"They were here Ozpin!" Ironwood shouted at his old friend.
"We are very much aware of that James, and we are taking action as we speak." Glynda snapped at the general.
The ding from the elevator broke the tension and Ozpin stood up, "Come in."
The door opened and a somewhat short girl with black hair that ran red at the tips and silver eyes. She was wearing a red fleece jacket and black pants with a golden rose necklace around her neck.
"Sorry I'm late. Couldn't find my keys to my apartment." She explained casually walking out of the elevator her hands in her pockets.
"Scarlet I believe." Ironwood stated walking over to the teen.
"Yup."
The general cleared his throat, "Let me be the first to say that what you are doing is one of the bravest things I have seen in a while. Risking your life to turn against Torchwick and helping us bring him to justice."
"It's no big deal the sooner he's in jail the sooner I can join my real family." She said with a big smile.
"Now then." Ozpin spoke up from his desk "The women you were with, who was she?"
"Her name is Cinder Fall. I don't know much about her; she mostly just sends her lackies Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black to do her dirty work. Roman is just a figure head, she's the real one in charge." She explained.
Ozpin was about to talk but was stopped by the lost Rose twin, "Also… When I was at the dance, I saw Emerald and Mercury in the crowd. They are students here at Beacon."
The room fell silent, and Ozpin had a distant stare on his face.
"No students by that name attend Beacon." Glynda mumbled loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Then they must be transfer students. I will get a list of all transfer students from Atlas and check for any students that match those names." Ironwood stated with authority.
"One more thing." Scarlet spoke up pulling Ozpin out of his thoughts. "Recently Cinder ordered that all of the dust that Roman and the White Fang stole be moved to this cave under an abandoned city in the southeast."
"Then we send as many troops to that city as possible!" Ironwood yelled.
"That's the worst possible move you could make." Scarlet said not thinking.
"And why is that?" He questioned hiding his anger at the girl.
"Those caves are small and there are thousands of Grimm down there too. You might stop the White Fang and Cinder, but your men will end up either shot or chewed to bit. I can guarantee it." She stated flatly.
"She has a point, James." Ozpin stated breaking his silence. "Thank for your time Scarlet, that will be all. You have a busy next few days."
"Later!" She called turning on her heels and walking back into the elevator.
Team RWBY approached the mission board searching the search and destroy section for any missions in the southeast.
"Look quadrant five needs to be cleared as Grimm." Ruby pointed out excitedly.
"It's in the southeast." Blake agreed.
They tried to type in their team code only for it to be declined with a message 'Headmaster Permission Needed'.
"OH, COME ON!" Ruby groaned.
The headmaster himself walked around the corner mug in hand. "I put that in place so no other team would claim it."
"What are you talking about?" Weiss asked.
"I did say that I was giving you special permission to go on a mission in the south-east. The Grimm killing is just a cover, the real mission is to investigate Torchwick's activity." He said with a smug smile on his face.
He taped on his tablet a few times and the 'Approved' sign came up on the big screen. "I have sent the four of you a file detailing some of the more sensitive matters in this mission."
"What sensitive matters?" Weiss asked stepping forward.
"I'm afraid I can't discuss that with you here." Ozpin stated glancing around the room. "The huntsmen you will be shadowing will fill you in. I suggest you read that file on the flight over to the mission location."
Scarlet watched as the airship descended from above and Team RWBY and some guy with green hair jumped down from the craft. She laughed a little at the fact that Ruby had snuck a small black and white corgi with her.
She continued to watch them from high above in the shadows of the broken-down skyscrapers through the scope of her trusty rifle-sword Slicer Thorn. On occasion the green haired man would pull on of the members of the team aside and briefly talk to them. Clearly the short conversations carried some weight.
Eventually the team settled in an old office building for the night. Scarlet watched as the man and her sister left the building for a patrol for any left-over Grimm. As they left a long yawn escaped from Scarlet's lungs and she decided to take a nap. Placing her backpack on the floor and leaning against the crumbling pillar behind her she closed her eyes.
"AH!" Dr. Oobleck exclaimed as he and Ruby entered the dilapidated structure, "A textbook campfire!"
Ruby ran over to the fire holding her hands up to the heat source. "So warm."
"Now that we have a moment." Oobleck started. "How many of you read the report sent by Ozpin?"
An awkward silence set in. None of them had read the file, none of them except.
