Spider's Web

Six Years Ago

No one could remember her first name anymore. No one could remember the name she was born with either.

Just how she liked it.

Lil' Miss Malachite was not surprised when the one-eyed huntress came prowling into her tavern. The girl had been far more subtle than most teenagers when she'd came sniffing around, looking for Mistral's criminal families. Well, looking for the most powerful one anyway.

She didn't think that particularly arrogant of her to say. She owned three of the city's councilors, bought and paid for with a mixture of blackmail, lien, and simple arrangements. None of the other families could claim more than one... though she would have gladly traded one of her politicians to know exactly who Lionheart was owned by.

Lien was temporary. Knowledge was power.

The huntress stopped when her guards blocked her path, not allowing her to approach until the girl flashed a great deal of lien.

"Let her pass." Malachite ordered. The poor thing had been delayed for two weeks already, time that her Spiders had spent digging up every bit of information they could find on the girl.

Information that had proven... most interesting indeed.

"Let us see what the White Fang's favorite Human wants with little ol' me."

The girl didn't react beyond slipping between the men, taking the seat across from her. When she spoke it was in a low, sultry voice. She'd had have any boy her age eating out of her hand, but a woman as old as her could tell it was an act. The suave tones coming from her lips clashed badly with the wary edge in her expression.

"I see that you are as well informed as I was told." Fall carefully adjusted her bow-blade, letting it rest against her chair. "Good."

"Information is my business, little Cinder." She drawled, noting the slight tension in the girl's shoulders. "Oh relax girlie. You're good at this game for someone who should still be in schoolin', but I've got twenty years on you. Tell me whatcha need, and what you're offerin'."

A golden eye narrowed, then she slowly reached into one of her vest's pockets. It emerged with the same lien she'd flashed her boys, a rather sizable amount finding itself on the table between them.

"Two matters." Fall's voice lost the fake-tones, becoming cool, no-nonsense. It fit her scarred visage far better. "I need legitimate identification, and I need to know the names and locations of two men."

Humming, Malachite reached out in turn, gently nudging the stack of currency a little to inspect the values. It was a sizable amount. Enough for the first of those requests, but not nearly for the second.

"Well, that's certainly enough to peak my interest." She leaned back. "But I'm afraid it's not quite enough for what you're askin'."

Fists clenched. "It is all I have. It must be enough."

Malachite narrowed her eyes. "I make the decisions on what is enough and not, girlie. But I'm a fair minded woman, and I'll make you a deal. I'll take the money for this meetin' and for whatever paperwork you need done on the side. If you want information on dangerous men, then I want to know exactly what's going on in the White Fang in return."

Fall was silent for several seconds, then she nodded once. "The lien up front, your questions about the Fang after you tell me what I need to know."

Precocious little thing, wasn't she? Bold yet rude, like most Atlesians.

"All right." Fingers gently pushed the lien back into a proper stack before she pulled it onto her side of the table. "Tell me what you need."

"A hunter's license." She replied at once. "One good enough to pass security inspections in any kingdom, to take any legitimate missions offered. If need be to allow me access to any huntsman academy as well."

Holding up a hand, she motioned for one of her spiders to start on that. Graz nodded, pulled out his scroll, and started typing down notes.

"That can be arranged, but we'll need a few more details. If you want to say you went to an Academy we'll have to age ya up a bit."

Fall shook her head at once. "No. Such lies can be caught out. This must look as valid as possible."

Interestin'. "A girl your age with a license will draw attention."

"I am aware."

Malachite hummed once more. "Well then. If you want this to look good I can have a proper evaluation arranged. The outcome will be fixed, of course, but that's not all that unusual here in Mistral. You want to use your sobriquet, or would you rather-"

"Cinder Fall." The girl snapped. "Is my only name."

Her eyebrows rose. Legally, in Atlas, she knew for certain that Cinder White was still listed as deceased. Killed in a tragic hotel fire that had seen her adopted family burned alive.

"How about your origin and residency?" She probed. "You prefer Menagerie, Mistral, or At-"

"Kuo Kuona, Menagerie." Fall interrupted her once again.

Oh yes. This was getting very interesting. She could practically taste her hatred of her old home. "Well all right then."

