The best move you can make in negotiation is to think of an incentive the other person hasn't even thought of - and then meet it - Eli Broad

Ruby rose from her bed and rubbed her eyes; she had not slept well and despite her superiors assertions that there would (most likely) not be any more attacks she still felt unsafe, even in this bunker.

Performing her daily routine quickly and putting on her uniform, she left the room and headed down to the canteen. There her mentor sat at a table and leisurely drank tea with his porridge while reading something on his phone, he turned towards her "Good morning Ruby, sleep well?"

"No, I just keep remembering the… violence of it all"

"Don't think on it too much, my first time wasn't that much better"

Feeling a few drowsy eyes attracted by that statement she blushed and sat down beside him "What now?" she asked, hoping to steer the conversation away from the past

"Well there haven't been any more attacks from what it says on d/Mycelle and apparently Atlas are sending a diplomat…"

"So it was Atlas…" said Ruby before being interrupted

"No, it was one of their council members; the infamous 'Mr Schnee' of the dust company"

Ruby thought back to Weiss, she hadn't said much about her father in the short span of time they were together as a… team but she remembered that Weiss never spoke positively of him, just referring to him as a bastard the whole time "Did we catch him?" she asked in thought

"As a matter of fact we did, he is standing trial for war crimes and mass murder right at this minute"

"Oh… What will the sentence be? Prison?"

"No, for such crimes we generally have only one punishment. We tie him to a stake in the middle of town and leave him there for a night, next day we deliver anything that remains to his next of kin"

"So he will be eaten by Grimm?" asked Ruby shuddering at the thought

"No, he will be torn apart by those whose children he has taken, by those whose houses and property were destroyed by him and those he maimed and disabled through his action. During those 24 hours he is outside the law's protection, everything is fair game…"

"No! You have no right to do this!" Yelled the Schnee as he was dragged into town by two soldiers and tied to a tree. He expected to be ransomed, perhaps even imprisoned but never this… As the judge began to read his sentence he somewhat relaxed when he heard no mention of execution but began to sweat when the judge mentioned "As of this moment the protection of the law no longer applies to this man" and began to shake in fear when h was exactly what kind of looks the crowd was giving him.

They were like vultures staring at a bleeding lion, waiting to come down and tear him to pieces. The fact that many held knives, hammers and bottles of god knows what made him want to shriek and cry but he refused to let himself. "Does the criminal have anything to say for himself?" asked the judge

"Please… I have money…" was all the man could let out before the crowd leapt upon him. His screams reverberating along the whole city for a whole day.

Ruby walked with Blair to a briefing room, their stomachs full and minds ready they entered the room to be greeted with a few overseers and Andreev standing around a table; all standing in silence as if waiting for someone. Not a moment later the red-uniformed form of the high overseer walked in with a set of documents and put them on the table.

"Gentlemen" he began "As you may have heard there is a peace delegation coming to resolve the conflict here. You are being assigned to protect them until the talks are over, you will be following them from their kingdoms to here and then back. Any questions?"

"Yeah, do you expect them to be attacked?" asked the Overseer beside Andreev

"We do believe the White Fang may attempt to interfere simply as a means of killing a government official but you will be traveling through Grimm infested areas so there's that"

Seeing no further questions each pair was handed a folder and assigned to each kingdom which would take part in the negotiations. Vale offered to mediate and provide a building for the negotiations to take place but it was decided that the talks could only be handled on Mycellian soil, so now it was her and Blair's job to go to vale and collect the Mediator while Andreev would head out with his partner to collect the Atlas diplomat.

Once armed and resupplied they headed to the hangar to meet their pilot. They would be using one of the new planes in their slowly expanding fleet to act as transport both ways with a gunship escort of one fighter armed for anti-Grimm and ground support (should it come to that).

As they loaded into the ramp Ruby was instructed how to use the parachutes they had on board in case of emergencies and as the propellers warmed up they were given warm blankets by the pilots and instructed to use them if they got cold in the high altitudes of the light blue sky. As the plane began moving Ruby felt anxious as it shook and relieved when the shaking stopped and from outside the window the small runway grew yet more and more miniscule in the distance.

"Hey Ruby" asked Blair "You know after all this I may have a little opportunity for you if you're interested"

"Yeah, what is it?" answered Ruby while covering herself with the blanket

"You see, there is a program going on right now called the leadership training program. Although it is mostly designed for officers, you count as well since you're an Overseer"

"Why would I need that though? I'm no leader"

"Well once you're promoted to my rank you'll be expected to occasionally lead. Mostly in the form of a Sergeant for a squad of MAF soldiers or if you're interested perhaps even a tank column! Starting early won't hinder you and if you're good then perhaps you may earn an early promotion"

"An early promotion eh?" mused Ruby "I mean… are you sure I'm ready for that?"

