Two Minutes to Midnight
At first, all that could be heard to the four members of RWAY were their own breaths and the deafening thud of their heartbeat in their ears. The ground lay torn asunder around them, sections of the freeway shuddered worryingly with entire groups of their structural beams having been reduced to piles of jagged rubble below them, and the scent of burning Dust was overpowering. Rose petals slowly twirled through the air, fading away into black and red until the air was still. Torchwick didn't move, unconscious. Crimson began to spread from his ruined leg.
They'd won.
Weiss jammed her rapier into the ground, using it to hold herself steady and barely so. Every part of her ached. Each time the wind would come by, it provoked a shiver that her muscles would make sure she regretted every second of. Having your aura shattered was much more painful, but it was short and, when the daze wore off, adrenaline would force any remnants of pain aside. But to exhaust your aura was different. To exhaust your aura left you drained, in pain, and often without even a drop of strength to go on.
"What was that!" Ruby, however, seemed to have plenty of energy left, bouncing up in down in excitement. "With the speed and the gravity and all the semblances and whoosh! Ooh, we have to come up with a name for it! We'd be unbeatable with it!" Hugging Crescent Rose tight to her, she was set to go on until they'd gotten back to Beacon.
"Before we start talking new team attacks," Adam began, then motioned his sheathed weapon over towards Torchwick. "What will we do with him?"
Yang grimaced. "Well, we can't just... leave him like that, can we?" She and Ruby were keeping their distance from the fallen criminal, eyes never remaining on him for long. At least, that was what Weiss thought: the world was getting awfully blurry.
"Absolutely," Adam spat. "He would not have afforded us that kind of kindness if we were the ones who were struck down." The venom in his tone left his true desire unspoken but well-known: if it were up to him, Torchwick's head would be missing, not his leg.
"... He did hurt a lot of people," Ruby mumbled just loud enough for them to hear.
Yang turned to her sister in shock. "Rubes?"
Sirens were building up in the distance: the police knew the fight was over, now.
"I-I'm not saying to just let him... y-you know, but the police can take care of him, right?" Ruby stumbled on her words: she must've just been thinking out loud. Typical, for her. Weiss might've been able to see the surprise on Ruby's face, but she had to guess: she was a little too focused on trying to stop the world from turning.
"We can't do anything for him as we are now. Unless you plan on cauterizing his wound yourself, it'd be best if we leave." Adam came to Ruby's aid on the matter, and from Yang's noncommittal hum, she wasn't too happy about that fact.
"Right. Well, you and Rubes are faster and that other guy's ride got totaled, so looks like you're gonna be on foot. Weiss, mind getting my motorcycle out of the ice? If it's broken, you're paying for it, by the way." Yang chuckled to herself, brushing off any discomfort she had before.
The world churned. It was all Weiss could do to keep standing.
Yang must've noticed. "Uh, Weiss? 'You alright over there?"
Exhaustion finally took its toll on Weiss and, her body feeling like a sack of bricks, she collapsed. The last thing she felt before unconsciousness came to her was a cry of her name, someone grabbing her just before she met the ground, and a distinct, prickling coldness at her neck.
"We've got a problem."
That was the last thing Cinder wanted to hear from Mercury. She sighed, watching the clock on her Scroll for when their operation would begin.
"Speak."
"Ironwood's left the party. I thought he might've just gotten tired of it, but he looked pretty upset when he left. Maybe he got turned down for a dance," he said with a chuckle. Standing beside him and watching over the party reaching full swing, Emerald was not so happy. Her eyes were focused on the faculty: when Ironwood left, they started gathering together and speaking in hushed tones. Their smiles were fake, now: masks to keep their precious little students from knowing what was going on.
"Are there any others who might be of note?"
Mercury's eyes lazily scanned the dance floor. "Yeah. Just one: some redhead down there has a guard detail," he immediately stifled a laugh. "One of 'em thinks he has moves, too."
"Mercury, stay focused," Cinder growled.
"Sorry, sorry." He didn't sound sorry. "There were just two of them, but when Ironwood left, another two joined up. A whole squad of infantry for one girl at the dance. Sounds a little suspicious, if you ask me."
"Hm... Keep an eye on her." Her attention was brought to an alert on her Scroll: Captain Almond had sent a text.
