Convergence
I don't own RWBY. This Episode is related to Episode 10, and is therefore part of the Clean Slate 'Verse.
"I thought I told you to leave," Ruby noted dryly to the green-haired girl who had been following her ever since she bandaged up her wounds.
"Let me help you," Emerald demanded, "I owe you my life."
"I've seen your life," Ruby said, "No thanks. You don't understand Judgement like I do. You just don't get it."
"Then teach me," Emerald pleaded "Make me your disciple."
Ruby stared at her for a short while before simply saying, "Nope."
"Come on!" Emerald protested racing behind her as best she could as Ruby vanished in a stream of rose petals, "You have a scythe-gun, my guns are sickles! I'm the perfect disciple!"
Adam Taurus was not sure what was going on when he was called into Sienna Khan's war room some time after the heist in which he had gotten rid of the Schnee. He was even more confused when he realized that the rest of her trusted lieutenants and their seconds were in the room, while his own second-in command was not.
"Adam," the leader of the White Fang greeted cordially, "I've heard that your cell has been busy in Vale as of late."
"We've been moving a good deal of Dust," he replied, "We've received a benefactor who is willing to aid in the cause."
"I recall the Vale branch having been troubled after the loss of their leader," she said, "I, for one, was very upset to hear that Weiss had died holding the line when the strike team that she had been leading had been up against some sentry bots."
"She died a credit to the cause," he said, the words tasting bitter in his mouth even if it was his own lie.
"I had forgotten," she said idly, "You were the third man of that strike team, weren't you?"
"Yes, Great Leader," he answered, "I was the one she ordered to get myself and the other member out of there."
"Perhaps you can answer a question for me, then," she said, "I find myself wondering why I received a message from Weiss's personal scroll, encoded in a manner that only she and I use to communicate for security purposes, which stated, 'Not dead. Taurus tried to kill me, but it didn't work. Will contact if possible.' I would love to hear how you think that came to pass."
The room was now very tense, with the words hanging heavily in the air. As the lieutenants began to reach for their weapons, Adam grabbed the hilt of his sword, only to feel a painful electric shock that sent him to the ground.
"Thank you, Ilia," Sienna stated as the chameleon Faunus made herself visible from the shadowed pillar she had been standing against, her weapon still crackling with electricity, "Now, Adam, you are to be executed, obviously. Ilia, you're dismissed. Please go to the Vale branch and inform them that Adam Taurus has been executed as a traitor to the White Fang, and that they are, for the moment, recalled back to Menagerie for further assignments. Once you have done soI am personally charging you with locating Weiss and either aiding her in whatever her current endeavor is that is keeping her."
"Yes, ma'am," she said immediately with a bow as one of the loyal lieutenants took Adam's weapons from him and ripped his mask from his face, binding his arms behind his back.
"So, Junior," Yang said cheerfully, "Do you want to tell me what you heard, or do you want me to beat you and your men to within an inch of your lives again? Or, I could call the tribe over once and we can get the information the boss lady's way."
"Look," he answered as people rushed out of the bar, "You've got to understand, all I've heard are rumors."
"Rumors are good," she replied just as cheerfully as before, "What kind have you got?"
"Supposedly, there's a killer loose," he said, polishing off the newest counter, which had been replaced after her last 'visit' to the bar, "They call her 'The Red Death.'"
"'The Red Death?'" she asked skeptically.
"I don't make the names," he replied, "Thing is, the whole thing sounds like a ghost story to me. Supposedly, she shows up in a kingdom, looking like a little Grim Reaper with a red cloak and a massive scythe, then disappears in a stream of rose petals. After she's been sighted, someone in the kingdom dies, usually at the end of a fifty caliber sniper rifle. Stories say that she leaves a red rose sitting where she shot from. Rumor has it she's been spotted somewhere in Vale recently, so a lot of people are getting spooked. Even Torchwick's laying low."
At that moment, the door to the club was blasted in by the force of what could only be assumed to be a stronger missile than the ones that Junior used before a swarm of blood red rose petals streamed into the bar, stopping at the bar as they blurred into the form of a girl in a red hood. Apparently following her was a green-haired girl with red eyes, but the hooded girl paid her no heed as she entered.
"They call you Junior," she said, a glint of silver pinning the man into place, "A middle man."
"Are you here to kill me?" he asked, his eyes on the wicked scythe-gun that she held as if it were as light as a feather.
"That would be counterproductive," she said, "And you are not worth judgement. You are a lesser evil, but you are human."
"Ruby?" Yang asked with trepidation as she slowly walked towards the girl, "Is that you?"
