Chapter 73: Final touches.
"Men rise from one ambition to another: first, they seek to secure themselves against attack, and then they attack others." ~ Niccolo Machiavelli.
I was having a business lunch when Yang had her match against Mercury. I was meeting with Vincent in a local pizza joint when it all went down.
"Isn't that the girl who visited you at the club? Your old Beacon friend?" Vincent said, pointing a finger at the television mounted at the corner of the room. We had a booth in the back and the bartender was watching so that no one disturbed us or tried to listen in on our conversation.
I turned my head and watched as the match started. "Yeah, that's her." I said, taking more notice of her opponent. Mercury, I didn't know what was going on but just seeing the two of them squaring off against one another made me nervous. There was no way it was just a coincidence, Cinder was playing her hand in some way.
Vincent gave a low whistle. "Man, not to sound like a creep but if I was your age going to that school I would not have been able to concentrate."
"I don't think there's any way a man of your age can say that without sounding creepy." I told him, looking back and grabbing my beer and taking a sip.
"Yeah, sorry. Let's get back to business." Vincent said to me.
"Did you do it?" I asked him.
"Yeah, it's done." Vincent told me. "The guys hit the place last night."
"How'd you do it?" I asked him.
"This isn't the first time the Family raided an evidence lockup." Vincent told me. "We got the crate and set fire to the place, it'll take them a while to realize that shipment of missiles is missing, eventually they're going to find that a lot of stuff isn't in the ashes."
"Are they hunting an arsonist now?" I asked them.
"I don't know, but I told our associates to get out of town, and they took a few other random items to cover tracks." Vincent explained to me. "And we sent that shipment off to White Peak like you ordered."
"Excellent." I said, happy to hear his report.
"That's a lot of work for one crate of missiles." Vincent told me. "Whatever the badges think about all of this they're not going to be happy."
"Let me worry about that. I'm just glad that you managed to get this all together on such short notice." I said to him.
"Yeah well, if you ever need anything stolen or a building burned down I know the right guys to call." Vincent told me. "But I must admit that this would have gone a lot easier if they had Neo, she's good at this kind of thing,"
"Like I told you, she's currently busy." I said to him.
Vincent nodded and looked back up towards the screen. "Looks like she won."
I looked back towards the bar and gazed at the screen. Sure enough Yang was standing over Mercury with the screen flashing news that she was the victor. That had been a surprise to me, I had expected Mercury had some plan to beat her in the match or something but here she was the certified winner.
Then she struck.
I watched the gauntlet go down and blast his leg as he laid there on the ground of the stadium appearing helpless. I listened to Oobleck and Port exclaim their shock at the event before the feed was cut out.
"What the fuck!?" Vincent said. "Why the hell did she do that? With all those fucking cameras rolling?"
"I don't know…" I lied, this was clearly Cinder's hand at work and I was more than sure that they had used Emerald's semblance to trick her into doing that. Though the idea of Mercury taking a blow like that directly to his leg seemed like it would put him out of action for a while, not exactly a good thing considering Cinder's deadline was approaching.
"Fuck, that's the same girl that wrecked up Junior's club, right?" Vincent asked me.
"She is." I confirmed to him.
"Fuck, maybe she's just a loose cannon." Vincent said. "Poor bastard probably said something that set her off. Back when I was an associate I knew this guy who would go from friend to enemy in the blink of an eye, if you said the wrong thing he'd shoot ya. My friends and I always had to watch what we said to him."
"Gods." I exclaimed. "What happened to him?"
"Ended up going to prison for attacking a civilian, died in prison." Vincent said with a shrug. "That's what usually happens to guys like that, they never last. Though I wouldn't think to find anyone like that at Beacon, especially not a pretty girl like that."
"You get all types going to Beacon." I told him, not that I was indulging any of his thoughts. Yang wasn't cruel or violent, not like in the way many of the criminals here were. But Yang certainly could be hot headed and was the type to think with her fists first and her brain second. It was one of the things that made her an effective fighter, but it was probably why Cinder chose to have her doing this.
The bartender looked at us staring at the screen. "You see this shit! Fucking academy student! Poor guy is probably lucky to still have a leg."
I gave a grunt of agreement but I kept my thoughts about this to myself as Vincent and I finished our lunch together. I exited the joint where Russel and Deery were waiting for me with a car.
"Did you see this shit?" Deery said, holding her phone as it played Yang's attack on Mercury again and again.
"I saw, it's probably one of Cinder's tricks." I told them as I climbed into the back seat and buckled in.
"Of course it's a trick." Russel said to me. "What I don't get is why."
"I think it's to cause a panic." I explained to them. "Make everyone think things aren't alright at Beacon, cause worry."
"You mean it's to attract the grimm?" Deery asked.
I nodded as we drove.
"Is Blake still planning on meeting?" Russel asked me.
I pulled my scroll from my pocket and checked my texts to Blake. I had been quite surprised when Neo explained that she had made contact with her and had enlisted her assistance. The texts I made to Blake afterwards had been rather tense as well. Mostly because we kept all our conversations brief and to the point. I arranged a drop off of the items Neo needed and we were talking about a simple meeting for her to pass me that data chip.
I personally wasn't sure how I felt about seeing her again. Neo told me that she had observed how strained her relationship with her own team had become and I knew that I was to blame for it. I didn't know if I should apologize to her or not. The fact of the matter was there were so many things left unsaid between us and I wasn't sure how to say any of them.
"She hasn't texted me to cancel, so I guess things are still on for now." I reported to them.
"So back to the penthouse?" Russel asked from the driver's seat.
I nodded and he put the car into drive.
"How's Cardin doing?" I asked. I hadn't seen him in a day or so, and after having him practically attached to the hip it felt a little weird to have him missing.