["Torchwick found a couple infiltrators and chased them down in the battlesuit. Haven't heard from him since. We're keeping low: the cops are all over this."]
Cinder sighed. "I found the issue: that little street rat of ours managed to get the police's attention with his Paladin. Sometimes I wonder how that fool's managed to keep an entire gang in check when he cannot even prevent two spies from..." She trailed off, then narrowed her eyes. "Mercury, where is Team RWAY?"
"No sign of 'em. I heard something about the prissy one going to go drag Ruby to the dance. Yang never showed, and Adam left not too long after Weiss." Adam left, and Blake was nowhere to be found. He was looking for Blake when he'd come to her, as well...
"Find them. Now."
Sirens were close enough for red and blue to be cast over the roads high above Torchwick's fallen form. A bullhead's thrusters grew louder and louder, and the dull hum of an airship's engines could still be heard above all. No one in team RWAY spoke.
The point of a stiletto blade, extended from a pink, folded umbrella, was pressed against Weiss' neck. The wielder—a short girl a couple inches shorter than even Weiss or Ruby with pink-and-brown hair—held tightly onto her unconscious hostage and glared down the remaining three students with one white eye and one pink. She smiled, slim and hateful.
Ruby recognized her. The girl from the rooftop: Neopolitan.
Adam's hand was already on his hilt from the moment the mysterious girl arrived, and both Yang and Ruby fell into positions to strike. However, it was a losing battle, and they knew it was: he and Yang had both just used their semblances and were running dangerously low on aura. Ruby was tougher, but just by the nature of her scythe-based fighting style, Weiss being in front of the girl meant all her speed couldn't stop her from getting hurt.
"What do you want?!" Ruby shouted at Neopolitan.
She merely stared at Ruby.
"She's here for Torchwick," Yang growled and took a step forward.
Wrong move: Neo pressed the blade just a little harder on Weiss' neck. A bead of red began to form above her mark. The five remained there, tension growing by the second. Adam stood tall and slowly walked forward to Roman, caring little for the blood beneath him as he slipped his foot beneath the unconscious man. Neo watched curiously, but did not move her weapon. If anything, she pulled Weiss closer in an almost possessive manner and let her stiletto drift down to make a second mark.
"We exchange hostages at the same time. Make one wrong move, and he won't make it to you alive," Adam warned her.
She rolled her eyes and impatiently tapped the cold stiletto blade against Weiss' throat.
Ignoring the desire to unsheathe his blade and end that whelp, he kicked Torchwick over towards Neo. The girl shoved Weiss away from her with surprising force into Ruby's arms and jumped forward to catch Torchwick. With her blade now hanging off her hand pointed towards the ground and, even with aura, Neo unbalanced by carrying someone so much taller, she was vulnerable to both Adam and Yang's immediate lunge.
Yet, his blade and her fist only collided with air as the image of the two criminals shattered like glass. They were gone, without even a single sign of where they might have went. Searchlights began to pour in from the sky, scanning around not too far from them.
"I'll take Weiss," Adam stated, still watching where Neo and Torchwick once stood. "I should have enough aura to at least get far enough from here."
The shock of the cold air striking her face turned what should have been a bleary, calm awakening and fluttering of eyes for Weiss to a sharp gasp and worried glancing about. Building rooftops were flying by in darkened blurs, the roads below them little more than streams of light and noise. Wind was beating down upon her, causing her to involuntarily shudder, huddle closer to the only source of heat beside her and pull her coat tighter.
Weiss' eyes focused. Coat? Her mind finally caught up with her eyes, recognizing that she was moving rather fast, and being carried, no less. She looked down to find Adam's coat haphazardly pulled around her more like a comforter. She looked up to see Adam himself, carrying her bridal-style above the metropolis. The city was already thinning out on its way to Beacon: they were close to home.
"Good to know you're awake," Adam suddenly spoke. "You gave us a scare."
"I was just tired after pulling more than my fair share, that's all," Weiss retorted with a slim smile.
He snorted. "If that's the story you want to tell yourself, be my guest." Adam was surprised: he had expected Weiss to have at least one complaint about being carried about town like this. It was a good thing she hadn't woken up when she was just tossed onto his shoulder. As she shifted only to get herself more comfortable and closed her eyes, Adam decided it simply was a matter of exhaustion.
