Chapter 12: Aftermath
Cinder pinched the bridge of her nose as she resisted the urge to hurl her coffee mug at a wall. She had heard of Red's escape from her plan, and the woman was not happy.
Sable had been informed, the faunus was displeased with the results as well. But she had given Cinder an idea. Red was unarmed, her weapons still in police custody. It was an opening to... take care of the issue.
Salem would be pleased with her wiping out the last silver eyed warrior. The Grimm queen had known of Red's existence from police reports, but despite Red not exactly being a hero — the girl posed a threat to Salem's goals.
"She has to be eliminated." Cinder muttered, staring into the dark liquid coffee in her cup.
"And I assure you, my plan will work." The half-Fall maiden jumped in her seat, a bit of scalding hot coffee splashing on her wrist. Sable's burning orange eyes displayed amusement for a moment, before returning to a more serious look. "My apologies for startling you, Cinder." It wasn't an apology, more of a statement.
"Are you sure about it?" Cinder voiced her doubts. She could see so much going wrong with the plan — anything could happen.
Sable's eyes narrowed in a predatory way, "I realize how absurd it may be. I've been doing... research, on Red. I know her potential weaknesses, and I plan to exploit them." The intensity of the fox eared woman's gaze silently challenged Cinder to debate with her.
"Research? What kind of research?" Cinder asked, interest grabbed.
Sable's eyes lost the intimidating predatory glare, and the faunus straightened while producing a Scroll. "I'll be glad to share. My employer deserves to know, after all." She stated, tapping a few things. "Obviously first and foremost, there's her older sister. Yang Xiao Long, who is a student at Beacon Academy. From what I heard from Roman, she's been highly persistent in attempting to track down her younger sister." Sable pulled up a picture of a blonde woman with lavender eyes. "Fighting style revolves around her gauntlets that seem to have a sort of gun for extra punching power and sometimes used for mid range attacks. Her semblance allows her to get stronger with damage taken. A fiery temper, even explosive as some might call it." She tittered, yet Cinder knew it wasn't because Sable actually found something funny. "Moving on," she pulled up a picture of a blonde man "Taiyang Xiao Long. Teacher of Signal Academy and both girl's biological father, despite Red taking more after her mother. Similar fighting style to Yang, but seems to have moved on over Red's disappearance." Sable told Cinder.
"And her mother?" Cinder asked.
Sable nodded and pulled up a few pictures. "Summer Rose, Red's biological mother. Went missing and presumed "Killed In Action" several years ago, with Red coming under Roman Torchwick's tutorage a few months after the death of Summer Rose." The faunus informed Cinder, who nodded in response and sipped from her coffee.
"Anything else interesting?" She asked.
Sable closed her Scroll. "None. I'll continue preparing our plan. You'll have her dead by month's end." The faunus bowed to Cinder and stepped into a shadow cast by the couch on the floor, before vanishing into it.
"I hope you don't let me down." Cinder told the now empty room. Of course, she received no response to her words.
"Activity of Red has dropped to an all-time low in the last week. Suspected to have gone deep into hiding after her failed capture, Vale authorities are working hard to track her down in this lull of criminal activity from her." Silver eyes rolled and turned to her companion who was sitting next to her on the couch.
"Neo," The mute was already facing her, having noted Ruby's posture changing before she actually turned to face Neo. "We should do something about this." She waved a hand at the television.
'Ruby, calm down. You need to keep laying low.' She signed.
Ruby sighed and threw her hands into the air "Oh god dammit. I'm sick and tired of all this waiting! I can't even walk Drei so we can pickpocket!" She exclaimed. "You guys are doing all of this work, meeting with Cinder, killing people and doing all the fun stuff! I'm here, twiddling my thumbs and watching the news and their crackpot theories about me and my location!"
Neo's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, the colors swapping when the woman blinked. 'Must we remind you that you are weaponless? And we can't exactly stroll into the police station to retrieve it.' She signed.
"I can't... Nor can Roman. But a police officer could." Neo shook her head and crossed her arms. "What?" Ruby asked
'No. I'm not getting Dark Glory for you.' Neo told her.
"Alright, then what do miss "i'm-not-helping"?" Ruby asked.
'What's our motto?' Ruby was taken aback by the sudden question. 'Answer the question, Ruby.' Neo prompted, her expression reminding Ruby of when Neo had tutored her in her earlier years.
"Lie, steal, cheat and... ooooohhhh!" Ruby's confusion turned to surprise. "But how?"