"I did." Weiss proudly chimed in.
"Very good Miss Schnee." Weiss' proud smile only grew.
"So, mind filling us in?" Yang broke in.
"Of course, where to begin?" The doctor asked himself. "Do any of you know why this city was chosen to scout for the Torchwick hideout?" He asked.
"It's in the south-east?" Yang stated unsure.
Dr. Oobleck cleared his throat and spoke uncharacteristically slow. "Recently a member of Torchwick's inner circle has reached out to Ozpin and has started working as a confidential informant."
"Who is it?!" Yang asked almost yelling.
"I do not know. They have asked for their identity to be kept hidden until they see fit." He explained.
"It makes sense when you think about it really." Weiss started, "Torchwick is unpredictable so who knows what he might do to this person if he finds out that they betrayed him." The heiress explained.
"I guess." Yang sighed disappointed she couldn't meet this person.
"Getting back on track." Oobleck started again. "At some point tomorrow, we will be getting in contact with our informant." He returned to his energetic self as he rocketed to the other side of the room. "Now with all of that out of the way we should be heading to bed, who has first watch?"
"I can do it." Ruby offered getting up and walking over to the shelf overlooking the street below.
Several hours passed and Ruby could barely keep her eyes open. She slowly stood and absent mindedly stumbled back into the small campsite.
"Hey Blake," She started breaking for a yawn, "It's your turn to stand guard."
Blake stirred from her sleep and sat up groggily. Ruby helped her up and they briefly spoke when something heavy landed on the guard shelf. The two reached for their weapons when a familiar red and black figure rounded the corner hands over her head.
"Just me." Scarlet joked. Ruby with a newfound energy ran over and hugged her twin which was quickly returned. "I won't be here long; I just came to drop this off." She held up a dark green backpack. After Ruby let go of her, she stuck a knife in the wall and hung the backpack on the blade, waving goodbye she jumped to the ground below.
Ruby turned back to Blake's former and now her sleeping bag laying down her signature cheerful smile on her face.
"HOLY SHIT!" Yang's voice rang out waking everyone up. Looking around Ruby saw that the sun was rising over the horizon.
"What on earth is so important to wake all of us up with such foul langue Yang!" Weiss shouted furious.
Yang held out the backpack that Scarlet had left the night before. "That informant guy must have left this here while we were asleep!" She exclaimed.
"How is that possible? Ruby and Blake were standing watch all night." Weiss retorted trying to straighten her hair.
"I-uh kinda fell asleep for a bit." Ruby lied.
Weiss looked like she was about to explode when the doctor sped around the corner, "What is all the hubbub about?"
"We got a mystery package from our equally mysterious friend in Torchwick's inner circle." Yang explained as she knelt opening the backpack.
"What's in it?" Ruby asked kneeling down next to her sister.
Yang pulled out a couple items, "Looks like a map and a notebook."
"That's it?" Weiss questioned.
"Looks like." Yang stated fishing around in the pack to no avail.
Blake grabbed the map and discovered that it was an image of the abandoned city they were standing in with three point marked in red. "These must be the entrances to the hideout." She posited.
"Hey there's something written in the notebook." Yang said grabbing everyone's attention.
The notebook was written in very neat handwriting. "I'll keep this short. Under the city is a large cave system that has large subway tracks, and Torchwick is planning to use them to attract subterranean Grimm by blowing up train cars. The train will end inside of Vale and the Grimm will run wild, so stopping the train before then is imperative. I'm going to be there to but don't expect me to go easy on any of you just because we're on the same side. -Your Friend"
The last sentence sent a chill down Ruby's spine, it was clearly directed at her. But deep down she knew why Scarlet had written that. This was a life-or-death situation, and she couldn't take any risks, and so Ruby promised herself that if her sister wouldn't hold back then neither than would she.
"The northern entrance is closest." Blake's voice pulled Ruby out of her thoughts. "I say we head there first."
"Good now that we've settled on a plan, let's make haste!" Oobleck stated.
Scarlet ran into the lead train car after an alarm had been sound. "What the hell is going on!" She yelled.
"Apparently those huntress girls found our hideout." Roman explained.
"How?" She asked trying to sound perplexed.
"Beats me." He said fixing his collar, "You and Neo guard the train cars, and be careful not to blow yourself up." The ground beneath them suddenly jerked and as the train started moving.