"I think life as a caporegime isn't agreeing with him." Deery told me. "Running the rackets out of that airport is keeping him busy with a lot of desk work."
"He'll adjust, I did." I said, having a hard time imagining it myself.
"I hope so, I heard that some members of the baggage union were stirring up trouble and Cardin almost went down himself to introduce them to Executioner, and Victor's soldiers haven't been adjusting very well." Russel explained to me.
"I'm keeping an eye on Victor's soldiers, but if any of them are too much trouble I'll relocate them." I explained.
"They won't like that." Deery told me.
"Then they'll have to start playing nice with Cardin. They worked for a traitor and I won't be having them causing problems." I explained to them.
"I'll be sure to tell Cardin that the next time I see him." Russel told me as we arrived back at the penthouse.
We took the elevator up and got inside. I checked my scroll again to see that there were no new messages from Neo. I reached for the chain that held my good luck ring and gave it a squeeze. So far her time away at Beacon had been quiet, my businesses meanwhile were just long hours performing my duties as acting Don and occasional visits back to the Torchwick estate to work with Sienna and Tukson.
Despite being able to text her anytime I wanted, I missed her dearly. Just being able to speak with little text messages wasn't enough for me. Everything about this job that I took in stride was just easier with her by my side, everything felt lighter with her by my side. I missed her quiet presence, the subtle sound of her breathing as I fell asleep. It hadn't been that long but between the stress of it all it felt a lot longer.
And my little conversation with Melanie kept replaying in my mind again and again.
I released the ring and proceeded to change into my clothes, putting on a fresh suit and going back into the living room. I still had hours before I was supposed to be meeting with Blake. I turned my television on and flipped through channels. A lot of it was talking about Yang's incident, people jumping on the opportunity to criticize Beacon and Ozpin and everything else they could connect to it. Had the circumstances had been a little different, I would have been pleased to see some fingers pointed at Ozpin, but every talking journalist or two bit politician meant that Cinder was getting her way.
I turned the television off and sighed. That feeling I got when I was about to pull a job had been hanging over me the last several days. That constant tension before I robbed some dust or shot Michail, it was like I was feeling that all the time. And knowing that the key to everything I needed was going to be delivered was making me nervous and there was no helping that feeling, the countdown had already started and when every moment was one, I knew something wasn't ready.
A ring came at my door and I turned to face it. I was about to stand up and answer when Russel stepped in with Deery drawing one of his blades and moving towards the door and peering through the peephole.
"It's Neo." Russell said, pulling away and opening the door, letting it swing in to reveal her. She was dressed in what I assume was a Haven uniform.
I looked at her and smiled.
"Hi - I'm - home." She greeted, stepping inside and looking around.
"Hey." I said, giving her a smile. Just seeing her brightened everything up to me. Watching her talk to me, her hands flashing towards me was refreshing. This was truly her voice, it's hard to explain but the way her hands moved in the series of elaborate gestures was unique. It was far more intimate than some bland text messages.
"You should have called me, I would have sent someone to pick you up." I told her, walking across the room towards her.
"I - needed - a - walk." Neo said with a shrug.
"That shit with Yang… did you?" Russel asked her.
Neo nodded to us. "Cinder - and - I - posed - as - paramedics - and - flew - Mercury - away - in - a - medical - bullhead."
"How's Mercury?" I asked. "I'm guessing Emerald tricked Yang into doing that but the blow still seemed serious."
"He's - fine. The - bastard - has - metal - legs." Neo explained to me. "Emerald - used - her - semblance - to - trick - the - real - paramedics - into - seeing - it - wrecked."
"I see." I told her.
It wasn't much, but it gave me some information on Mercury.
"Did - you - get - the - chip - from - Blake?" Neo asked me.
"Not yet, we were supposed to meet her in a few hours. We were just relaxing." I explained to her. "Would you like to come with us?"
She gave me a nod. "I - suppose - I - should - take - the - opportunity - to - thank - Blake. But - first - I - want - out - of - this - fucking - uniform."
I smiled and we walked into our bedroom together. Neo stripped off the school uniform and got some of her own clothes, seeming quite happy to be back into her usual wardrobe.
"I've missed you." I told her after she had finished inspecting her appearance in the mirror as if she needed to look at herself to know that she was back.
'I - know - I - missed - you - too." She told me. "How - have - things - been - for - the - Family?"
"Quiet for the most part." I told her. "With Victor gone, no one has bothered to make a move against me. Which is good because I've been needing to focus on Cinder and Adam."
"And - how- is- that- going?" She asked me.
"As well as can be expected." I told her. "Those guns Tony was hoarding have been shipped out, I had some cops tipped off to a shipment of missiles and had Vincent arrange for the evidence lockup to be robbed and burned so we have a good batch of surface to air missiles."
"Have - you - told - Junior - and - Sophia - about - what's - coming?" She asked me.
I shook my head. "Not yet, I wanted to wait until we had the data first."
She gave me a nod. We sat down and she went over her time in Beacon, telling me about the things she didn't communicate in text and about how she got Blake to clear out the locker room so she could copy Cinder's data.
"You had Blake start a fire!? In Beacon!?" I exclaimed, surprised that they resorted to such a measure and that Blake had actually done it.
"Just - a - small - one." Neo told me, all face innocence. "And - it - worked."
Considering Vincent had just used a little arson to cover up that little evidence robbery I shouldn't have been too surprised that Neo would choose to resort to such a tactic herself.
"Well if it works, it works." I said to her. "And it's too late for Ozpin or Glynda to get suspicious about it right now."
"Cinder - was - quite - suspicious - of - me - after - that." Neo admitted to me.
"Well there's nothing to be done about it at the moment." I said with a shrug. "We'll be on our guard, but I doubt that Cinder would risk making a move against me so close to her plan. And she's not dumb enough to start shit over some suspicions."
