Halcyon Days: Queen of Hearts
"Can't we just... I don't know, rent a car, or something?" Ruby complained as both she and Adam jogged through the trees alongside the main road leading down from Beacon towards the city of Vale. The long, long road leading there. Of course, jogging for some of the quickest and most experienced students of Beacon was at the speed of a car, but that didn't change much at all, as far as Ruby was concerned.
"Not for what I have planned," Adam said without looking back. "If this goes wrong, I need as few things linking to me as possible. You can always turn back."
"Nope!"
Adam snorted. "I suppose it was worth a shot. Considering your morning runs though, I would have thought this would have been your kind of thing."
"That's one thing, but I like sprints! Marathons! Timed stuff! This is just... booooring," Ruby groaned.
"How unfortunate," he called back. For a moment, he was content to leave it at that, trees of Forever Fall whipping past and the early spring air biting even through their aura. Yet, as his eyes fell onto red leaves standing out so clearly, he couldn't help but recall the last true 'mission' he'd gone on with a partner. Adam shoved those thoughts from his head, refusing to let them linger. Instead, he reached into those memories long tainted and drew up something Blake rarely resisted.
"Tell you what: if you want this to be so much more interesting, how about we make this a race to the city limits? You lose, you—" He wasn't even able to finish before, in a rush of wind and rose petals, Ruby shot past him, cheering.
Rolling his eyes, Adam sped up, rushing along with her towards the shining city below.
It was best to enjoy the calm before the storm. Especially where they were headed.
It was not as though Ruby had not been to the city of Vale at night. In fact, it wasn't even that Ruby hadn't been there alone this late: she'd even been on one of her little sneak-outs when she'd run into Roman Torchwick the first time. Not to mention the unfortunate coincidence of trying to sneak out and see what all these nightclubs her big sister kept going to were about only to run into her big sister.
She just hadn't been this deep into Vale before. Vale itself carried an entirely different energy as she and Adam made their way through quiet streets lined with tall apartment buildings and looming, thin houses with more than a couple long-abandoned. Streaks of color were spray-painted across some in signs, statements or art she couldn't make out under the low, orange lights of streetlamps.
It was a more nervous energy this side of Vale held: more hostile, more suspicious. Faunus curiously peered from windows or from the steps of their house, never doing much more than nodding or raising a hand in greeting, yet their eyes bored into them long after they passed out of her sight.
"Keep your hood up," Adam had said when they got close to this neighborhood. "You'll draw attention, but nowhere near as much as if you were clearly human."
'Draw attention' was a huge understatement, Ruby thought! It felt like the entire block was watching them go by. She'd very reluctantly left her signature cloak behind for a scarlet-red hoodie more suited for walking through the streets without notice and a backpack to store her new weapon, but it really felt like that wouldn't have changed a thing. Not here in the slums.
She let out a deep sigh as they stepped into an alleyway and the eyes watching their every move receded. Their words drowned out by the occasional passing cars or calls and snarls from somewhere else in the block, Ruby could finally speak freely.
"What's with all these people? It's like they think we're gonna stab them the second they look away!"
Adam snorted from her bluntness, but watched back outside the alleyway with a frown. "It's common in a faunus ghetto like this. These people know what strangers—especially human-looking ones—do to them, unfortunately. It's bad enough that they've been shoved into a ghetto like this: they don't want that last shred of what they've gained on their own to be stolen."
Ruby crossed her arms and huffed. Even if Adam probably knew about these kinds of things, it didn't make it any less rude! "Well, we didn't even do anything!"
"Better to be paranoid than vulnerable. That's a lesson we learned a long time go." Adam placed a hand on the wall of the alley, tracing along a painted symbol of the White Fang. He narrowed his eyes.
"We've been followed. Good."
Ruby furrowed her brow and was about to ask why or how that could be a good thing when they couldn't just fight while their 'real' identities were visible when someone whistled to them.
"Hey! 'You two from around here?" A pair of faunus in seemingly normal street clothes, yet the combination of their matching white vests and the large handguns at their sides marked them for what they were: White Fang. Just without their uniforms.
Barely turning his head, Adam drew a hand out from his own hoodie's pocket and held it up in a limp, lackadaisical wave. "Not at all. We're just passing through: my sister was studying late at a friend's place and managed to miss the last bus." He placed his hand on Ruby's head, pushing her hood down further.
As Ruby grumbled and tried to shake him off, the two White Fang looked between one another.
"This late?"
"It's a long distance: we live closer to the Agricultural District," Adam lied with a slim smile.
One faunus raised an eyebrow and let a hand rest on his holster. "Is that right? Well then, 'little sis', mind showing us what you've got in that backpack?"
Ruby stammered and glanced up at Adam with confusion: she wasn't told about any of this apparent cover story. Their eyes briefly met, and that was apparently enough for Adam to figure out what to do next.