Scarlet looked over at her adoptive sister sitting on a crate with a smile, "Shall we?" She joked.
"Of course, deer sister." She said getting off the crate she was sitting on.
They left the lead car and Scarlet affixed her mask to her face, "Talking in front of people now?" She asked activating the voice changer.
Neo shrugged.
"Back to square one." Scarlet sighed as a distant explosion shook the car.
They walked into a long car somewhere in the middle of the train. The two almost kept walking when the sounds of people running along the roof echoed through the mostly empty space. The members of Team RWBY dropped down from the celling along with a tall green haired man and a small dog.
Scarlet grabbed her sword swinging it into its blade form and pointed it at the group in a challenging stance. Neo opened her umbrella and put it over her shoulder twirling it with an elegant pose.
"You guys go ahead me, and Ruby can handle these two." Yang ordered arming her gauntlets. The group nodded and continued running forward.
Scarlet burst forward with incredible speed but was knocked back by an explosive blast from Yang's weapons hit the floor in front of her. Neo tried to do the same only to be stopped by a round from Ruby's sniper scythe that grazed her cheek and landed in the wall behind her.
"Which one do you want?" Yang asked her younger sister, her anger boiling over in her voice.
"I'll take Red." Ruby stated mimicking her half-sister's tone.
Scarlet smirked under her mask, "Looks like out opponents have been chosen for us, huh Neo?" She said making her adopted sister smirk.
Ruby lowered the blade of Crescent Rose at the floor placing her finger on the trigger. Scarlet charged forwards at her twin, and as Ruby began the movement to swing her scythe at her Scarlet flipped over her head. Ruby swung around the blade of her weapon completely missing Scarlet.
The masked twin landed with ease and thrusted her blade forwards, only to be expertly dodged by her twin. She began an assault on her sister with several powerful swings aimed at her chest all blocked with the help of Crescent Rose's shaft. Ruby being forced on the defensive swung the bottom of her shaft landing a solid hit on the side of Scarlet's head. Repositioning her blade, she swung down at her sister who vanished in black petals reappearing behind her.
Yang was growing more frustrated with each punch. All this girl, whose name was apparently Neo, was doing was nonchalantly evading her attacks and landing cheap hits. Yang fired a blast from her Ember Celica forcing the girl back. She flipped backwards sitting down on a box and crossing her legs still with that smirk on her face. Even more angry Yang charged forward and threw a devastating downward punch.
Neo being the acrobat she was flipped upwards and around Yang's body landing behind her elegantly blocking another shot with her umbrella. Yang charged at the short girl throwing another downward angled punch. Neo ducked under Yang's fist and using her umbrella swept Yang's feet out from under her, and while Yang was still in the air Neo kicked her as hard as she could sending the brawler into the ceiling and back down to the floor out cold.
Neo turned around to her sister, "Scarlet, are you finished?" She asked calmly.
Scarlet hit Ruby square in the face with her elbow knocking her to the ground unconscious, "Yeah." She replied causally.
The sound of a train car disconnecting and exploding drew the adopted sister's attention to the back of the car. "That was two cars down. We should leave." Neo stated and held out her hand with a smile for her sister.
"I'm going to head further up; I don't trust the oaf with a chainsaw to take down Princess and Faunas girl." Scarlet lied so Neo would leave.
Neo shrugged and walked over to the back door, taking a good long look at Ruby's face before she shattered into glass shards. Scarlet satisfied by her adopted sister's leaving ran over to her biological sister's starting with her twin.
She pulled a small white pellet and snapped it in half holding it under Ruby's nose. Ruby inhaled sharply and sat up placing a finger under her nose, "Is my nose bleeding?" She asked seeing blood on her fingers.
"Yes, but that's the least of your issues right now." Scarlet started hearing another car detach. "This car is about to explode, get Yang and find a way to stop this train." She ordered helping her sister up. They hugged each other shortly before Scarlet jumped through a hatch in the roof.
Yang's eyes fluttered open to see Ruby's panicked face, "YANG WE'RE ABOUT TO EXPLOED GET UP!" She yelled. Yang's sense's returned in an instant and she bolted upright grabbing her younger sister by the arm and pulled her out of the car into the next one.
No one in the car noticed the small red eyed bird watching them from the roof of the car as it vanished in a red portal.
Ruby and Yang ran across the tops of the train cars towards the rest of their team. They skidded to a stop and started to catch their breaths.