Neo gave a nod of agreement. A fight with me and the Family would be too much trouble for her at the moment, at least that's what I hoped she would do. Cinder could be hot headed, even paranoid, but she thankfully was one smart bitch. Smart people make logical and predictable plays with what they have, and putting myself into her stiletto heels and thinking about things from her perspective told me that she was more afraid of making the wrong move over the right one. As far as she could assume, I was still an ally who didn't take the easy option of squealing to Ozpin when I had the chance and I didn't have the firepower to fight her and Adam.
Cinder didn't have enough reason to go after me, she didn't know about Sienna or her stolen data or all the guns that were being moved out. If she did she would have done something about it already.
"So - I - guess - the - only - thing - we - need - now - is - the - data." Neo said, looking quite pleased with herself.
"Yeah… you're amazing, you know that right?" I asked her.
She nodded. "I - wouldn't - mind - if - you - said - it - a - little - more - often."
I cracked a smile at her. "Alright, I will, you're amazing."
"Blake - was - the - key - to - all - of - it." Neo admitted to me.
"I was actually surprised that you tried trusting her." I commented, reaching out and putting my hand on her shoulder.
"I - figured - it's - what - you - would - have - done." She told me. "You - always - knew - how - to - make - friends - and - look - past - all - the - bullshit."
"You still have an axe to grind against her, don't you?" I asked her.
Neo shrugged. "I - don't - know - anymore. I - haven't - forgiven - her - or - anything - but - I - understand - that - she - was - just - doing - what - she - thought - was - right. Especially - considering - what - Roman - and - I - were - doing - at - the - time."
"Well, war can certainly lead to strange bedfellows." I said with a shrug.
Neo gave a nod of agreement.
We continued to talk for the little time we still had together before eventually leaving for our scheduled meeting with Blake. The two of us loaded into my car with Russel and Deery driving towards the north end of town towards the docks, stepping into one of Sal's old tuna packing plants. It was one of the better places for the two of us to be meeting. I was certain that no one would be spying on us there without us finding out about it.
We stepped inside and waited amongst the canning machines and all the stuff designed to shred the fish up before being packed in a tin can. I had given Blake instructions on how to get in here and I only needed to access the security cameras with my scroll to see her approaching from the rooftop. She found the door on the roof that we had left unlocked and stepped inside. I could hear her not so quiet footsteps as she descended the metal stairs.
I looked over to see her descending the stairs one step at a time.
I had spent the last hour thinking about how I was going to greet her. And seeing her now I still had no idea how to break the ice with her. Thankfully she spared me the trouble. Her amber eyes locked with mine and she stepped closer.
"Did you know?" She asked her, skipping past pleasantries and getting right to business. "Did you know what they were going to do with Yang!?"
"No." I answered her truthfully, holding her amber gaze as I answered her. "But if I did know what she was going to do, I wouldn't have done anything to stop her."
Blake was the one to break the gaze, looking away at me to stare at the dirty wall. "Everyone thinks that she… they think she's crazy, or worse that she just enjoys hurting people like that."
"I'm sorry." I told her, stepping closer,. I almost put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her but decided that it'd be too much. "If I could have stopped it Cinder would have caught on that we're undermining her. She needs to think that everything is going according to plan so for the time being it has to all go according to plan."
"According to plan!?" Blake asked me. "Yang is out of the tournament! She's lucky to still be going to Beacon after all of this! The whole fucking world is falling for this bullsht! And you're telling me that it has to happen because of some plan!?"
"There's more on the line than Yang's reputation." I told her. "You know that."
"That's easy to say when she's the one suffering for this." Blake told me.
I shrugged. She had a point and I wasn't going to argue with her about this. We were all bearing our own burdens to make this work. "I'm not going to pretend that any of this is right Blake, only necessary."
She sighed and reached into her pocket. She pulled a tiny plastic dime bag and handed it over to me. I accepted and looked inside to see the tiny little data chip. Everything I needed was right there in this small little thing.
I looked back up into Blake's eyes.
"Thank you." I said to her, pocketing the data chip.
"A part of me is still wondering if I should go to Ozpin with this." Blake told me. "Tell him exactly who Cinder is and everything else."
"Do you want to trust him?" I asked her. "Do you even believe he'd trust us?"
"I don't know, and even if I was willing to trust him, the fact of the matter is that Ironwood is the one calling the shots now and I certainly don't trust him." Blake explained to me.
Knowing Ironwood, he'd probably send his army and fight it out. A prospect that I doubted would be much better than our current predicament. The city was already stressed enough and Adam's forces were in place. There was no changing the fact that the city was already a powder keg and some spark was going to set it off.
"So… what am I supposed to do now?" Blake asked me, looking a little hurt. "Just go back… and pretend to be a normal student and wait for all of this to go down?"
"I'll be in touch. We need to trust each other." I explained to Blake. "But for now… do that. Go back, pretend to be whatever you need to pretend to be and comfort Yang because she probably needs a friend to believe her right now. But everything is going to be falling into place very soon, and I intend to be there when it happens."
Blake nodded and looked away.
"I can't believe this is what it's come to. I trust criminals over anyone, including my own friends." Blake said with a regretful sigh.
"No, you're deciding to trust me as a friend. And I'm grateful for that." I told her honestly.
"I'm - grateful - as - well. I - couldn't - have - done - this - without - you." Neo told her, stepping forward and flashing her hands for me to translate for her.
"When this is all over, I'm sure we can clear Yang's good name. But that's going to have to wait until Cinder and Adam are both taken care of." I explained to her.
Blake looked over to us. "How are you planning on taking care of him?"
"We have a few ideas. But we won't decide anything until we take a look at this data." I explained to her.
