"Mercury." Yang's eyes narrowed, her voice hard. She hadn't realised how much it rankled her how their previous fights had gone. This time would be different.

"Yes. Mercury Black." Professor Goodwitch's voice was also flinty, there was clearly no love lost there for the way he'd infiltrated Beacon. "Previous affiliations include Cinder Fall, missing, Emerald Sustrai, missing, and Salem, sealed. Assassin for hire. So far confirmed to be responsible for at least six high profile deaths, plus multiple guardsmen and bodyguards." She finished reading from the file and flicked her fingers on the desk. Six headshots of prominent businessmen and lower council members replaced Mercury's, names and positions underneath. The four girls blanched, Ruby feeing particularly disgusted, He's barely older than we are, but he's killed that many people? And for money?

"He's been operating throughout Vale and Mistral, but we believe he's based mostly in Haven. As far as we know, he's separated from Cinder and isn't operating under her orders or command, as we've seen known members of the mafia visit him."

Professor Goodwitch sighed. "He needs to be stopped, but we also want him alive. He may know details about Cinder's location, or operation if she's still operating. Even if not, he'll know information we could use."

She tapped some buttons on the holo desk and the four girls scrolls beeped. "I've sent the details of the mission to your scrolls, along with any video footage we have of his fighting style and weapon. Your airship leaves for Haven tomorrow evening, that gives you enough time to familiarise yourselves with the details."

The girls took that as their cue to leave, Ruby having the final words, "We won't let you down."

Reaching the dorm room, Ruby walked to the middle of the room before spinning in place to face the others, her red cloak flicking behind her.

"Okay team, mission prep time!" Ruby was trying her best not to be too excited at getting their first professional Huntress mission, but it definitely seeped through into her voice, if not the fact that she nearly jumped in happiness.

Weiss rolled her eyes fondly before sitting down on her bed, Blake sitting on hers, and Yang grabbing a chair from in front of the desk. She spun it round and sat backwards, resting her arms on the back of the chair. Ruby looked at them all with a wild grin, and started tapping on her scroll, bringing the mission information up on the holo screen in front of them.

"Right, so we've gone over those bits with Professor Goodwitch...ah! Here we go, fight videos!" Ruby brought some clips up and showed them on screen.

They spent the next hour going over the videos of Mercury fighting, and looking for weaknesses, pointing a few out, and getting a look at his weapons and what they can do. By the end of the footage Weiss was a little puzzled, and the others could see it.

"What's eating you Ice Queen?"

With a quick glare at Yang, although lacking in any actual spite, Weiss replied, "Is it just me, or has nobody managed to spot what his semblance is? Everything we've just seen could be put down to either his fighting style or his weapon."

"So, either he's never taken any of the fights seriously enough to use it, or it's a more passive semblance that isn't noticeable." Blake finished Weiss' point and they all looked at Ruby.

"Hmmm. We'll need to keep an eye out for that, we'll be trying to capture him, so he'll either end up needing to take it seriously enough to use his semblance, or it's a passive one, in which case we'll need to be careful of what it could be." Ruby scratched her head, her voice a little less certain than before. "There's not much we can do in prep for an unknown semblance other than be extra cautious, there's far too many different things it could be."

After a moment Ruby brightened and continued, "As for things we do know about, we've got the location of his main hideout." She tapped the scroll again, and a map of a section of Haven appeared on it. "He's been hiding out in this small warehouse here. As it's unlikely he'll give up and just come quietly, our best bet for capture is to ambush him at the warehouse itself." The warehouse changed colour to a darker red. "Whilst it's slightly more dangerous, in that he may have traps, it's got a much lower risk of damage to the city, and less chance of innocent people being hurt than if we tried to ambush him on the way."

"And less chance of any mafia trying to help him out." Yang and Weiss nodded at Blake's words and Ruby smiled as Blake continued, "If we have to fight on multiple fronts, even if it's against untrained heavies, it could distract us and cause an issue. The warehouse ambush is the better idea."

Ruby nodded, "Me and Weiss will work on a plan for the ambush, you two focus on research about the area, what do we need to bring, our location in Haven, as well as any useful people in the city that might be helpful." She looked around at everyone, "Okay, go team RWBY!" She jumped and pumped her fist at the end of it, and Weiss couldn't help smiling and rolling her eyes, She may have matured, but she's still a child at heart.

The four girls worked on their plans for the rest of the afternoon and evening, before grabbing some dinner and turning in for the night.

The next morning, Ruby woke nice and early and grinned to herself as she checked her scroll for the time. She'd got up before Weiss' alarm. She slipped out of bed, threw her cloak around her and headed to the cafeteria.