"Hi, Yang," she replied, not taking her eyes off of Junior, "I'm a little busy at the moment. Junior, there's someone I'm looking for. A woman by the name of Cinder Fall. This is where she would have gone to hire some muscle after the White Fang left town. You'd recognize her by the eye I shot out."
"Where have you been?" Yang demanded, "You've had us all worried sick. Mom sent out search parties. I've been all over looking for you, but I was always too late from the sightings."
"Emerald," Ruby said, "If you are going to follow me around for the time being, please be useful and continue talking with Junior. Be polite. I need to speak with my sister."
At that, Emerald had taken the space that Ruby had been occupying while Ruby led her further away from the actual bar so that they could talk.
"I've been working, Yang," Ruby said, "Delivering Justice to those who deserve it. I didn't want to go back to the Tribe, otherwise I would have."
"But, why?" Yang asked, "Why'd you leave home?"
"That wasn't home," Ruby said, "Not to me. You're Raven's daughter, not me. I was taken in out of her love of Mom and Dad. You got training for a fighting style that you chose. I was given a scythe to practice with without any questions. We both know that it wasn't because she knew I would choose it." She reached for the canteen on her hip and took a drink of her water, "She wanted to replace Uncle Qrow in the Tribe. Even if she doesn't admit it, she misses her brother. I wasn't going to be her replacement."
"You weren't anyone's replacement, Ruby," Yang replied.
"And yet you had to look for me when she has her Semblance," Ruby replied, "Besides, I have to answer a much higher calling than killing people for money and food, and things like that."
"Yeah, you assassinate people," Yang noted dryly, "You're a saint."
"I judge the wicked," Ruby corrected, "Every soul I take deserved it, and every soul I will take will have deserved it. Since the Brothers do not do it themselves, it falls to me to do their work for them."
"Isn't that a Mistralian pickpocket you've got trailing behind you?" Yang asked, "One that turned down the Tribe's offer to join?"
"She's a fanatic," Ruby replied, "One who found out the person she followed wasn't worth following. Since I saved her life, she won't stop following me. Besides, I could say that her turning down the Tribe's offer is a point in her favor."
"Oh, come on, Rubes, you don't mean that," Yang said with a slight chuckle.
Ruby stood there with a blank expression on her face.
"Anyway, who are you even here for?" Yang pressed on.
"Cinder Fall," Ruby replied, "She got away."
"You missed a shot?" she asked incredulously.
"I didn't miss," Ruby said flatly, "Emerald literally leapt into the path and got left on the side of the road like litter."
"Of course she wasn't there," a distantly familiar voice grumbled as two sets of footsteps could be heard at the entrance, "Just my luck that she left before I could get you to…"
Everyone's eyes were locked on the door as a scraggly man with a white cape casually strolled through the remains of the door, a girl wearing a White Fang mask that was half-broken on one of the eyes following behind him, clearly waiting to find the right moment to leave. He, however, stopped in his tracks as he stared at the two sisters.
"Firecracker? Pipsqueak?" he asked, his eyes darting between the pair, "Ruby?! Yang?!"
"Oh, shoot," Yang whispered as she turned herself and Ruby to avoid looking at Qrow, remembering that her uncle knowing about her meant that Ozpin definitely knew, and that was something her mother had told her only ever led to trouble.
"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby greeted as he rushed to them and hugged them tightly, "I'd love to catch up, but I've got my calling to heed. I just need some information from Junior and Cinder Fall will be no more."
That caused him to suddenly stiffen as he pulled back from the pair to get a better look at them. After a brief examination, he sighed tiredly.
"Of course," he said, "Just my luck… I see Raven got you both into the family business."
"They're your family, too," Yang argued.
"I'll accept that you, Ruby, and Raven are family, and even Raven's on thin ice," he said, "But the rest of my family shares a gravestone in Patch."
Ruby tilted her head as she glanced at the girl that Qrow had come in with.
"Weiss Schnee," she noted, "Right Hand of the White Fang. I don't suppose you could tell me where Cinder Fall or your subordinate, Adam Taurus would be."
"I don't know a Cinder Fall, and if my message got through, Adam should either be in a dungeon or dead by now."
"I see," she replied, "Alright, then."
Qrow sighed and said, "Anyone in here that is not involved in anything illegal, raise your hand."
When no one did so, he let out another sigh, before signaling Junior to pour him a shot of whiskey.