"Absolutely, assuming they don't promote you straight away of course. No offense but you need experience, one battle isn't exactly much; you get me?"

"Yeah, fair enough I suppose…"

"It'll still do you good I think. You don't have to tell me now but do speak up if you're interested"

As they landed at the airfield they were greeted with a gust of warm air both were grateful for as they left the confines of the aircraft for the sturdy tarmac below.

Passing through the airport not a few glances were thrown at their rifles and uniforms but thankfully they were not stopped whatsoever due to many hunters choosing to travel by air and of course insisting that they keep their weapons with them.

As they exited the airport Blair pulled out a map and spoke to Ruby "Alright so here's the deal, we'll be transporting… a Mr Lvande tomorrow. We'll be meeting him at the airport tomorrow and transport him then"

It was decided that they would explore the town and meet at the hotel they were booked into. Of course there wasn't anything new for Ruby to explore so she decided to simply visit the places she'd left behind as a result of her team's betrayal.

The smell of polished wood and many dust varieties greeted her as she entered 'From dust 'till Dawn', the shopkeeper was a… friend? No, more like an acquaintance to her from the time she was first buying dust in her childhood, ever since then he became her go-to source of dust for literally anything her mind came up with. The old man looked at her in surprise as he wiped his eyes and looked again "Ruby?" she nodded back and the man literally hopped over the counter and hugged her "Thank the lord! I thought you'd died!"

"It's… complicated old man, still good to see you. I'm in town for the day, you got anything good for me?"

"Well I wasn't exactly expecting you" said the man rather morbidly "See this crystal here?" he said taking out a small red one from under the counter "I engraved your initials on it, in a way to remember you I suppose" he sobbed. Just then the little bell on the door rang again and a white-suited man with a cigar and cane walked in.

Roman Torchwick was not a happy man, learning of Neo's assignment first came as a relief but after some quick research his face stopped bearing the iconic Torchwick smile. Mycelle was not a good place for criminals like him; not in the way of punishment but simply because their police force was: underfunded and necessary, they took no prisoners.

He had upped his crime spree to try and relieve his frustration, especially when he heard news of what happened to the White Fang cell she was assigned to. He'd have murdered that bitch Cinder a hundred times over if he could. But even if angry he was nowhere near suicidal enough to actually make an attempt… Heck and the bitch knew it too!

He opened the door to the tenth shop this week and strode in with his two 'assistants' (Xiao Long's boys) and spoke up "Nice weather today isn't it?" before he noticed a major problem; the woman beside the shopkeeper was armed…

"And who might you be?" turned the woman as she placed her hand upon the hilt of the sword which hung by her side "Ah… Mr Torchwick! I haven't had the pleasure of seeing you for what, three months now?"

Now that he could see her face and hair he gulped at the realisation "…Red?"

"So you do remember!" she exclaimed while casually striding towards him "I remember you running from this very spot the last time we met"

"And? You only won last time because you took my boys by surprise"

"Keep telling yourself that Roman" she said evilly before turning to his 'boys' "You know gentlemen, you don't have to end up like your predecessors, leave and I will be merciful for now"

The two didn't bulge (he'd picked well for once) but he could literally smell their fear and addressed them "Don't worry about her, she only got your predecessors because she got the drop on them"

"It seems I have a habit of dealing with criminals of your sort. You know" she said while taking a swig from her flask "I met this purple and black haired one, not too long ago; such a sweetheart, she slept the whole way to the station"

"Hold on a second… what did you say?" said Roman shakily before having to lean on his cane

"Erm… okay? She was arrested during a raid on a White Fang hideout and she had an Umbrella with a sword inside of it, it was suspicious enough that we took her in"

Now he was no longer interested in the dust. He left, he simply left to find the nearest computer and run a search of all police databases for one name and one name only

'Neo'

Well my dudes exams are finally over so now ill hopefully be writing more =)

In other news, believe it or not I actually took time building a website for this story and even went to the level of having custom art made! Plus it includes a bit of lore for those interested.

Perhaps this is because visiting it would require you to click on my profile and I realise you lazy cunt cannot be bothered since I only get a maximum of TWO VISITS per week despite having nearly 200 reads daily now.

So here is the link, just remove the spaces

nazarkovnfanfiction . weebly . com