A loud ringing broke the silence in the dorm room, Blake's ears the first to flick in irritation as she pushed herself up onto her arms. "Weiss…Weiss…Weiss! Turn it off."

Weiss grabbed at her scroll, nearly sending it tumbling to the floor, but she managed to trap it between the bedside table and her hand. She brought it up to her face and looked at the time.

By the time Ruby got back, Weiss was sitting on the bed, looking at the scroll with an annoyed face. "Good morning Weiss!"

Weiss looked up at Ruby with a narrow glare, clearly unamused at Ruby being so chipper that early in the morning. "Ruby Rose. Why did my scroll's alarm go off at 6.30 this morning? I distinctly remember setting it for 8."

Yang lifted her head from the bed and rolled on her side, still groggy from being woken up early, but not wanting to miss Ruby's explanation. She'd seen her carefully change the alarm on Weiss' phone whilst Weiss was in the toilet the night before but hadn't said anything.

"Would you like some coffee?" Ruby dodged the question entirely.

Weiss closed her eyes and held her hand out. "I'll suffer your over sugary coffee right now, but I'll need a decent coffee later."

Ruby passed the cup over and Weiss took a quick sip. She moved it away from her lips, looked at it, then took another sip to make sure.

Yang grinned, Buuuusted.

"Ruby." Ruby looked up and, seeing the look on Weiss' face, realised it as well. "If you didn't change my alarm, then why did you get me my normal coffee order an hour and a half before my alarm was due to go off?"

"Erm…" Ruby floundered, trying to come up with an answer.

"You know what? I don't care. I'm not awake enough to be mad at you, but you better have a good reason for why we're up so early."

"Well..." Ruby rubbed the back of her neck. "I think it's a good reason."

Weiss covered her face with her free hand and sighed heavily. "If tell me that you've got me up at this ungodly hour so that we can go to Mr Chip to get your cookies before we go on our first proper professional Huntress job I will not be responsible for my actions."

Ruby remained silent and Weiss looked at her. And kept looking at her.

"You did say that you'd..." Yang's voice was cut off by a pillow being flung at her.

"She does not need your input you brute." Weiss hissed at Yang before breathing out slowly. "Fine. We'll go. But!" Weiss flicked Ruby in the forehead as her eyes grew wide and mouth spread into a massive grin. "But you owe me." Weiss looked at Ruby with a stern glare. Ruby nodded her head furiously and Weiss stood up, her hands stretching to the ceiling. "I need a shower to finish waking me up."

As soon as Weiss was in the shower Yang looked at Ruby appreciatively. "I have no idea how you got away with that. Props to you sis." With that she rolled over, threw the quilt back over herself, and she was snoring within minutes.

Ruby shook her head and smiled, Yang had always been able to fall asleep quickly, but it was still pretty impressive. Blake meanwhile had sat up and pulled a book over from the shelf, deciding that if she was awake then there was no point in trying (and failing) to go back to sleep. All it would do is end up frustrating her and leave her even more tired than she would be otherwise.

Ruby was practically skipping as she got dressed in her more casual clothes. No point getting dressed in either her combat skirt (I'm getting cookies, not slaying monsters!), or her uniform (Especially as there's no classes today). Weiss came out the bathroom fully dressed, a light blue skirt and white bolero matching her white button up shirt, with her hair wrapped up in a towel. She sat at her desk and focused on drying her hair, trying her best to ignore Ruby's excited and happy noises as her partner got ready. I'm supposed to be mad at her Dust damnit! How can I be mad with her when she sounds that adorable...Weiss shook her head slightly as she dried her hair, before styling it into a braid.

Ruby was almost vibrating with excitement as she waited for Weiss to finish her hair and was nearly ready to burst by the time it was done. Weiss stood and grabbed her scroll and purse, sliding them into a shoulder bag before following Ruby out the door, the redhead's hoody and cape flying round the corner before zipping back to Weiss' side. Weiss couldn't help smirking at the impatience of Ruby for cookies being at odds with her desire to be polite and walk at the same speed as her.

—

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Ruby fell to her knees, her devastated cry rebounding off the surrounding buildings, a look of hurt and fear on her face. Her eyes were wide with despair and pain, her arms limp at her sides. Weiss' face was frozen in a look of surprise at the scene in front of her: The sign "Closed temporarily due to family emergency. Will reopen tomorrow." was stuck to the inside of the closed and locked door to Mr Chip, and all lights other than the window display and doorway were turned off.