She ran her through the rest of it easily enough. Getting her age, height, weight, that sort of thing. Then she dismissed the girl, telling her to return in a week's time.

"Lil' Miss..." Graz rumbled from his place behind her. "...how are we handling that one?"

"By doing exactly as she asked, o' course." Picking up her tankard, she took a small sip of the heavy ale within. "Such a shame the girl forgot to ask for confidentiality though. Put the word out that she's here through the usual webs. Let's see just who she hates so much in Atlas that she'd come to us for help."

Her lieutenant grunted. "Could just be the usual faunus prejudice if she was raised among them."

"Maybe, but we don't rely on guesswork, do we?"

"No ma'am. I'll get the ball rolling on this right away."

"Good lad." She sipped more ale, settled back in her chair, and nodded for the guards to guide the next poor soul in to her web. She doubted they'd be as intriguing as the last little fly to be caught, but so few lived interesting lives these days. So few did anything that really made her old heart flutter with the thrill of new knowledge, of new power.

And somehow she just knew that the next week would prove to be most exciting.

Cinder Fall

Present Day

It took the White Fang a week to go through all three of the lap scrolls, sifting through their files to discover what they could.

"Fall." Berg Tukson sat down across from me, a small stack of paperwork landing on the table. "This is what I've got."

Setting my morning tea aside, I pulled the documentation over. "Summarize it."

The bookseller turned revolutionary sighed but did as he was told. "Whoever told you that Coppersmith's corrupt didn't know the half of it. The man's taking so many bribes from so many people it's a wonder how he keeps them all happy. That actually turned out to be a good thing. He's in so deep he has to keep notes on what he promised to who to keep it all straight."

"Open bribery?" I asked.

"Most if it's," He made air quotes around the words, his voice dripping with sarcasm, "Campaign Donations, but there's also the usual side stuff. His daughter has a full ride to Cloud University in Atlas thanks to the SDC, both of his sons got cushy jobs at Winchester-Arms, and his wife has been drawing a massive salary to make a documentary that's been curiously stuck in development hell for most of a decade now."

I snorted. "Would any of it give me leverage over him?"

He rolled a broad shoulder. "I doubt he'd like any of it dumped online. Worst of it is probably his emails with the SDC's board. They're his biggest contributors, and I've got mail and note files filled with marching orders to rollback both the minimum wage and racial equality laws."

"And what of my target?"

Tukson grimaced. "Good news and bad news there. Good news is that I managed to grab one encrypted email that he copied to another folder, bad news is that it doesn't have much in it. It's page five."

My fingers quickly turned the pages over, flicking through them until I got the appropriate one.

There wasn't much there.

From: Vincent-Saint-Sinclair

To: Warren Coppersmith – Councilor's Office

Subject: Mister Coppersmith,

My company has receieved your request for further investment into the transportation and removals sector. Sadly all of our sales representatives are booked through mid-summer. As a valued customer, please be assured that we will give your request our full attention as soon as we have an available agent.

Yours most respectfully,

V. Saint-Sinclair, Public Relations Representative

I pursed my lips and glanced up at him, "VIP?"

"Vale Independent Patronage." He supplied. "A legitimate investment firm so far as I can tell. Complete with the sender as one of their top sales agents."

"They are hardly subtle with the acronyms, are they?"

Tukson snorted. "Not really, but that might be the point. Anyone who knows that they're around would recognize that they aren't to be messed with."

True enough. It could also simply be a way of providing a public face for the organization. They'd need someone to interact with the Kingdom's government after all. Someone who could walk into their public offices without needing a mask. It wouldn't surprise me if the current Vincent Saint-Sinclair was merely the latest in a line of agents taking up the exact same name.

"And that was the only evidence you could find?"

"Considering that I also found a script that deletes anything from that address? Yeah. Not sure why Coppersmith saved just that one, but I get the feeling he wasn't supposed to."

Pursing my lips, I lowered my gaze back down to the short letter. What about the apparently simple code would have warranted the Councilor keeping this particular item?

Tukson went on while I thought on it, his own voice puzzled. "Not seeing why. Looks like a pretty routine request to look into Torchwick's robbery spree that they're putting off thanks to not having enough agents."

If that was all it was he wouldn't have saved it. No, there was something else there. "Was there a file attached?"

"No."