Now it was Neo's turn to roll her eyes as she leaned forward to flick Ruby's nose. "Ow!" She yelped, falling against the backrest of the couch.
'That's up to you. Its your weapon, after all.' Neo informed her.
Ruby clapped her hands. "Alright! Time to get plotting: Ruby's Super Secret Plan To Get Dark Glory Back From Evil Police Officers And Rub My Escape Into Evergreen's Face In The Process!" She exclaimed, causing Neo's eyebrow to rise. "What?" Ruby canted her head.
'Quite the mouthful.' Neo signed.
"We can turn it into an acronym!" Ruby said.
'Yes. Because RSSPTGDGBFEPOARMEIEFITP! is totally a good acronym.' Neo informed her, staring at the piece of paper that Ruby had written the full title of the "plan" on. 'It takes up a fourth of the paper.' The mute noted.
"Shut up! Its a temporary name!"
Neo's lips upturned into a smile. 'You don't even have a plan.' She stated.
"ITS A WORK IN PROGRESS!" Ruby yelled.
'A BIG work in progress.' Neo agreed, only to get a glare from Ruby. '...What?'. She asked.
Yang stared a hole into her book, reading the same words over and over again. She had no clue how long it had been since she last turned a page.
"You're going to burn paper with a glare like that." A slender hand waved in front of the brawler's face. Yang blinked rapidly. "Of course, if you don't shred it to pieces first." Weiss stated.
"O-oh! Weiss! How... er, how long have you been there?" Yang asked.
"Long enough to know you haven't made a smidge of progress on your homework in around the last half an hour." The heiress responded. "I get it. You're still overwhelmed by the other night. But at this rate your grades will start to slip, and I won't let Team Basil have a bad name." Weiss said.
Yang sighed and closed the book, setting it down on the table she sat at just a bit harder than intended. Weiss raised a snow white eyebrow her way, to which Yang slumped in her seat. "You're taking this in stride. I would have thought you'd still be freaking out over Blake and Ilia." She told her partner.
Weiss's blue eyes gained an uncertain look to them. "I... I guess I'm taking all of this in stride." She admitted, clasping her hands behind her back. "But I'm here for you, Yang. Its what partners are for." Weiss told her, to which Yang nodded.
"I know," Yang agreed "I am too, Ice Queen." Weiss scoffed at the nickname, but moved around behind Yang.
"Do you mind if I take this?" Weiss pulled the empty seat on Yang's other side out, and waited hesitantly for her partner's answer.
"No, not at all." Yang said absentmindedly.
Weiss sat down, sitting on the edge of her chair with one leg crossed over the other and both hands in her lap. "Yang, you never told us what really happened at the docks." Blue eyes stared at the floor, seeming to track random patterns in it.
"I... did?" Yang asked. Weiss nodded confirmation. "You want me to tell you about it, don't you?" Another nod, and Yang leaned backwards into her chair before staring at the ceiling. "I guess I should tell you about it." She agreed. "So you saw me lunge for Torchwick, and we fought a bit. All of a sudden that damn dog attacks me, and I threw it off of me. I saw Ruby watching from the open bullhead, and the dog attacked me again. As soon as I got it off of me, Ruby comes flying out of the airship and we wind up a bit away from everything else, behind a shipping container. She pinned me against it and said a bunch of bullshit about saying I should leave. I told her "no way in hell", and she says that some bitch named Neo was about to kill me or something. I told her I was gonna bring her home... and Ruby told me that Torchwick was her new family. They raised and looked after her. She told me to stop looking... and left." Yang hung her head in absolute shame. "I should have stopped her."
Weiss rested a hand on Yang's shoulder. "Will you follow her advice?" She asked.
Yang shuddered with a deep inhale, both her semblance and hot tears threatening to break free. "No. I'm not giving up on my baby sister." She decided.
Weiss's eyes shimmered in concern, but nodded. "I'll support your decision. Its the least I can do for my partner." She agreed softly. "Let's check on Blake and Ilia."
Yang nodded in agreement and stood up. "Thank you, Weiss." She exhaled and packed up her work. "Let's go."
A/N: Some of you were wondering about Roman's erratic behavior at the end of last chapter. He's kind of parental towards Ruby, and was angry that she put herself in danger, and genuinely was scared she betrayed them and could have gotten hurt by Yang. When he threatened her, he wasn't thinking straight — thus why Neo intervened. She talked sense into him and convinced him to calm down
Next chapter I'll be diving deeper into the now divided Team Basil.