Summary/Disclaimer: Time for another chapter of A Lingering Ember. Enjoy the 900-word chapter. I don't own RWBY, Monty Oum, and Rooster Teeth do.

(Mistral.)

The first thought that Desmond had was that he hadn't heard much from Neo before the noon of the day after that, he crossed his arms.

"So, you know who the spiders are?" Desmond asked, surrounded by a group of his men.

"Yes, but you've already met her daughters…. Her name is Lil Ms. Malachite." Junior said, Desmond blinked, and then his eyes narrowed.

"And she just started a war with me… Fine then, I'll talk to her before I do anything… But I want you to know that I'm planning on taking Mistral over…. And considering how we're talking about business…" Desmond said before he got up.

"Let's talk business…." Desmond stated.

(With Neo)

Neo tossed the thug to the ground before kicking him in the face. She popped out the blade of her umbrella and then she turned on her Scroll.

"Desmond?" Neo asked, she took a seat on a crate and looked around the trashed room.

"Neo? I thought you'd never call… How are things on your end? Junior is useless, the guy couldn't find an Ursa in Mt. Glenn." Desmond said, he looked around the room which was filled with unconscious thugs or so.

"Geez, do you ever have trouble fighting?" Desmond asked before he cleared his throat.

"Did you find anything out about the Grey Ursa? I was about to look for that airship of theirs…. But it seems you are onto something… Either that or you decided to blow off some steam by beating up an entire warehouse of bandits and thugs…" Desmond asked, Neo nodded.

"I know where their airship is, but unless you're planning on seizing the entire ship, we arent going to have much use for it… It's a big ship, but it's no warship…" Neo reported, Desmond sighed and turned to the side.

"No, I said double security! I… Hang on, sweet tooth…. I said double the security and we aren't expanding till we deal with the Grey Ursa and then find out more on the damn spiders…" Desmond put in before he turned to Neo again.

"Sorry, good help and such… If you know anything, let me see… I'm going to find a way to bring down an airship… We have enough Bullheads to assault an airship… But that also means we need to have people on the ground… Get back here, we're thinking of something…" Desmond said, Neo gave a thumbs up before Desmond rolled his eyes.

"Hang on, I'm sending a Bullhead to pick you up… Second in command of the syndicate shouldn't have to walk back to base," Desmond said before he signed off.

Neo smiled and cheerily skipped out of the trashed building with over 24 Criminals from Vale as she found out... Not that they were stronger than her… Neo had taken out entire gangs by herself.

She walked outside and leaned on a tree to wait for the arrival of the Bullhead.

(With Desmond)

Desmond watched as more crates of Dust were loaded onto 2 Bullheads before they pulled the doors shut and both crafts took off.

Desmond rested on his cane; he knew the Spiders had to be the main criminal force in Mistral. They had struck him to draw blood, to get him to back off.

Desmond wasn't a man to back down from a fight, and he would be damned if he let 3 of his men die for nothing.

Still… As long as the Grey Ursa remained alive, they would be a threat to the syndicate… He needed something better to name them, but the 'syndicate' worked just fine.

He was interrupted by one of his Bullheads landings, he held strong against the gust of wind that marked the craft landing.

The door was opened, and Neo hopped out, waving, Desmond smiled and returned the gesture before turning to his men.

"Once this lift-off? Keep the rest fueled up and ready. I don't want war without air support." Desmond ordered as they nodded, and Desmond turned back to Neo.

"I still cannot… Yes, I can, believe you took down an entire warehouse… Quite a feat… Anyway, you have the Scroll?" Desmond asked, Neo nodded and opened up her scroll which Desmond looked at.

"Geez, and I thought I had a big ego…We're going to need a lot of people to attack that… Unless we're going to bring it down… Then I have a plan to do just that…" Desmond stated before he turned to Neo and patted her on the head.

"We're dealing with this with brute force, if we take the ship, we take it… If not?" Desmond asked while he started to walk away.

"Then they see just how much they don't want to screw with people like us," Desmond said before he walked away, a plan brewing in his mind before he walked away, and then he looked further away.

He smirked.

Author Note

Phew, another chapter is done! I want to point out that Neo is still going to be the more skilled between her and Desmond. Desmond is still a better tactician. The next chapter will show Desmond planning an attack on the airship for the Grey Ursa. The next chapter will also be in 2 weeks or so. Until then, Lighting Wolf out!