"Be careful, he's ruthless, he'll fight to the very end if given the chance. He'll take everyone with him if he must." Blake told me, the fear of him evident in her voice. "He'll kill you if he has the chance."
"I'm not planning on playing fair Blake. If I do this right, he won't even have a chance to fight back." I assured her.
"I should be handling him myself." Blake told me.
"He's not your responsibility!" I told her firmly, stepping forward and putting my hand on her shoulder. "None of this is your responsibility!"
"But if I had-." Blake said.
"No!" I interrupted. "No buts! You needed to get away and you got away, everything else is on him, just him. And I'm going to take him down because it's what needs to be done!"
Blake closed her eyes and I could see that she was trying to keep herself from crying. I wasn't quite sure what to do, so I embraced her, held her against me to offer whatever comfort I could. I stole a glance in Neo's direction. She didn't seem to be begrudging me for this, she too once had a lover turned enemy and she put him down all the same. I knew she understood, a part of it at least.
"I just… I wish it didn't have to be like this. I have so many regrets." Blake whispered as her head buried into my shoulder.
"I know, I have my own regrets." I told her. "But please, let me handle him. I'm probably going to need you at Beacon."
She stepped away out of my embrace and nodded. She quickly wiped her tears away and looked back at me and Neo. "Fine… I suppose I should be getting back to Beacon now. I don't want to miss that last bullhead."
"Yeah." I said with a nod, eager to get back to the estate and look over this intel with Sienna and Tukson. "But like I said, I'll be in touch."
"We'll - both - be - in - touch." Neo assured her.
Blake nodded and turned around sparing one last glance back before she ascended the metal stairs up and away from the two of us. I looked into my pocket and looked at the data chip.
"We got it." I said, unable to contain a smile from creeping across my face. "We fucking got it!"
Neo returned my smile as I handed it off to her. Keeping something so small and precious made me nervous and I decided I'd rather have her keeping a hold of it instead of holding it myself.
We left the tuna packing plant and drove to the Torchwick estate. While we were in the car, we plugged the chip into a special scroll we had prepared and started delving through Cinder's data.
We looked through a large number of files. Cinder wasn't stupid enough to have her data stored under a file name "evil plon' or anything like that. And at cursory glance it all seemed like stuff a normal student would have on their scrolls. Pictures, homework assignments she uploaded to throw off any teachers that gave it a look through. We checked through them all one by one before finding one encrypted file.
The encryption was hardly a problem. In fact it was expected. We had already preloaded this scroll with special software for the occasion, a benefit of having someone like Lil Miss investing in tech companies. We only needed to wait for the software to do its job.
"How was it?" Deery asked as we cruised along the freeway towards Longshore.
"What do you mean?" I asked her as I watched the little number showing the percentage it had decrypted.
"She's wondering how it felt being face to face with Blake again." Russel told me, earning an elbow from his girlfriend.
"Not getting enough gossip in your life?" I asked her, mildly annoyed and anxious as I watched the decryption go up just another percent. "Is my personal shit that interesting?"
"Sorry boss." Deery said to me.
"Whatever I had with Blake isn't important anymore." I reprimanded her. "This meeting was strictly business. Understand?"
"Yes boss." Deery said obediently.
Neo gave me a look. "Don't - be - like - that. She's - your - friend - she - cares."
"I - know." I signed back to her. "But - I'm - trying - to - put - that - all - behind - me."
"Behind - you? If - you - didn't - have - this - history - with - Blake - she - wouldn't - have - helped - us - and - we - wouldn't - have - gotten - this - data."
"I - know." I admitted to her, not sure how comfortable I was having this conversation in the car. Even if we were keeping it to sign language. I could see Deery stealing a couple of glances back at us as we signed.
"Do - you - think - I - doubt - our - relationship - because - of - her?" Neo asked me, not dropping the subject like I had hoped.
"I - have - worried - about - that." I confessed.
"Well - I - don't." Neo assured me. "I'm - not - that - petty."
I gave her a nod and looked back at the scroll. I stared at it intently as it counted down from ninety six percent all the way to a hundred. I opened the file and looked at all the secrets it had to offer.
Everything was in there. The White Fang's targets, their flight path into the city, the location of their base, a plot to cause panic with a bomb in Amity Arena before hacking into the video feed, unloading a virus into Ironwood's fleet command and sending his Atlesian knights after the people of Vale.
It was all the puzzle pieces I was missing and what's more, most of it aligned with those that I already had.
We arrived back at the estate and walked in greeting Gretchen and asking her to summon Sienna and Tukson to the library right away and to make us some expresso. I had no doubt that we would be here all night going over Cinder's data and our own plans with a fine toothed comb. I was going to make Cinder regret being such a meticulous record keeper, this was going to be the rope which I used to hang that bitch.
"I trust you had a reason for making Gretchen interrupt my evening bath." Sienna said, stepping into the library with her hair up in a towel and smelling strongly of soap and wrapped in a lush red bathrobe.
"I think you're starting to forget who's home this really is." I commented dryly to her.
"You told me to make myself at home and I've been doing that for weeks now." Sienna told me, sitting down on one of the comfortable arm chairs. "I'll happily leave once this is all over."
"Well it is, and we're going to win." I said, putting the scroll down on the table and passing it towards her.
Sienna picked it up and glanced over the file I had left open for her.
"Where did you get this?" She asked me.
"Straight from the source, Neo stole it with some help." I explained to her.
"Have you read this over?" Sienna asked me.
"I perused it on the drive over here." I explained to her. "Cinder intends to start this all off with a bomb in the belly of Amity Arena, she'll televise the whole thing and deliver a speech she's written to frighten as many people as possible. By that time, Adam's forces are already in route with grimm that they're going to deploy into the stadium to attack the spectators and gathered students in the hope of isolating whatever huntsman and huntsman in training are located on the floating stadium, trapping them there or at the very least slowing their deployment. A second group is going to be touching down over by Beacon and deploy more grimm followed by some White Fang troops. She's hoping to find something at Beacon in all the chaos."