"She's a little shy, don't mind her. Besides, come on: I think we all have better things to do than turn on each other." He made a show of rapping his knuckles against his horns: even with their night vision it was difficult to make out that his horns were not just black highlights in his hair.
And just like that, Ruby saw their shoulders sink and relax. The one inching towards his gun rolled his head back and guffawed.
"Crap, man, you shouldn't scare people like that!" As if the two weren't about to hold them up in a dirty, shady alleyway, the two White Fang goons stepped over towards Adam, chattering away. And Adam replied. With a brighter smile than she'd ever seen on him and a gleam in his eye, Adam spoke of school and jobs, of agitating authorities and narrowly-evaded crimes, of her own grades and shooing off boys, as if he'd never stepped foot in Beacon once in his life. Like he knew these two his whole life.
And as Adam waved the two off, laughing at some joke about avoiding pigs Ruby didn't get, there was only one thing that pushed itself to the forefront of her mind.
"You're a really good liar..."
Adam snorted, still seemingly in a good mood. Or was that just a mask, too? "It's necessary. You'll need to be taught the basics at some point, if you're so determined to follow." He unzipped his jacket and retrieved the dual short rifles of the Ace of Spades from within.
"Now then, get ready: we've got a pair of guards to tail."
"We all have better things to do than turn on each other."
Yes, he really was a good liar, Adam thought sardonically as he pulled his face-mask over his jaw, took a last look at the symbol of the White Fang, and then sprung up to the roof, Ruby following close behind. The two guards were easy to spot and even easier to hear, their guard down after chatting with one of their own. They were completely unaware they were talking to a traitor.
He had to give Ruby credit: though he hadn't told her what to do, she was a natural at keeping her steps quiet and her head down as they crept over rooftops and through alleys to keep an eye on their marks.
Less credit was given to her... 'disguise'. Having decided her silver eyes were a little too recognizable, she'd decided to cover them with a pair of red sunglasses Yang had pilfered from one of Junior's guards. That, a bandana and a hood might've covered her features, but to Adam he could not get past how much it looked like, well, an initiate's attempt at looking menacing.
An initiate. Adam internally grimaced at that being the first thing his mind jumped to, but before he could put much more thought into that, they could see their marks disappear inside a large, abandoned office. The two peered around the corners of a building, watching through an alleyway as two more guards let them in a side door. These 'doormen' were decidedly more heavily armed, each with assault rifles. Not exactly dangerous for Huntsmen and Huntresses.
They were certainly loud weapons, though.
"So, um, is this the part where I ask what we're doing?" Ruby whispered.
Adam sighed: he supposed she was his partner now, after all. "I need information: chains of command, planned robberies, communications, anything to find out why they're working with Torchwick. The only location to gain that is a regional headquarters." He pointedly looked through his green lenses at Ruby. "One full of very dangerous people. This is the last chance you'll get to turn back."
Through crimson lenses, Ruby stared back. Her answer was to spring forward through the alley.
Ruby drew her weapon—seemingly a red spade with the handle of a gun—and slammed the blunt end into one guard's head before he could react. Mid-swing, she let it extend outwards into its true form as a wide spear, the point aimed at the second guard before the first even struck the ground.
He watched as the blade split in two, revealing a barrel dimly glowing blue with Dust. The guard gulped, steeled the grip on his gun and took a step back, ready to fight until reinforcements came.
He backed into the barrel of a gun. Looking behind him to stare into the black mask and green lenses of the 'Ace of Spades', the guard put two and two together, opened his mouth to shout, and was silenced by the black-clad intruder clapping a hand over his mouth. He thought about shooting just for the attention, but in a rush of rose-scented red, his gun was swept from his hands.
The next minute was a blur of forced movement, muffled shouts and rope.
Adam looked over the two tied-up guards. "Hm. Good knot work: that should keep them busy for a while." He shut the dumpster lid over them.
Waving Ruby over from where she was keeping lookout, he crept back towards the door. Even outside, they could hear the constant chatter and dull hum of music coming from within the office building. If there was anything Adam appreciated about being around his own kind, it was that they could have their loud music without blowing out his eardrums like those blasted nightclubs Yang liked. Unfortunately, that meant it would be harder to sneak around.
He placed a hand on the door, closed his eyes and focused. Like a wave, his aura stretched out deeper into the building, feeling out for signs of anyone nearby: active aura, the vibrations of footsteps, anything. With a deep breath, he returned it to himself.
"Most of them are upstairs or on the first floor. We can move more freely through the basement." Adam placed a hand on the doorknob.
"Wait, how did you figure that out?" Ruby piped up, her strange spear raised and ready.
"With enough restraint and practice, using your aura to both enhance your senses and search out for the aura of others isn't difficult." Even through her sunglasses, even with his back turned, Adam could feel the puppy eyes being aimed at him.