Frustrating. Waving for him to be silent, I focused on the words, reading them slowly once more. Then once again. It couldn't be overly complicated. No secret service worth their name would give a replaceable politician access to an actual cipher. Not in electronic form when it was entirely possible that it could be hacked, or simply shared. Especially if they knew just how susceptible Coppersmith was to outside influence.

No. It was simple, and right in front of my eye. I simply had to see it.

"Request for future investment." I focused on those words. "Ah. This isn't a request from Coppermisth to the VSS, it's a demand in the other direction."

The terrorist frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that they want to investigate Roman's burglaries but need more funding, perhaps more agents, to accomplish that along with whatever else they're up to." I explained patiently. Tukson was more competent than most of the White Fang, but he could be dreadfully slow at times. "The reference to him being valuable is a threat, not an honor. Telling him that he's their man in the Council, but only because he's their customer."

He grunted. "All right, but what the hell does a shadowy intelligence agency care about Roman Torchwick for? He's a middling talent Huntsman turned thief."

Because Roman knew of them, had gone up against them before if he was to be believed.

"That is the question." I lied without directly lying. "I need an address and schedule for Mister Sinclair."

"Page six."

Lifting my visible eyebrow, I flipped over to the next page to find a full biography for my newest target. Complete with his home's location, a basic floor plan, his office hours, and an image of a rather handsome man of middling years.

"No favorite food? I expected at least that much, if not an hourly break down of his daily routine."

Tukson chuckled. "Give me another week."

"This will be sufficient." I rose to my feet, taking the papers with me. "Excellent work as always. Leave this matter to me, give the rest to Adam when he returns. I'm certain he will be thrilled to have excuses to take action against a Councilor."

The chuckles faded quietly. "True enough. I just hope he gets the bloodshed to a minimum."

I shrugged carelessly as I walked away. Competent or not, Tukson was surprisingly squeamish and uncertain about the new direction of the White Fang. This despite the fact that Sienna had been running things for years now.

And in truth, Adam was far more moderate in his actions than some of the others in the organization. The Atlas branch in particular tended to be... well. Even I would struggled to have found any particular use for them, assuming they didn't try to attack me on sight simply for being Human. Of course that was why Sienna perennially exiled the most radical members to that branch, where they could both be contained and do the most damage to Atlas.

A shame she'd come up with the idea on her own before I could suggest it. I'd have liked to have more leverage over her than I did.

Shaking my head, I forced my mind to focus on the present. I now had a target to evaluate, stalk, and possibly ambush. There would be implications and dangers involved in all three of those tasks. I had to be focused.

Which was why I was rather displeased to find Blake waiting for me just outside of my office.

In specific, it was her tense body language and nervous expression that displeased me.

"What is it?" I demanded as I walked, brushing past her without stopping. "I finally have good news, I do not need setbacks."

"We need your help with the militia." She said, following me inside.

Of course they did. Tossing my new information onto my desk, I turned to face her, hands on my hips. "I thought you dispatched Trifa to handle that, with several of your new recruits to back her up."

Feline ears flattened. "They were attacked by Grimm on their way. She's fine but two of the recruits were wounded. She's escorting them to Mountain Glenn for treatment."

I exhaled sharply. "This is no longer a good time."

"I know, and we're sorry." She ducked her head. "But there's too many Grimm in the region for us to send anyone but Hunters, and all of ours our busy."

"Or being kept out of combat." I said pointedly.

Blake flinched, the barb striking home. "You know I hate it when you bring that up."

"And I cannot understand why you put up with being kept on a leash." I countered, using language I knew would make her bristle. "You're being used as a political tool by Sienna, nothing more. If you desire to actually be a huntress you need to take action."

"I..." She shook her head. "...I can't go. If you're gone we need at least one person with aura here."

Cowardly as always.

Something of my thoughts must have shown in my expression because she rushed to go on, "But I can help you in return! You've got a target now, right? You've found one of the agents? I can put them under surveillance for you. Follow them. I can have a full report ready when you get back."

That... made me pause. "That could be dangerous work."

"You said I had to take action." She countered at once. "I know it's not what you meant, but it's something. Your work would still get done while you help us."

I regarded her stoically and said nothing.