"I see, is that all?" Sienna asked me.
"There's more, but those are the points I feel we need to focus on." I explained to her. "Some of the details on Adam's side are sparse, but she gives me a general idea. But I think these parts are what we need to focus on. We stop that bomb, we take out Adam before he and his forces even reach Vale, move in on their base while our forces start intercepting their cells here in the city. If we can do all of that, then Cinder's plan won't have a leg to stand on."
"What about Roman?" Sienna asked me. "Cinder's plan was using the chaos of all this to get him out."
"We're going to be fighting White Fang in the street, and knowing what kind of firepower they're packing, it'll be impossible to keep Ironwood's forces away from it for very long. I'm thinking we use Cinder's bullhead docking code then and board his airship that way. I have some ideas on how we can spring him free." I explained to her.
"Interesting idea." Tukson said, finally showing his face and stepping in. "With that kind of fighting in the streets the General will probably have to deploy the bulk of his troops."
"And most of his troops are those silly robots." Sienna said, acknowledging my idea.
"But let's focus on stopping Cinder and Adam." I said, wanting to put Roman's rescue on the backburner. I already had an idea on exactly who I wanted to talk to about that little plan and Sienna didn't need to be involved. "Let's figure out how many wrenches we can throw into this fucking machine."
We pulled up the data and started pouring over it all. The flight path, Cinder's bomb plan for Amity, Adam's base of opperations hidden out in Mountian Glenn. Anything and everything we could think of or examine we did. We worked long into the night, taking our dinner in the library as we focused on our own forces and their capabilities.
"Are you sure these… Motley's are up to the task?" Sienna asked me.
"They're one of the tougher gangs under the Family's employ." I assured her, dropping the smoldering butt of my cigar into the tray where a dozen already smoked ones rested. "I've already been sending weapons their way, they're mixed faunus, and they know the area better than almost anyone. They're the best option we have."
"Really? Bikers are the best you can manage?" Tukson asked me, sounding dubious.
"These bikers stole more dust than everyone in Adam's White Fang." I told them seriously. "I know what I'm talking about, they'll be able to deal with this probably better than anyone."
"Fine, I'll work with these… bikers." Sienna told me with a sigh as she laid back on the couch massaging her eyes.
"I'll tell Babe to have them all on their best behavior." I assured her, certain that she already could keep them in line.
"Babe?" Tukson asked.
"That's the name of the club president." I told them.
"What's her real name?" Sienna asked me. "I'm going to feel awfully silly addressing this woman as… Babe."
"I never asked her for her real name." I told her with a shrug reaching for my cup of coffee and tipping it back and finding only a single cold sip left in it. I had lost time and I could feel my own exhaustion catching up with me. "But you should probably get used to it, all these bikers go by their monikers like Heavy, Foxy, Panic."
"They really call themselves that?" Sienna asked.
"Yup."I said. Stifling a yawn.
"It's two hours till dawn." Tukson said, my yawn spreading to him which he tried to stifle. "Let's call it a night.
"There's lots of work to be done." I said, pulling up Cinder's files and trying to force my tired eyes to focus on them.
"Yes, first of all you need to meet with Junior and Sophia tomorrow and get them prepared and plan how they're going to make use of their own guys." Tukson said. "We have our plans right now, they're the next step. And you should at least get some proper rest before you meet with them."
"He's right, and there's no point going over all of this if we can't even keep our eyes open." Sienna said, standing from the couch and stretching before turning for the door. "Besides, Tukson and I can work on this while you're out, it's not like we have anything better to do when you leave us here alone. We'll report everything when you visit."
I sighed. Neo had probably gone to bed without me and I had work in the afternoon as well as my plans to have dinner with Junior and Sophia to go over all of this. They were right, but the fact that I finally had Cinder's plans in hand made me want to spend every waking moment preparing.
"Fine, but I'll be back after my meeting with Junior and Sophia." l assured them, not wanting to let a moment go to waste.
"We'll be sure to report everything." Sienna assured me, flashing her scroll showing the copy of Cinder's plans. "Now that we have this."
I nodded. With every single detail of Cinder's plan copied in all our scrolls we all had power in my hand. I was prepared to leak it all online if anything happened to me as well. Cardin and the rest of my crew had been instructed to tell the whole damn world if Cinder made a move against me.
I left the library behind and told Gretchen to get to bed after she asked me if I wanted a nightcap. She seemed like the only one who was never drained no matter what ungodly hour it was or what she was being asked to do.
I went up to my room and saw that the light was still on. I opened the door and saw Neo resting in one of their chairs asleep in her pajamas having fallen asleep. I picked up the book and saw that it was about Atlesian military airships. Even after just getting back from Beacon, she was preparing this all to go down, quietly studying on a way to free Roman. A glance at the pages showed that she had been making some notes within it, marking off places of interest and other small comments.
I marked her place and set the book aside.
"Let's get some sleep." I whispered to her, gathering her in my arms. She gave a soft tired groan as I picked her up and carried her to the bed, placing her down and pulling the covers over her. I undressed, pulled off my vest and shirt not bothering with pajamas tonight. I pulled the gold chain off from around my neck and looked at the little platinum diamond ring she had given me. I stared at it for a long moment before setting it down on the nightstand and turning off the light and crawling in next to her.
Tiredly she shifted, half awake to know that I was there with her. I put my arm around her and put my nose to her hair feeling her form meld against mine, getting comfortable.
"Thank the gods you're back." I whispered into her ear. I knew in my heart that I wanted to fall asleep like this with her every night. I fell into a deep dreamless holding tightly onto her warmth.