"Was it not worth it?" Weiss asked.
"Considering we had three of us with our Semblances prepared, Torchwick had put himself in a compromising position and his machine was already beginning to crumble, it was a dramatic, superfluous overkill of the highest sort." Adam couldn't help but chuckle. "Which made it absolutely worth it. Just be ready to do all of that yet again when Ruby demands we include it in our 'team attacks'."
"Good thing I already had notes prepared for it..." Weiss mumbled under her breath, a pleased, triumphant smirk on her face as exhaustion still threatened to pull her back into its embrace yet again. Already, it was drawing her eyes closed.
"And slow down, you brute, I think something hit my neck..."
The situation had changed, much to Cinder's dismay. Though it was not yet midnight, rather than having already hacked into the CCT, she was busy watching the news for any sign of Torchwick's mistake, receiving a constant stream of information from both her two underlings and Captain Almond alike. Locations of students, faculty, guards, none were escaping her all-seeing eye.
A message from Beacon Academy itself appeared on her screen: "Alert to all students and transfers: transport into Vale is currently restricted due to an attack on I-5 at 10:00 tonight." Now, she had a time frame: thirty minutes ago in a location about an hour and a half away from Beacon by car meant anyone returning in roughly an hour would be suspects. Hm, perhaps she should go wait by the garages for when Blake and Adam finally returned... it would still give her time to infiltrate the CCT and have the bonus of making sure Adam knew what he was risking...
"Got eyes on Blake."
Cinder blinked. What?
"Looks like she was out with some street rat. Or, uh, monkey, in this case," Mercury casually informed her. "Usual clothes on Blake, no sign of a vehicle. I'm not defending her, but she was pretty uptight about going to the dance with us. 'Guess she just had somebody else in mind to spend the night with—" He guffawed. "Or, maybe not, from that slap she just gave him."
"I'll have Emerald return to the dance. Continue your surveillance, Mercury: I know they were involved." Surely, Adam would not have been so stupid as to try to infiltrate his own branch. Even if the masses did not recognize him, the higher-ups—Almond specifically—would have picked him out. Weiss was simply off the table. So, that left Ruby and Yang. Cinder smirked as she contacted Emerald: the two who were coincidentally missing before this party had even begun. They were clever with their little ploys, but not clever enough.
"Emerald, return to idle position and await further orders. In forty-five minutes, report any sighting of Ruby or Yang."
"Yes, ma'am, I'll be right on my way—" Emerald cried out in surprise before her Scroll clattered to the ground and the din of a passing motorcycle overwhelmed all sound on the other end. Cinder's eyes raised an eyebrow, and she moved towards the window: had they grown brave enough for an open assault?
"Sorry!" Cinder barely heard the young voice calling on the other side, but she knew who it was, already. Ruby Rose.
"—are such idiots," Emerald was grumbling as she grabbed her Scroll. "Sorry, Cinder, but the good news is that it looks like we know where the sisters are. It looked like they'd decided to go out somewhere."
"Of course," She hissed. If it wasn't RWAY, this suddenly became much more problematic for her. There was no easy solution. Had she miscalculated? Was that annoying 'Ace of Spades' fellow who kept assaulting the White Fang a different person after all?
"D-did I do something wrong, Cinder?" Her surprised, anxious tone reminded Cinder that she was not alone, right now. She couldn't afford to lose her cool.
Cinder forced a soft chuckle. "Of course not, dear, you did very well. Go and have your fun, I'll be right beside you soon," she cooed to Emerald.
"Right, of course!" Cinder could hear the happiness in her apprentice's voice and couldn't help but allow herself to smile. Emerald really was a pleasant girl. If only she weren't so dependent on her. Alas, it was useful, so it would just have to stay that way. Her smile faded when another text reached her Scroll:
["Roman's hurt. We're staying low. - Neo"]
Now, that girl was a different story. Dependent and unpleasant to be around. Worse yet, she was dependent on the man who was beginning to become a real thorn in her side. Cinder regretted gifting Roman with his knowledge with each passing day: it seemed the moment he realized he was considered non-disposable—but in no way essential, Cinder was quick to remind him—he decided to be as annoying as possible. How juvenile.