Once the surprise passed (she had never known Mr Chip be closed), Weiss was trying very hard not to laugh. The entire ride down Ruby had been debating with herself (out loud) as to exactly what she would do regarding the cookie gift card she'd been given, the debate only punctuated by several words of 'thanks' keeping Weiss occupied and out of the way of Blake and Yang. So, to see the plan fall apart was both disappointing for her on Ruby's behalf, but also rather funny at the same time.

Ruby turned to look at Weiss, her face a pale shade, and her eyes red with unshed tears. Weiss immediately felt awful for thinking this was funny, Ruby was clearly utterly devastated by the fact that Mr Chip was closed on the one day she had come down, despite the fact that...no...no she didn't feel awful actually. It was just some cookies. Looking at Ruby's face was making her resolve at not feeling guilty for almost laughing waver.

"Come on you dolt, he'll be here when we get back from the mission. It's not the end of the world for Dust's sake..." Weiss turned away, refusing to look at Ruby's face.

Ruby got to her feet, "But...but...but what if it is!"

"What?"

"What if it's such a big family emergency that he has to close down permanently!" Weiss blinked in surprise at Ruby's words.

"You idiot of course it's not that bad! Someone in his family is probably having a baby or something and it came unexpectedly." Weiss rolled her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Oh. Yeah. That probably explains it huh?" Ruby was rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. "Erm...whilst we're in Vale anyway, do you want to go shopping or have a look around town or something? You know, some quality partner bonding time together!"

"Ruby. The only places open right now are cafes and bakeries. Nowhere will be open for at least another hour."

"Umm...okay..." Ruby floundered as she tried to think of something they could do together.

"Why don't we just go grab a coffee and then head back." Weiss sighed and put her hands on her hips waiting for Ruby's response.

She nodded, "Alright, but I buy the coffees! It's only fair after I dragged you out here..."

"Yes, you will."

The two girls headed off to the nearest coffee shop and got their usual orders before walking back to the dock and to Beacon.

They arrived back at the dorm room just as Yang and Blake we're leaving to get breakfast. Blake raised an eyebrow, "That was fast, and I also don't see any bags with cookies in, unless you ate them all already."

"Noooo..." Ruby's voice had dropped again, "He was closed due to a family emergency."

Yang gasped dramatically and put her hands to her mouth, "Oh Dust, what if he never opens again?"

Weiss smacked her on the shoulder as Ruby gasped. As she opened her mouth, Weiss cut in, "Don't be a bitch, you know he'll be open again."

Yang grinned, "Course he will, I'm just messing with you."

Blake gave Yang a slight shove to get her walking, "We're going to get some breakfast before Yang goes any further, see you back at the dorm." With that the two girls headed off and left Ruby and Weiss in the corridor outside the dorm. They were about to head into the dorm when the door to team JNPR's room slammed open, making the pair of them jump.

"You're going on a super special mission without us?!" Nora's voice rang out and the red and white duo turned to look at the doorway, Nora standing there, arms crossed. "I'm hurt! After all we've been through and you four on going on a special mission!" She looked confused for a second, "Why am I getting a feeling of déja vu? Eh, doesn't matter. When were you planning on telling us?!"

Jaune out a hand on Nora's shoulder, "Nora, relax. This is going to happen now, and besides, we've got our own super special mission that they're not part of, so now we're even with one each."

"Oh. Okay then, hope it goes well!" Nora was instantly placated, leaving Ruby and Weiss feeling a severe sense of whiplash. "Wait! Before you leave, we gotta have another joint sparring session. Gotta warm you up before you head out there and break some legs!" She grinned massively and neither of the girls were surprised that she still had a fondness for breaking people's legs. "Training room, 1pm, be there!" With that she skipped back into the dorm room calling for Ren.

Jaune sighed, "You don't have to come, it was just gonna be a light sparring session for our team, but it can be a joint one if you're alright with it."

Ruby looked at Weiss who nodded. "Sure thing! Our ship doesn't leave until 6, and we'll have time to go over the mission plans at the hotel when we get there."

"Really? Awesome!" Jaune was genuinely happy they'd agreed. "I'll see you guys at 1 then."

"Yup! Bye Jaune." With that the three of them headed to their respective dorms.

Authors note:

So, this chapter was originally going to be a bigger one, but it just started to get a little bit too big, and I want to give the training session a decent amount of attention, so that'll be its own chapter (coming up! Whenever I finish writing it...)

Thank you to everyone who reads these chapters, favourites, follows, or reviews! It really does mean a lot to know people read this stuff :)