When we awoke, it was already the afternoon. Gretchen's breakfast needed to be reheated and Sienna and Tukson were already hard at work in the library pouring over every detail. I let them work, trusting that they'd tell me everything and I knew that Gretchen was keeping a close eye on them while I was away.
As we finished up our very late breakfast Cardin came by.
"Hey, good to see you back." Cardin said, taking a seat next to Neo, Gretchen placed a cup of tea down in front of him. "How'd you like Beacon?"
"You - guys - definitely - were - better - off - getting - booted - out." Neo told him as he poured some creme into his teacup.
Cardin chuckled. "That's for damn sure. I just hope that Jaune won't be moping around anymore."
"I wasn't moping." I said to him as I wiped my mouth with my napkin.
"Sure thing buddy." Cardin said, flashing Neo a smile. "But onto serious talk… I looked at the data you sent me, that's some serious shit Cinder is planning with that bomb."
"It is, but I have a plan for that." I told him.
"Which is?" Cardin asked, stirring his tea.
"Blake should have no problem getting beneath that stadium. I'm thinking if we can get one of our guys to look at the bomb and disarm it." I explained to him.
"Alright, I'll start talking to some people. There's plenty of guys in the Family that know a thing or three about making a bomb so they know something about dissassembling one." Cardin said to me.
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well." I told him. "Just try to find someone that knows plenty and if they have a personality that won't chafe with Blake, that won't hurt."
"Whoever I find I'll make sure they're on their best behavior." Cardin assured me. "When your boss is called the Gentleman they have a habit of minding their manners."
"Really?" I asked him.
"It's what I've been telling Victor's old soldiers, since you stuck me with them." Cardin told me.
"Sorry about that, but I trust you to keep them in line." I told him. "How are things at the airport?"
Cardin shrugged at me. "We're smuggling things in and out of there, we're collecting our cuts from everyone, we have some immigrants arriving later today. All and all things are going as they should. Honestly it's all of Victor's old guys doing the work and keeping things running. All I do is see that it works."
"Welcome to being a boss, everyone else knows how things really operate and you just go along until it's time to solve a problem." I chuckled. "You learn to get used to it."
"I hope so." Cardin told me. "What's your plans today?"
"I have a couple of meetings, and I'm having dinner tonight with Junior and Sophia." I explained to him.
"Are you finally going to tell them everything?" Cardin asked me.
"Yup, though I haven't quite figured out how I should break the ice." I admitted to him. Admitting to the two of them that I was gearing up for a full on war with the White Fang and that we needed to be ready as soon as possible wasn't something you just happened to bring up between the appetizer and the entree.
"Just shoot straight with them, you know that." Cardin told me.
"I know that I need to shoot straight. But being honest doesn't mean that I should be tactless as well." I told him.
Cardin gave a grunt of amusement.
"What?" I asked him. "I'm serious."
"I know." Cardin told me. "And what you said made perfect sense… it sounded… wise."
"It -did - sound - like - something - Roman - would - say." Neo said, giving Cardin an approving smile.
"I'm not old enough to sound wise." I told them, letting a smirk curl on my face. I plopped my napkin down on my empty plate and stood up. "We should get going."
Neo gave a nod and downed the rest of her tea and munched down on the last of her toast before we headed out to the garage to load up in one of the sedans for our drive back into Vale.
"How are the bullheads coming along?" I asked Cardin as we cruised down the freeway.
"They'll be ready no problem." Cardin assured me. "It's just some paint and other things to make them look more Atlesian."
"Those bullheads are a few generations behind what Atlas is using. We need them to be convincing." I told him.
"Trust me, no one is ever going to know the difference. These bullheads might be a little old but I doubt anyone is going to spot the difference. At least not until we're pulling up in their fucking hangars. And by that point I doubt there's much they'll be able to do about it."
"Alright, but if you need anything don't hesitate to ask. Money is actually no object right now." I told him.
"Money isn't going to get us the same top of the line bullheads that Ironwood's troops are piloting. Not on our time table anyways." Cardin told me.
"You know what I mean, if there's anything you can do, don't start pinching pennies." I told Cardin.
"Fine, fine." Cardin told me.
"We - have - the - Atlas - transponders - we - need - for - the - codes - right?" Neo asked him.
"Yeah we got them." Cardin told her. "Those weren't hard to get ahold of, they're made and sold on the civilian market by the SDC. Most Atlas bullheads use them anyway."
"I suppose there's no reason to restrict them, not much chance of misuse unless you have classified codes." I mused.
"No kidding." Cardin said as we approached the exit for Vale.
We arrived at my scheduled meetings and I touched base with many of my capos listening to their reports on their businesses and the profits they were pulling in. But most of my talks were about seeing that they were ready for the coming fight. They told me about some of the associates they were gathering, some of the guns they pulled out of their stashes for the occasion and their progress teaching the enforcers how to use the collection of Vale typewriters and other guns we had pulled from Tony's subway stash. Honestly I was probably starting to annoy all my capos as I came around asking all those questions again and again trying to make sure that everything was ship shape.
"And I thought Roman was a fucking micro manager." Bruce commented, his sharp shark-like teeth sinking into his pastrami sandwich as we had lunch together.
"Sorry, but we only get one shot at this so I intend to make sure we do this right." I explained to him as we looked out over the docks from the window of his union office.
"I know I know." Bruce told me. "And like I said, my boys are ready for this, I pulled a few things out of storage myself, a few tools from my old White Fang days."
"You weren't exactly hardened terrorists back then." I said, not sure how much firepower Bruce and his people were using back in the day.
"Oh trust me, the badges back then were tougher than the donut munchers we have today. I'd bet most of those recruits Adam has would bail from a riot the moment they got a little tear gas." Bruce explained to me.
