Meanwhile


"Get out! All of you, go on, get!" Torchwick waved his cane around and stood tall, a figure of strength even to human-hating faunus like the White Fang as they shuffled out of the warehouse now loaded with shipping containers. Indeed, he looked proudly upon his work... right up until the final White Fang member left, and he was left collapsing onto his cane, barely able to hold himself up. Note to self: Beacon students, no joke! Swallowing his pride, he let Neo lead him over to his desk overlooking a map of Vale.

"Yeah, I know. That could've gone way better than it did, trust me, short stack, I know." The crime lord instinctively brought his hand up to adjust his hat, only to find nothing but orange hair. He cursed to himself: he never got the chance to pick it up. Grumbling, Torchwick put a cigar between his lips, reached into his pocket, and promptly remembered that his lighter was somewhere on those docks, too.

Torchwick cursed louder.

Neo, however, the perfect sidekick in every way—as long as he didn't use that particular term—was nice enough to have a spare on her. Taking a drag, he brought his eyes across their catch: six shipping containers. It was a fine haul for a crime lord like him, but an unimaginable one for most criminals. Yeah, he could afford to take a little break.

"Hey, Neo! I think it's about time to break out the stash!" She skipped away to get the only thing the two of them needed for a real celebration.

... Odd, she sure was taking a while. Torchwick blew out a ring of smoke and sighed. That probably meant—

"How very disappointing, Roman..." That sickly-sweet, seductive voice slithered out from behind him. He turned his gaze behind him to see his boss step so casually out of the shadows with a swing in her hips and an almost unearthly smooth stride. Her two enforcers all but glided in behind her. Torchwick never bought that act for a moment: personalities like hers got word to spread real quick, and he hadn't heard a thing about her before she swept in.

Cinder Fall was just as much a mystery as she was agitating. Neo waved over at him with a devious little smirk from behind the three. So much for a perfect sidekick!

"Only six containers... we expected so much more from you." Her two enforcers, some smug-looking teen in all gray and black and another with minty-green hair who looked like she was going to the club with how little those straps she called a top were barely covering her chest and not a bit of her midriff, took seats on either side of him at his table. A basic intimidation tactic, no doubt because he wasn't even looking at dear Cinder while he spoke.

"Who, moi? I think I did just fine, especially with those mutts you had me petsit the entire time. Maybe if you got me some better help, you'd have gotten a better payout." Torchwick shot back with a cocky smirk. Cinder must've taken exception to that, for when she placed her hand on his shoulder, it felt like he was leaving it up against metal on a hot summer day. He fought the urge to grunt.

"You seem awfully pleased in your failure to capture the Dust that I demanded, Roman. Do you think you know something that we do not?" Cinder slowly dragged her fingers up his neck, then forcibly turned his head to face her. Torchwick enjoyed her eternal, sly smile fade into annoyance when he smirked.

"But of course, my dear, I know that I got the only one that mattered. You might be keeping me in the dark on your little schemes, but I'm not stupid, Cinder. I know what kind of Dust you're looking for..." He made it a point to tap out the ashes onto the gray one's shoe. Torchwick rose up to his feet coincidentally right when he kicked the chair out from under him. Hiding his aches the best he could, he waved off to one container laying off on its own.

"Why don't you take a look..." Cinder and her goons looked between one another before, with a nod from their dear leader, the two went and opened it. It was almost empty, only carrying a few armored crates chained down to keep them from moving. Even as Cinder brought her flames around her hand and Neo surreptitiously slipped by closer to him, Torchwick held his pleasant smirk. The gray one kicked away the chains of one and brought over the case, his minty partner having nabbed another. Opening one flooded the room with golden light, opening the other infused it with a brilliant purple.

The minty one caught on quick, taking a step back in surprise. Cinder, however, kept that smooth persona on all the while, never breaking it for a moment while she wandered over.

"Hmm... I take it back, Roman. I'm impressed. Very impressed..." She picked up a yellow Dust crystal from one, and one violet like the night sky as from the other. The crates were full of them: more lightning and gravity Dust than could ever be procured from mere shops. Nodding more to herself than anyone else in the room, Cinder turned to Roman and Neo with a knowing smile.

"So, what do you want to know?"


The walk back to Vale's airport was filled with worried phone calls and assurances. One of these was going on right now, in fact, with Yang and Ruby both sharing a phone in front of them promising their father that they were alright, honest. News spread fast, Adam supposed. He and Weiss were left strolling behind them in a silence that walked a line between relief and awkwardness. Adam had a feeling that once the events and revelations truly settled in, moments like this would become all too uncommon.

That simple quiet between them was broken by the incessant buzzing of a Scroll. Weiss groaned as she drew it out for the fourth time during their walk, and did the same thing she'd done each time: check the name, sigh, and just drop it back into her pocket. This time, he'd gotten a good look at just who was calling so often: Father. Their eyes briefly met, but not a word was spoken on that matter.

"You don't look half-bad with your hair down," Adam idly commented as the two sisters laughed over some joke he wasn't paying attention to. Weiss arched an eyebrow and suppressed a chuckle.

"Is that your idea of a compliment?" Weiss playfully nudged him. He was about to comment when Yang suddenly poked her head into their conversation; it looked like their call was over.

"Am I missing out on some post-battle flirting?~" With derisive snorts and rolls of their eyes, the two more stoic teammates did not even grace that with a response. "Aw, come on, you two, I got another bet I need to win!" Yang's teasing was only interrupted by yet another insistent ring. Weiss furrowed her brow and patted at her pocket, Yang checked hers and shrugged. Ruby still had hers out, so, surely, it couldn't have been her. She suddenly jumped up upon remembering something:

"Oops! I forgot, I found your Scroll behind Weiss' bed!" Ruby tossed his Scroll to him. Sure enough, it was the one ringing.

"Oooh, left it there after something?" While Weiss grumbled something unintelligible with an embarrassed flush of pink on her cheeks, Adam did not make the mistake of rising to Yang's insinuations. Instead, he opened his Scroll and decided to busy himself with the apparent request for a video call. He'd been gone for a while, maybe the news of the docks attack had spread to Beacon already—

"... Adam?" The Scroll nearly dropped from his hand. Frozen in place at the sound of that familiar voice and sight of that unforgettable face, Adam found the name falling from his lips before he could even think:

"Blake?"


END VOLUME 1