Cinder was pleased to know that fool had gotten himself hurt during that battle of his. Cinder was decidedly less pleased when she realized that with him down, getting definite information on the attackers would have to wait: it was unlikely that Neo would be willing to allow her to pay him a surprise visit. Make no mistake: though Neo undoubtedly believed themselves safe and hidden wherever they would, she could find them, but antagonizing unstable elements could and would backfire.
This night wasn't going as smoothly as she had hoped.
"Oh, now what do we have here?" Mercury's voice sounded in her ear again.
Cinder sighed before smiling and replying, "I do hope it is something more useful, this time."
"See for yourself." She could hear the smirk in Mercury's tone, and that left her all the more curious. Cinder opened up the image he'd sent.
"... Very nice, indeed, Mercury." Though it was from afar, the wonders of modern technology barely left the zoomed-in image grainy at all. A photo of the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company curled up and carried in the arms of not just one of Vale's formerly most dangerous terrorists, but a White Fang leader. His horns clear to see, his coat wrapped around her, and were those two pricks at her neck a love bite? Oh, this was just too good to be true.
"This shall do wonderfully in phase three of our plan. Be careful, Mercury: you just might make Emerald jealous..."
"I'm ba~ack!" Yang announced even over the music as she strutted into the dance hall. Taking after her 'date', if she was going to show, she was going to turn some heads, and she was certainly succeeding in her golden, sleeveless dress slit up the side to show plenty of leg.
Adam rolled his eyes as he stepped in beside her, a quickly-bought homburg hat masking his horns. "You never showed up, remember?"
"Pssh, details." She found herself swarmed by her friends before she could say much more, some even asking for a dance. "Hey, hey, hey, give me some space, would ya? Besides," Yang hooked her arm around Adam's, and the man flashed the group a pleasant—if not a tad prideful—smile. "I've already got a date! Now, move it! We haven't even gotten our first dance in."
Shaking his head, Adam sneaked a glance into the crowd. Emerald and Mercury stood near the back, watching. Perfect.
"And come on, DJ, put on something a little faster; Weiss won't kill you!"
Adam's smile grew more strained. He just needed to remember his lessons...
"Excuse you?" Weiss stormed in behind the two, dragging a grumpy Ruby by her wrist. After an entire night of shopping yesterday, Ruby finally agreed to one dress: a simple, red backless one with a crimson ribbon tied around it. Something that would let her escaped unnoticed in the crowd. Nothing about her looked particularly happy about this, nor about the 'lady stilts' she called high heels she was forced to wear.
Weiss was nearly tackled to the ground by a speeding, mint-green-wearing redhead. "Weiss!" Penny cried and yanked Weiss into a hug. Ruby stifled a laugh beside her as a pair of guards stumbled over themselves trying to follow. Yang took the time to sneak off, dragging Adam along with her.
"Penny! I thought you weren't going to show up!" Weiss said.
"It took a lot of convincing, but Professor Ozpin let me in!" Penny let Weiss go and leaned over to her, whispering loudly, "Don't worry! I got that... package you sent." She glanced around conspiratorially.
"What package?" The two jolted as one of the soldiers leaned over into their conversation.
"Oh, um, the... this dress! Hic! Weiss had it delivered when she knew I'd be coming to the dance! Hic!" Penny lied to the guard with the biggest grin she could muster. Weiss flashed an equally nervous smile.
"... Riiight."
"Actually," Weiss began and glanced over to her secretly-mechanical friend. "If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to have a word with Penny outside." She tugged Penny along to follow and started walking back towards the door.
The guards followed.
"Alone." The girls moved.
The guards followed.
"Girls only," Weiss growled, and the soldiers held their hands up and finally relented.
And so Ruby was left standing there, alone. "Does that mean that I can change out of these stupid things and put my hood back on?" she called out after her departing friends, but got no response. With a sigh and grumbled complaint about her stupid lady-stilts, she wandered over to the punch bowl. Sure, this is about what she expected, but she could still dream that her team would be hanging out, together. Weiss at least could've let her talk to Penny too instead of hogging her.