"Is that what you've been pulling out of storage? Tear gas?" I asked him.
"Among other things." Bruce told me with a smile. "We might not have been full fledged terrorists back then but we were no strangers to violence."
"How much do you have?" I asked him. "Do you have any masks?"
"Well if we didn't what's the point? And I have several crates of the stuff? Those fang guys won't be able to shoot straight once they get a whiff." He informed me.
"I'll take a personal crate, and try to spread what you have out amongst the other Capos. Try to give them the same edge." I ordered him.
"I'll do that… how's our special friend doing?" He asked me.
I knew he was talking about Sienna. "She's itching for this fight."
Bruce gave a noncommittal grunt. "Figures, if you need a hand holding her leash just tell me."
"I think she's under control, so far she's been very cooperative." I assured him.
"I hope so, but if things get ugly I'm ready to be rid of her." He told me.
"The Fang is going to need a leader after all of this, so unless you want the job, I'd rather avoid another Adam." I told him frankly.
"Nah my plate is full enough without keeping those guys under control. I'm just saying that we're going to need to keep an eye on her. Sienna is going to owe you big time after this and she might not be happy owing a Family member."
"That's why you're going to be in charge of the new Vale branch when this is all over." I explained to him. "I don't want her to have too much control over our neighbors."
"After this, they're going to be lucky if there even is a Vale branch." Bruce told me. "Whatever happens when this all goes down Vale and the Council are going to come down hard on the Fang."
"We'll worry about that when it happens." I told him. "But if it means in the end you're giving orders to a bunch of disgruntled fanus in a basement I'll take it."
"Understood." Bruce said, taking another bite of his sandwich.
Most of my day was spent like that. Just meetings, meetings and more meetings to hammer out the details. Eventually I went back to the penthouse and changed to get ready for my dinner with Junior and Sophia before heading out to Teien Tea House.
The last time I had been at this particular place it was when Roman offered me a chance to leave the Clan behind and become a recruit of the Family. Even though it hadn't even been a year since I was last here, it felt like a lifetime ago. And even though it had only been the one time the waitress seemed to know exactly who I was and proceeded to lead me to the very room I had been in when I was welcomed into the Family.
I looked down through the glass into the Mistali garden in the atrium, finding the view relaxing. It helped me center my thoughts on the matter as I waited for my dinner guests.
"Nervous?" Neo asked me.
"Just a little." I told her.
The door opened and Sophia stepped inside greeting me with a smile.
"You know Jaune, everytime I see you the more natural you seem in this business." Sophia said, approaching the table and sitting down across from me.
"Doesn't - he?" Neo agreed, looking rather proud.
"How was your business trip?" Sophia asked Neo.
"Fruitful." Neo answered her.
"Well, Anna has been wanting to see the two of you. She's been wanting to play chess with that board you bought her and his refusing to play anyone else with it." Sophia told me, holding the business talk for when Junior arrived.
I smiled, relaxing with this easy talk with her. "I think we can arrange for something soon."
She smiled and we passed some time talking about Anna and how things were generally going between us, letting ourselves talk as friends instead of talking as respective leaders in our own criminal circles. When Junior did arrive we carried on with the casual conversation, reaffirming our friendship with simple but meaningful chatter ordering plates of sushi and some bottles of sake. There was no rush to tell them the reason I had them gathered here, and I felt better knowing that I could talk to them as friends.
Because that's precisely what I was here for. To ask favors from friends, not simply cooperation from allies but actual friends that I could count on.
The friendly conversation lasted until our food had arrived. Sushi and tempura and bowls of steamed rice filling the table between us. The waitresses thanked us with kind words and friendly smiles before leaving us. We locked the door so no one could barge in on us.
"So this motherfucker walked right up and asked me about my liquor license! He said he'd shut us down, apparently he was some kind of inspector who was off duty." Junior explained, picking up his porcelain sake cup.
"What'd your bartender do?" Sophia asked him.
"He popped some champagne, blasting the cork right in his eye. We told him to just try and shut us down!" Junior explained to us, chuckling at the story's casual violence.
"What happened then?" I asked him.
"I got an apology the next day from the head of Vale's Liquor Bureau, and was informed that the guy had been fired." Junior said before tipping the cup back.
We all had a laugh at that as we enjoyed our first few bites of food.
"So… why did you call us together tonight Jaune?" Sophia finally asked. "As pleasant as it is to talk and eat with you all, the purpose of this meeting has been nagging me."
"Yes we should start talking business." I admitted, applying some wasabi to my sushi roll. "I was simply enjoying the easy nature of our conversation, but I have called us together for a very serious manner."
"How serious?" Junior asked, plopping his salmon roll into his mouth.
"It's about the White Fang and the Family's dealing with them." I told the two of them.
Junior's face contorted as he forced himself to swiftly swallow his sushi. "I want no part in that! I've been very clear about this!"
"I'm not asking you or the Clan to get involved, not like that at least." I assured him before the conversation got out of hand. "I don't want you to do business with the Fang, I want you to help me take them down."
Sophia raised an eyebrow. "Take them down? You want to turn on your customer?"
"The White Fang are terrorists, we owe them no loyalty. Professional or otherwise." I said to them.
"I agree, that's why I never wanted to deal with them in the first place." Junior said. "But even I wouldn't want to make an enemy of the Fang, fighting terrorists is diffrent than fighting fellow businessmen."
"The Fang is planning to destroy Vale." I told them frankly. "I have no choice but to pick this fight."
Sophia's sushi fell from her chopsticks and she looked at me in shock. "Are… are you serious!?"
"How do you know this!?" Junior asked me.
I proceeded to tell them the long story about our dealings with the Fang. Providing them with dust, weapons and all sorts of materials for their little attack. How Roman had assured me that he was working on some kind of plan to take them down. I told them about Cinder and Adam, I even told the two of them about Sienna Khan. I laid it all down for them to understand and slid my scroll across the table so they could see Cinder's plan laid out in full for their very eyes.
