's still being held hostage by Jackass Schnee. The thing about love is that if you truly care about someone, the best thing you can do is let them go. If he or she comes back, they're yours to keep, but if not, they were never yours in the first place."
"She's right," Weiss declared with a nod. "President Schnee couldn't accept that Summer Rose wasn't his, so he tried to chain her down. Do you want to make that same mistake with Penny?"
"...no," Ruby said with a determined glare. "I don't want that at all. I'm not going to stop until Jacques' Project Guardsman is reduced to ashes."
"And we'll be right behind you the whole time." Blake said with a grin. "So, what's the plan, Ruby?"
"Okay, Jaune? You opened the door before, so I assume you know how to open it?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, when you open it again, it'll throw them off long enough for us to attack them!"
"... that's your strategy?!" Weiss spluttered. "We're going to wing it?!"
"Well, considering we are literally trapped in here…" Ruby pointed out, motioning to the empty temple room. "... we don't have many more options."
"... damn, I hate when you're right." Weiss muttered.
"Okay, Penelope, stay behind me." Ruby ordered as she reloaded Crescent Rose. "Yang and Pyrrha will take point while Weiss shields them with a glyph."
"But I can help!" Penelope protested.
"You are a head!" Ruby snapped back. "So why don't you quit while you are!"
At last, Jaune reopened the door and the two teams forced their way through the crowd of mercenaries. Weiss' semblance was being pushed to its limit as it absorbed multiple types of dust being fired from the enemy weapons. Thankfully, the others were able to defend her.
However, Yang somehow managed to get seperated from the group as the majority of the mercenaries died down. Unfortunately, she hadn't noticed that her aura was dangerously low as someone snuck up behind her. A gunshot went off, and Yang fell to the ground.
Dr. Merlot growled even as he pointed his gun at his wounded adversary, even in spite of his own, far more severe injuries. "Yang Xiao Long, daughter of Raven Brawnwen, and just like her mother, both of them, quite insistent on interfering in business that doesn't concern her. I knew that I should have killed you the moment I set my eyes on you, in spite of the respect my late comrade had for them!"
Yang, having filed away that bit about her mother - both of them - for later, couldn't help but snort. "Hey, the way you choose to dress up as her, I suspect she was more than a 'comrade'...but that actually raises the question: what are you up to that both of my mothers would be meddling in your affairs?"
Dr. Merlot gave a bitter chuckle. "Doesn't matter now, because I'm going to kill you...and then I'm going after your sister next!"
Penny simply floated over to him with a growl. "Over my dead body!"
Dr. Merlot gave an arrogant chuckle, quirking an eyebrow as he did. "Whatever you are, what could you possibly do to stop me?" He quickly paled as Penny's eye started to glow and he realized what was about to happen. "Oh, son of a..." The sinister scientist was cut off by a bolt of lightning that fried his entire body.
Penny soon found herself glaring at Dr. Merlot's corpse. "My name is Penelope Polendina and you will fear my laser face!"
Yang smirked. "Ooh, hell yeah! That's what you get for thinking you can mess with the daughters of Raven Branwen and Summer Rose!"
Meanwhile, Ruby's only response was to give a happy clap. "Penny, that was awesome! How'd you do that?"
Penenelope could only move as if to shrug. "I'm not sure, really: I just got really mad and it just...happened."
Weiss couldn't help but shudder. "Note to self: be extra nice to Ruby and Penny from now on."
"This is great!" Ruby hugged the floating head as she cheered. "Penny's back, we're all together, and nothing could ever go wrong at this point!"
Meanwhile, at the floating kingdom of Atlas, a certain huntsman was being led out of his prison cell. Qrow Branwen stood before General Ironwood in chains. "Hello, Agent Gray." Ironwood greeted. "Guards, leave us."
The guards saluted and exited the room without a word. Qrow glared at his former employer. "What's up, Jimmy?"
"I must say, I was surprised that you didn't use your semblance to escape." Ironwood mused, leaning back in his chair. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you don't have it, anymore."
"What do you want, James?"
"Well, as it turns out, your niece and her friends failed to hand Penelope over to the authorities." Ironwood explained. "We have reason to believe that Ms. Rose has been working to rebuild her friend. We need to get Penelope back before she reveals our operations."
"Why should I care?" Qrow shrugged. Internally, he was screaming in frustration at the fact that Ruby hadn't done what he asked her to.
"Because, this is your chance to redeem yourself." Ironwood elaborated. "If you help us get Penelope back, we'll absolve you of all your crimes, and give you your huntsman licence back."
Qrow seemed to consider the offer for a minute. At last, he gave his reply. "Deal. When do I leave?"
"Are you sure, Branwen?" Ironwood asked. "How do you expect your niece to comply when you ask her to surrender her best friend?"
Qrow let loose a dark chuckle from his throat. "Jim. Jimmy. Jimmy-boy… I've been betrayed, lied to, shot in the back, and locked up and left for dead. What the hell makes you think I'm going to ask?"
To Be Continued.