"Not enjoying yourself?" Professor Ozpin's amused voice chimed in behind Ruby. While Ruby didn't know it, herself, Ozpin had seen more than his fair share of missed opportunities to enjoy one's self. It might take a bit of work, but Ozpin decided he wouldn't let this one pass Ruby by: a chat would do well to get her to recognize the benefits of relaxing every so often.
The walk from the dance hall down the road where the two couldn't be eavesdropped on was an awkward one for Weiss and Penny. Primarily, this was because Weiss had no clue what she was doing. It was spur of the moment—reassuring Penny that they were still friends even though she wasn't... real. How was she even supposed to phrase that without it sounding awful? Wasn't it still terrible to even consider her not real, in the first place? Weiss furrowed her brow. She should've spent more time thinking about this! She should've—
"Weiss?" Penny piped up behind Weiss, jolting her from her thoughts. "Where are we going?"
Weiss stopped and tried not to look like she'd completely forgotten that they were still walking, in the first place. "Somewhere... safer to talk," she replied with a smile and turned to face Penny, assured that there was no one out on the well-lit streets. All eyes were on the dance, tonight. To her surprise, however, Penny wasn't smiling back.
"If this is about what happened two weeks ago," Penny began, "do not worry about it. I am one-hundred percent a-okay! Hic!" she lied with a wide, forced smile. "I... expected that to happen! Please continue as if I had said nothing at all!"
"No, no, that isn't right! You simply caught me by surprise, that is all. Nonetheless, I had two long weeks to think about this, and I can tell you with the utmost certainty..." She took a deep breath. "That I don't care."
Penny tilted her head to one side. "You... don't care?"
Weiss crossed her arms and nodded with conviction. "That's right. I don't care one bit."
The android narrowed her eyes not in anger, but in confusion. "What, exactly, do you mean by that?" Though it was fruitless, maybe if she looked hard enough she could identify what was wrong with Weiss.
"What I mean is that you look like us, talk like us, act like us and so on. As far as I am concerned, even if you have bones of steel instead of... well, bone, you are just as human as I am, and that is that."
"You really don't mind?" Penny asked with hope in her eyes. Eyes gleaming with a dull, green light of their own, the faintest lines visible on her iris that only one who knew her secret could hope to look for. It was going to take a little while to get used to things like that, Weiss thought to herself. Even so...
"Absolutely not! You—" She never got to finish her sentence, for once more she found herself being shaken in a crushing bear hug.
"Ooooh, Weiss, you are the best friend anyone could have!"
"Just a brief reminder: I am not made of metal," Weiss wheezed and wriggled in Penny's grip until she was finally freed. After a deep breath, she smiled. "We should return to the dance before those guards following you around start growing agitated and come looking for us. Trust me, I know from experience." She was already moving before she'd even finished speaking.
"Of course, best friend!" Weiss' smile grew just a little more hearing Penny back to her usual self. "Besides, you also have your romantically-interested partner for the dance: Jaune!"
She paused mid-stride and looked back. "How do you know that?"
"He's been telling everyone! Though, he left a short time ago. I hope he wasn't looking for you—oh, there he is!" Penny pointed over towards the dance hall, where Jaune was walking with purpose and confidence towards the door.
In a copy of Weiss' own dress.
Watching Weiss barge into the hall out of breath with Penny on her tail, Mercury and Emerald leaned back into the shadows atop the balcony overlooking the dance floor.
"And that makes everyone. Looks like even RWAY have partners," Mercury spoke. To anyone nearby, it would've looked like he was only speaking to Emerald.
"How long do I have?" came Cinder's voice from an all-but invisible earpiece.
His eyes scanned across the ballroom: while Weiss was busy trying to get an answer out of Jaune for why he chose her dress for some bet that he'd apparently lost, Ruby and Yang were trying to teach Penny some dance moves. Mercury's eyes soon fell on Adam, who was simply drinking punch and sitting off to the side.
Their eyes briefly met.
"If you're still looking for that dance, be back by midnight. Just to be safe."
"I'll keep my eyes on the clock." Standing at a distance atop one of the many rooftops surrounding the center of Beacon, Cinder stared off at the mass of clockwork turning at the top of her target: Beacon Tower, and the Cross-Continental Transmit Center within. She allowed herself to smile.
Showtime.