"Any ideas on how to stop this train?" Blake asked.
"I have one, but it's a little dangerous." Weiss posited putting weight on her warring.
"DO IT!" The rest of the heiress' team yelled.
Weiss responded by loading the ice dust into her weapons chamber and stabbing the blade into the ground creating a bubble of Ice around the team. The bubble scrapped across the ceiling until it met a long hanging beam forcing the train to angle upwards and out f the ground into the streets of Vale.
Scarlet and Neo watched from the top of a nearby building as Team RWBY and several others fought off the onslaught of Grimm.
"Did that girl's purse just turn into a minigun?" Scarlet asked in disbelief as the brown themed girl used the large gun to tear Nevermores in half midair.
Neo tapped her younger sister on the shoulder gaining her full attention, "What is it Neo?"
"We need to speak. Alone." She stated flatly.
"Sure, thing sis', I'll meet you at my place in a few hours." The sword bearer agreed.
Neo nodded and shattered into glass once more, and Scarlet turned her attention back down to the small plaza that had reconstructed itself, with a little help from Glynda Goodwitch. Suddenly, the sky went dark as an army of airships descended over the area and the robotic Atlas soldiers rained from the crafts. The soldiers and new huntsmen made quick work of the remaining Grimm.
When most of the fighting had stopped Scarlet scanned the area and her heart actually skipped a beat when she saw Roman being hauled off by Atlas soldiers.
Team RWBY sat on a ledge overlooking the city of Vale.
"Well, we did it." Yang almost sighed.
"Yeah, we did it." Blake agreed.
"If we don't get extra credit for that I'm going to be very disappointed." Weiss exclaimed.
"Weiss a two headed snake crushed a bakery. I wouldn't count on it." Yang stated flatly.
"Plus," Ruby started. "We didn't solve everything. A lot of people were hurt, or why they did this." She pointed out.
"Well not every story has a neat and tidy ending." Weiss stated.
"We might not have all of the answers, but we did put a lot of dangerous people behind bars." Blake added.
"I kinda wish we found out who that mystery informant was." Yang said disappointed as she laid down on her back.
"It was Red." Ruby stated bluntly.
Yang shot up, "How do you know?" Yang asked wanting proof of this claim.
"She saved you and me from blowing up in the train, and she kinda told me that she wanted to work for us back at the robot fight with Torchwick." Her voice grew in nervousness and anxiety as she finished her sentence.
"THAT'S WHAT THE WALL OF SMOKE WAS ABOUT!?" Yang exclaimed.
"Yeah, I arranged a meeting for her and Ozpin." She explained.
"So, I'm assuming you never fell asleep on guard duty." Weiss put forth.
"Nope!" Ruby said with a pop.
"You dolt." Weiss mumbled.
"Did you ever see her face?" Yang asked. Ruby nodded in response. "WELL!? WHO IS SHE!?" Yang yelled.
"I think that should come from her, not me." Ruby stated trying to hide her excitement deep down.
"I think we should head to bed." Blake spoke up. The rest of the team agreed with the faunas and got up to head back to the dorm. Halfway to the dorm room Ruby's scroll buzzed. She pulled it out and a message from her twin was on full display.
'Hey. I need to you come by my place. It's important.'
Ruby sent a quick response and looked back up to her team who had stopped moving, "I need to go." She said with a nervous chuckle.
"It's Red, isn't it." Weiss asked. Ruby nodded.
"THAT'S WHO YOUR SECRET BOYFRIEND HAS BEEN THIS WHOLE TIME!" Yang exclaimed. Ruby chuckled and nodded again.
"Get going, I'm sure it's important." Blake stated. Ruby turned on her heels and started walking to the bull head landing area so she could head into Vale.
When she arrived at her sister's apartment, she used the key Scarlet had given her to open the door. Walking down the hall she called out, "Scarlet I'm here! What did you want to talk abou-?" She cut herself off as she rounded the corner into the main living area.
There at the table sat her twin Scarlet her cat sitting in her lap, she had the saddest look Ruby had seen in her life. Rushing over to her sister Ruby took notice of another figure in the room. Standing next to the kitchen was Scarlet's adopted older sister, Neo. Her face was blank with no emotion showing, the sight sent chills down her spine.
"Hey sis." Scarlet started. "Take a seat. This is going to take a while."
Next Chapter; Scrapbook