A/N: This chapter ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but I wanted to get something up before midterms delay my updates too much. Enjoy!
Ruby's job is now glorified middle management: trawling through hacked police records, looking for any vague hint of heroes or villains being found. Things are adding up, in the wrong ways. Blake is still missing, as is Torchwick. There are more reports of robberies at weapons dealers and Dust shops, some of which are linked to the White Fang. Suspicious people, claiming to be heroes, have showed up around crime scenes and narrowly escaped police custody. In short, things are bad.
On the bright side – Ruby isn't really sure what counts as a bright side here. Weiss is getting better surprisingly quickly; the first time she manages to land a hit against Yang it's a shock to them both. Uncle Qrow called, once, to say that he might be back from Atlas in a few weeks, which probably just means he has too many arrest warrants and needs to lay low for a while. Yang's back to sunny and friendly.
"All right, time to patrol. Weiss, the police are predicting a White Fang attack in the financial district, so head to sector 24 and use a police radio channel to keep track of them. Yang, you'll be patrolling the inner city; keep in contact with Weiss in case she needs your help. I'll be on riverside, searching for Torchwick."
"You got it, sis," Yang says, tugging on her gauntlets. "Good luck!"
She takes a running start across the roof, then leaps off, firing backward to increase her speed and make the jump.
Weiss looks slightly nervous, since this is one of her first solo patrols.
"You're gonna be great," Ruby says. "Besides, if you get overwhelmed, Yang is going to be nearby to help."
"I will not need help from anyone," Weiss says stiffly, then sweeps herself up in a momentary cyclone.
Ruby doesn't have cool powers like them, so she has to go the old-fashioned way, with her actual legs. She shuffles through various goggles before deciding on infrared. Robots are easy to disguise as humans, especially at night, but they have very different heat signatures, composed mainly of leakage around the joints and processor overflow, both far brighter than a real person.
Ruby hops to the next roof and scans the area again, out to the limit of her goggles. There are the usual scavengers, but nothing out of the ordinary.
Wait. Ruby catches the odd signature again, and peers closer. It's one person, on the outskirts of her vision, with what looks like a robotic signature. No visible heart, face very warm.
Ruby creeps across the roof silently, then peers at it again. It's out of range. Ruby tugs her goggles off and peers through Crescent Rose's scope, which has good range even if there's no infrared.
Scanning up and down the streets, she doesn't see any robots. Lost its track, which is a shame.
A movement in the corner of the scope makes her adjust her aim again, peering closer at the miniature images.
It's Penny, that girl from the docks.
Ruby should at least warn her to stop wandering around dangerous areas, alone, at night, and maybe thank her again for beating Torchwick. She should be heading that way to see if she can pick up the robot's track again, after all.
Ruby descends and jogs into the shanty town that seems to spring up wherever there's space in Vale. Penny is easy to pick out in the darkness; she's standing tall and ramrod straight, looking out fearlessly, eyes glowing in the sodium glare of a streetlamp.
"Hey, Penny!" Ruby calls. Penny turns around and her face splits into a broad grin.
"Salutations, Ruby Rose!" she calls, walking swiftly over to Ruby and extending one hand. Ruby takes it cautiously, and Penny twitches it up and down in what she assumes is just a weird handshake.
"Maybe don't shout my name at the top of your lungs on a public street? You know, secret identity and all that?"
"My apologies." Penny lets go of Ruby's hand and beams at her. "How have you been?"
"Oh, you know, the usual. Why do you keep wandering around the docks at night?"
Penny's smile vanishes.
"I just got lost. My – father is looking for me."
Ruby's seen her fair share of kidnapped child cases, and this is textbook.
"All right, Penny. I know you might be scared, but I just need to take you to a police station, and they'll make a report on what happened and find your family, okay?"
"While your offer is very kind, I am sure I can find my father on my own. Thank you." Penny is back to smiling.
Ruby isn't going to force Penny to go to the police, and she has more important things on her plate right now. She nods stiffly and turns to leave, scanning the street. Still deserted, with no signs of robots. Damn.
There's a movement into a doorway, halfway up the street, and Ruby races after it because it's far too methodical to be human. She'll find Torchwick if it kills her.
Ruby is too focused on entering the building before its door swings closed that she doesn't notice a quick motion in the shadows until it's too late. The robot has stepped away from the doorway, and is pointing a machine gun at her with each arm.
Ruby freezes, breath catching in her throat. Odds are that the robot has fairly poor vision technology, or she'd be dead already. If she makes any sudden moves, that might startle it into firing, so if she can just reach for her scythe slowly –
Having a gun barrel pressed into your forehead is terrifying. Ruby thinks she'd be more used to guns by now, but it doesn't change the horror that, for the first time, she's on the wrong end of a weapon, and completely at the mercy of a creature that – well, doesn't have any. Ruby would laugh at that in any other scenario.