"... Yes, I can teach you. Later."
He heard a hushed "Yes!" behind him. With a roll of his eyes and a begrudging twitch upwards of his lips, he cracked open the door. A stairwell leading both up and down deeper: fortunate. Adam waved Ruby forward, leaving the two to creep down the stairs, weapons raised for any sign of the White Fang. Dingy stone halls and faded wallpaper eventually became clean and organized, even if the light was still dim and provided only by bare bulbs in the ceiling.
As they reached the lowest floor, air damp and walls cold, Adam let out a sigh of relief: no one was down here. Even the music was just dull, vibrating tones and the occasional rumble of bass. There were a number of doors and rooms to search.
"Let's make quick work of this." He immediately went to checking rooms. Adam knew some of the regional headquarters, at least. In fact, this used to be one of his first ones... but the management of documentation and files was not his job: exactly where they would be stored was unknown. Still, he remembered this level. And, as he called out which rooms were empty to Ruby, he was certain to quickly 'cross off' the rooms he knew more... unsavory acts for the cause were performed in. Ones that still carried those signs. Those stains.
Ruby didn't need to see those things.
"Jackpot! Ace, over here!" Ruby waved him over to another room: once large and spacious, it was now filled with file cabinets and computer desks to the point where a door on the other side was almost completely obscured. Everything from their own plans to what observations and surveillance they'd performed on their enemies was likely to be here. The police. The government. Most importantly...
"The Torches. Find everything you can about them." He quickly moved to one of the computers, throwing in the password he long since knew for it and quickly shifting through the files. Behind him, Ruby rifled through cabinets, occasionally yanking out folders to flip through them. They didn't exactly care about if they left a mess, right now: who knew how long this place would remain empty.
Something wasn't right.
Adam had thought that perhaps they would have broken communication with the White Fang leadership, yet communications between them only increased. Lieutenant—no, Captain Almond—was promising a massive bolstering of the ranks shortly. A rally? A large-scale attack to draw more attention? He'd begun looking through the list of potential targets when Ruby nervously shifted behind him.
"Hey, um, Ace... why are we attacking the White Fang instead of the Torches? Not that they aren't both bad guys, no offense, I would've thought you..." She trailed off.
"Would have been sticking together with my fellow faunus," Adam finished. He sighed and looked over her shoulder. "At first, I'm afraid this wasn't me trying to be altruistic. It was anger: that the people I led would so quickly turn and kneel in service for some human."
Ruby's shoulders fell.
"... No offense." He looked away. "But then, I noticed something was wrong: the privates or our soldiers on the field, they didn't know a thing about it. That meant only one thing: it was a deal solely between the upper echelons of both organizations. Between Torchwick..." Adam frowned. "Torchwick and my former friend. One I know would never agree to it. I need to know what he's doing. I need to know what Almond was thinking: he is known for his loyalty. Loyalty. far greater than my own."
It was weird, Ruby thought, to hear about anyone talking about some terrorist leader like they were just a friend of theirs but, then again, that was how she treated Adam, right? That still left her wondering what to say, though: it was loyalty to a terrorist group Adam was saying was a good thing, after all. Loyalty to the bad guys!
She pursed her lips. "Nope!"
Adam reached up to rub his temples on instinct, meeting only the cool metal of his mask instead. He settled for a sigh. "What is it now, Ru—" He gritted his teeth. Gods, this was so foolish. "Queen of Hearts."
Ruby crossed her arms and looked over his shoulder. "You're still pretty loyal from where I'm standing! Not to the White Fang, sure, but you're loyal to yourself!"
"That's called selfishness."
"Nope! That means you're listening to your own heart: that's the most important part. All that loyalty wouldn't mean anything if you can't even listen to yourself, and you've been doing a whole lot of that ever since you got here! If you were betraying yourself to follow something else, that's not really you that's following it, right?"
Adam was silent.
"Exactly! See? I mean, you managed to leave the White Fang: that's about as loyal to your conscience as you can—" Ruby's words were muffled as Adam suddenly twisted and put his hand over her mouth, ignoring her confused shout.
He could hear someone approaching: someone who'd slipped by while he was too busy listening to her. Slowly, his hand reached for one of his rifles, and even slower, his aura stretched out to find where that person was.
Adam recoiled and jumped up from his seat the second his aura touched the intruder.
"Please, continue." His voice rumbled like the shifting of boulders through the room as the door opened. Standing tall and wide enough to block almost every ray of light coming in from the hallway beyond, Captain Almond tightened the grip on his dormant chainsaw. His former comrade's eyes were obscured by his full-face mask, now carrying enough plates behind it to be more of a helmet, yet his glare still pierced through them.
"I thought it was such a cute speech," Almond growled.