"Please." Blake lowered her voice. "There are families in danger out there. I'll... I'll do more for you when you get back. I'll spar with Emerald whenever you want, all summer. The White Fang will owe you a favor."

I let out a slow breath. "I really must give you more lessons on proper negotiations. You're too quick to give in to desperation."

She perked up at once. "You'll go?"

"How serious is the Grimm situation?"

"Three bounties available." Well, at least she'd done a bit of research in advance. That would do as a cover for my movements, and perhaps even throw Ozpin off slightly.

"Call Emerald." I ordered. "Tell her that I will be picking her up tonight, but that we will be heading out on a mission at once. Have her ask her teammates what their own plans are, and if they are interested in participating."

"I will."

I went on as if she hadn't spoken, before she could pull out her scroll. "While I am gone, you will go over all of the information I received from Tukson. You will observe the target from a safe distance and you will not use any of your incompetent recruits for this task. It must be done quietly, professionally. He must have no idea he's under surveillance."

Blake nodded. "I can do that. You know I can."

True. For all of her flighty faults, the girl was a natural talent when it came to that line of work. If only she didn't also have a compulsive need to get involved that routinely required someone, usually Adam or Amitola, come rushing to her rescue.

My barbed words aside, Sienna hadn't been wrong to bar the girl from combat situations. It was all too likely that she'd get herself killed doing something foolish.

"You can." I allowed, "But you will do nothing more. There will be no repeat of the Glade Festival, understood?"

Those ears flattened again. "That was one time."

"Would you like me to list the others alphabetically, or chronologically?"

The low whine made her sound more like a depressed puppy than a hardened terrorist. "I know you're not happy, but can you please not take it out on me?"

I was being fairly gentle all things considered. Partly because I'd half expected this after our conversation last week, though I'd held out some hope that they'd settle the affair on their own.

"If you wish me to be gentle and supportive, you should find a new mentor." I told her. "I expect a full report that I can act on when I return, and I expect you here rather than in jail or face down in the river."

"I can handle it."

A single long step brought me closer to her, my single eye boring into each of hers in turn. At least until she lowered them.

"I will not be held responsible to your parents for your death, Blake." I dropped my voice to a hard growl. "While I do not agree with their soft politics anymore than you do, I will never stop respecting them for what they did for me. I will not be the one to have to tell them you died doing something stupid on my behalf."

She jerked her chin in a tiny nod. "I won't. Silent observation. I promise."

Reaching out, I caught her chin between two fingers and pushed it up. "If you want to be powerful, stop fearing so easily."

"I'll... try."

I sighed and released her. "Call Emerald while I claim the appropriate contracts. Go."

She nodded once more, then retreated as quickly as she could without leaving a shadow clone behind.

I waited until she left before letting out a frustrated sigh. How typical. No sooner is progress made than I am forced to act in the support of my allies, lest I lose my status as a trusted comrade. That would be unacceptable for any number of reasons. The very real chance I'd lose my comfortable and protected-by-terrorists home for one.

Blake truly did need more education. She'd had all of the leverage she'd needed to force me to act, she hadn't needed to break down and beg in the slightest. I'd have to work on that if I was going to turn her into a useful agent.

And this trip...

Well, it wouldn't be totally useless. I'd be able to drill more field-craft into Emerald at a minimum. Acquire more lien in a legal fashion for another. Perhaps even throw off the VSS by not taking immediate action against them. There was every risk that they'd still remove their public agent of course, or that they'd notice Blake despite her skills.

Was it worth the consequences?

I considered that as I paced around my desk, slowly easing myself into my comfortable chair.

Putting Ghira and Kali's daughter in harms way was dangerous, even if I was only using her as a distant spy... but I needed someone to do so. The VSS had been alarmed enough to break into my false-home, which meant they might be alarmed enough to pull Saint-Sinclair out of his public persona.

If that happened while I was gone, I needed to know. I would need a lead to follow on my return.

Otherwise I would be back to having nothing to show for all of this...

And I would not accept that.

Please read and review, criticism is welcome, flames not so much, as usual. Reviews are my lifeblood as a writer.. every-time my email goes off with a review it makes me want to write more, so please take the time to leave one. Guests can leave them as well, and it only takes a minute, so please. Even if it's as simple as "I enjoyed it, please continue."

Thanks, Kat