She's going to die here. Her team will have to carry on without her, like they've already done so many times. Yang and Tai will have one more grave to visit every Sunday. And Penny's probably dying here with her, because she's not even getting a heroic sacrifice. It's just a senseless death in a dark alley, that won't mean anything to anyone.
She is still remarkably not dead. Ruby forces the tears back and glances around, as much as she can while staying perfectly still. Penny is approaching. Ruby tries to convey through frantic eyebrow waving that she should run, but the girl ignores her and raises one hand. Her eyes glow a brighter green.
Slowly, the robot in front of her crumples into the cement.
Ruby rests her hands on her knees, taking in gulps of air. All right, it could have been awful, but she's alive. Alive, so there's no need to worry any more about could have happened.
"Are you all right, Ruby?" Penny asks, resting one hand on her shoulder.
"How did you – what happened?" Ruby manages, gesturing vaguely at the robot.
"I simply hacked the robot, then overloaded its circuitry with a few simple commands, causing a catastrophic overheat and system failure …" Penny's voice trails off.
She's a robot. That explains the swords, and the glowing, and the weird speech.
"I am sorry," Penny says. "I did not inform you that I was – not a person."
Ruby's never been much for all of the philosophical implications of robots, but she's pretty sure one willing to risk her life to save someone can't be that bad.
"You are a person," she says. "You're still real, even if you have wires instead of guts. You helped me out when I needed it, twice now. And you're my friend. So thank you."
Penny's face instantly transforms into an expression of the most joy Ruby has seen since Mom was still alive.
"You are my friend?" she repeats.
"Yeah, we're –" The rest of Ruby's sentence is cut off by Penny enthusiastically hugging her and squashing most of the air out of her lungs.
Maybe things are looking up.
…
Weiss scans the horizon, then the closer alleyways, yet again, then hops to the nearest building. In all honesty, she isn't sure of the point of this stakeout. The combination of police and private security forces can handle a minor White Fang attack well enough.
There's a scream from two streets over, and she vaults across the gaps to check the source; probably nothing out of the ordinary.
It's nothing unusual. Patrolling Atlesian Titans are common enough in more dangerous areas, although this one must be a new model.
Weiss's brain catches up and reminds her that not only is she nowhere near Atlas, but Torchwick is known to have stolen Atlesian technology.
Weiss backpedals hastily across the rooftop, calling into her earpiece,
"Yang, where are you?"
"On my way to your location. What's happening?"
"Looks like a rogue Atlas mech."
"Don't engage right away; we might not –"
The rest of Yang's words are cut off by the wind rushing in Weiss's ears as she makes a frantic leap across the street. The Titan turns to follow her, leaving a ten-foot gash where she was just standing. Weiss raises her sword, although she doesn't know what good it'll be against robotics, and flings up a wall of ice to block a hail of bullets.
This is going to be the fight of her life.
…
"I'm not sure what the big issue here is," Sun says, leaning forward to steal Blake's tea. She lets him, because it's that or let it get cold. "So you're from the White Fang. That's not terrible; there are plenty of members who are fairly peaceful."
"I was Taurus's right hand," Blake says bluntly.
"Okay, that might be a bit different. But, you know, you've fought for the heroes for a while, so they might let you back on the team."
"This isn't about their team," Blake says, getting frustrated. "I thought that the White Fang had the right idea, then I thought that the heroes were good people just trying to stop them. And I don't know what to believe, I don't know who to fight for, I just don't know what to do."
Sun opens his mouth, probably to offer more platitudes about forgiveness, but is cut off by the ground shaking violently under their feet. Blake's teacup falls off of the small table and smashes on the ground.
"Earthquake?" Sun asks.
Blake shakes her head, already rushing towards the doorway.
There's an Atlas mech, painted stark white, easily twenty feet tall, in the street. There's a small figure balancing on the rooftops, blocking its strikes with walls of ice that crumble when hit.
Blake should leave Weiss to die. Leave her to be the victim of Atlas' own hubris. And Blake isn't a hero.
But she does the right thing. She's made enough mistakes, and enough people have died because of her. It's time to start saving lives.
"Come on," she says, yanking Sun along by his arm. "The heroes need us."
"I thought you said you weren't a hero."
That doesn't matter. Blake might never be a hero. Hell, she might never be able to atone for what she's done.
But that doesn't mean she won't try her hardest to make up for all the damage she's done.
So Blake leaps out into the street and tries to bring the mech down with a ribbon wrapped around one knee, because no matter what, she is a fighter. And she isn't going to give up now.