"Alright," he said, "So we've got the trusted lieutenant of a known terrorist organization who happens to be the heiress to the corporation that said organization fights the most often, the daughter of the head of the most infamous bandit tribe, and a serial killer that has James Ironwood's attention. This is typical of my luck. Here's what we're going to do. I'm taking all of you to Beacon. I know a guy who owes me a favor that can help."
"…And… there… we… go!" Jaune Arc said cheerfully as he finished his current project, removing the loupe from over his eye as he held up one of the forms for his bodyguard, "Aren't these beautiful? I think this might be my best work, Pyrrha."
"I don't think I've ever seen such a perfect copy of a Beacon admissions form," a familiar gruff voice said, causing Pyrrha to tense, her hand on her javelin, "You even got Oz's signature just right."
"Who are you?" Pyrrha glared at the intruder in the red cape, "Please identify yourself."
"It's fine, Pyrrha," Jaune said tiredly, "I know him. What do you want, Qrow?"
"Don't worry," Qrow said cheerfully, "I'm actually here to call in your marker on an easy job."
"Why do I get the feeling that your definition of easy is not the same as mine?"
"I need four forms for Beacon," Qrow said after doing a headcount of whoever was outside.
"Three," the Red Death corrected as she, the Number Two of the White Fang, and what appeared to be one of the Branwen bandit tribe entered, followed by a girl with green hair that said serial killer turned towards, "I told you that I was not going to take you for my disciple."
Jaune was not going to even question that.
"This one'll take a couple hours," he noted, "And I'm going to need a good idea of what you want their histories to be."
"Histories, Jaune Arc, master forger?" the Red Death asked, "What do you mean?"
"Pyrrha and I are coming from a very small school with no digital records," he explained, deliberately not questioning how she knew who he was, "It's easier to go with something people don't bother to look into."
"Apprenticeships," Qrow said, gesturing at Ruby and Yang, "Private school, practically off the grid," he gestured at Weiss. He tilted his head for a second, "Also, a different surname for her for the time being. Any preferences, Ice Princess?"
"Khan," she replied immediately.
"I can't believe she said that I should go through with this stupid idea," the blond of the group noted, "She's the one who always said not to trust him."
"Beacon's the best of the best Academies," Qrow replied, "She probably wants you to get stronger. At the rate you're going, she's probably already set you up to take over the tribe after she's done with it."
"Well, this should be interesting, at least," Pyrrha offered, resting a comforting hand on Jaune's shoulder while she, herself, was still positioned so that she would be ready for an attack at any moment.
"Where'd you even get that bodyguard?" Qrow asked idly.
"Pyrrha Nikos," Ruby said, "I've heard of you, too."
"Several people have," Pyrrha noted.
"Most of them are dead, now," Ruby said with a nostalgic smile.
"Can we focus on the task at hand," Qrow asked, "Like I said, we need those forms. It's not like there are other arrangements we can use for it."
Elsewhere, a black-haired cat Faunus sneezed. Beacon was going to be her new start. The White Fang had been getting more and more violent, so she felt she needed to make up for her past misdeeds.
Fortunately, she knew of a way to get an application that few would think of, one which wouldn't even need any forged papers. And it was highly unlikely that anyone who knew her from the White Fang would find her there.
"We've got a few weeks to get everything set," Qrow continued, "but we need to make sure everyone's set for it. Got it?"
As he got murmured agreements, the unofficially semi-retired Huntsman wondered if there was anyone who had to deal with the sort of chaos he had to?
Were he to express his opinion on the matter, James Ironwood would have admitted that he was somewhat disappointed. After getting Professor Nikola Polendina to retrofit his creation, the robot girl designated P.E.N.N.Y., with a modification that would allow her to analyze crime patterns, which should have, in theory, been of use in the hunt for the elusive Red Death, said girl had stated that she could find no pattern to speak of.
He supposed that it had been a hopeless flight of fancy. There hadn't been a single breakthrough in the case before, so he shouldn't have been surprised when she turned up nothing. Dismissing the pair, he returned to his office.
Later, however, when Professor Polendina had settled down for the night, Penny made her decision.
She had not lied to the General, per se, her hiccups would have prevented her from doing so. Instead, she had simply said a shade of the truth. The truth was, in her mind, nothing to speak of. It was sacred, in a sense. The works of the Red Death were done in the name of justice. Armed with her ability to access any files and look at everything plainly, she found something beautiful. The Red Death only went for those that society failed to punish, those terrible monsters who slipped through the cracks through either money or trickery.
The mission was sensational, and Penny had been told that saving the world was her duty. And so, she slipped off of the base into the night, off to seek the Red Death, so that she could join her in bringing about Justice.
She was combat ready.