"Dammit all!" Junior growled, slamming his fist down on the table. "I told Roman not to get mixed up with those fucking animals! I warned him!"
"Roman was confident that he had the ability to take the Fang down all on his own. He believed he had the situation under control." I told Junior.
"But with him behind bars that doesn't mean very much, does it?" Sophia asked me.
"That was a miscalculation on his part." I admitted to her with a sigh and a shake of my head.
"And Roman never revealed any of his plans to you?" Junior asked me.
"No, I've had to make plans of my own." I told him.
"He named you his successor!" Junior told me.
"He clearly wasn't expecting me to become acting Don." I said firmly, going ahead with the lie Neo had made for me. Even Junior needed to believe that I sat here by Roman's grace.
"Still… he should have told you something." Junior said to me.
"He didn't tell Neo anything either, but whatever his plan was it doesn't fucking matter. I've been making my own. And thanks to Neo, a ring of spies in the White Fang and Sienna Khan, we know exactly how they're going to be moving their pieces. I just need your help to do this."
"Jaune, you should have told us about this sooner." Sophia told her.
"We were already dealing with the traitors in our own ranks as well as Nicky. And I didn't have a real plan to deal with them until now, I didn't know what their moves were going to be and I wasn't going to ask you to join a fight if I wasn't sure you guys could win." I told the two of them.
"So you withheld this information for our sake?" Junior asked me.
"We all agreed that the Family's dealings with the White Fang was our business and any problems because of it were our responsibility. So I bore that responsibility as best I could, I played the spy game, I got the information, I got the guns and I got my forces rallied. But I cannot do this alone, so I am forced to come here and ask the two of you to fight with us, to defend our city, to defend our alliance."
Junior and Sophia shared a look with one another.
"And what is your plan?" Sophia asked me. "What are you planning on doing?"
"I'm planning to trip Adam and that bitch Cinder right out of the gate." I explained to them. "I know what they're going to do and how they're planning on doing it. But this shit is going to go down all across the city, I need your men and your cooperation. And I'm hoping that if all goes according to plan that we can get Roman back."
"I'll do it." Sophia said, no hesitation in her voice. "We've come so far in a short time, I'm not about to see the White fucking Fang ruin it all for their so called equality."
I nodded to her. "Thank you, Sophia, I knew I could count on you."
"Plus I would like Roman to owe me one." She said with a friendly smirk that I returned.
"I still think you should have told me this sooner." Junior told me his tone telling me just how disappointed he was that I didn't trust him with all of this sooner.
"Perhaps I should have." I admitted to him. "But there's no use crying over mistakes, are you in or not?"
"Of course I'm in. How can you doubt that, Gentleman?" Junior told me. "You think I'd sit out a fight like this? I don't want this town going to the dogs, and I certainly don't want to leave the two of you on your own after everything we've built together."
He grabbed the bottle of sake and reached across the table to fill my cup up. "Do you know what they've been saying about the three of us Gent?"
"They've been calling us the second Triumvirate." I said to him, accepting the filled cup of sake.
"Indeed." Junior told me. "And as we sit here right now talking about all this, I'm starting to think they're right. We have faced our enemies together before, and we are banding together to do it again, we three have forged a bond stronger than steel, and it seems to be growing ever stronger."
"I say fuck the rumors." Sophia told us. "We know that is what we three have formed, we should make it official."
"I don't know if I have the authority to do that. Roman should be the one to decide that." I told them.
"Roman isn't here, you are." Junior told me, filling Sophia's cup as well as his own. "If we band together for this, the rumors become true one way or another. Everyone in our respective organizations will know that we have formed an alliance this city hasn't seen in decades."
I nodded my head in agreement, seeing his point. We had been denying the rumors for so long. And he was right, I was here and this was my decision. I'd take it up with Roman when he was back. All the worrying I had felt having this conversation had simply evaporated. The three of us, the Clan, the Bratva, the Family. I had called them to arms and they hardly hesitated to answer that call, putting themselves in the front line for a fight that wasn't simply for business, but for the whole city. If there is honor to be found among thieves this is it, as pure as it gets.
I picked up my sake cup and raised it. "Then let us emerge from this battle officially as Vale's second Triumvirate." I said, feeling rather poetic.
"To the second Triumvirate!" Sophia said, raising her cup and joining in the toast.
"To Vale." Junior said, his own cup raised in agreement. "May it always bring us riches under our watchful eyes."
Neo raised her own cup with us, she didn't need to say anything. The smirk she flashed my direction was all I needed from her.
We downed the cups of sake and proceeded to enjoy our dinner. I laid out my plans for them, we talked about the coming battle, our enforcers and how we would deploy them to fight against the Fang on a completely united front. And we talked about the future, bright and hopeful about us officially coming together, three forces ruling this city as one.
I felt light and giddy. Perhaps it was the sake, but that future did indeed seem bright as I felt completely assured that we were going to win this fight.
Author's Note:
I hope you enjoyed this chapter of the final pieces being put into place before the final battle.
Sorry about being away for so long as I clear my head and worked on making sure that I could continue to deliver the finale to all of you. I am both sad and relieved to see this story coming to an end. I never imagined that it would get anywhere close to being this long or this popular. And I'd like to thank everyone who's stuck around with this story to this point and who's going to see it through to the end. Thank you all.
And as always I need to thank my commitee of wiseguys who beta read and who've helped provide me with plenty of ideas to fuel this story to the very end.So thank you MidKnightMoonglow99, MajorBrony95, Iownnick67, Cyperink, CrypidCobra, FireFly25, TheSlySage, DrknssRules1 I cannot thank you guys enough.