RWBY A Day in the Life of Crime
Chapter 25: The Grimm Battle
They didn't do a pep talk. There was no point in doing one. They all knew what they were here for. Adam for the poison Tyrian held. Blake for Adam's sake. Qrow to support Ruby. Ruby to support Cinder and Cinder here so that she could kill Salem once and for all.
Finding Salem wasn't hard; she didn't have a need to hide from them anyways. In fact, she welcomed their appearance with open arms.
"I knew you wouldn't be able to live with your choice," Salem gloated, standing with her chin jerked arrogantly up in the middle of the massive warehouse she was in. She had just been checking up on an expensive delivery that had been made. In the dim of the warehouse her black robes almost seemed to blend into the dark, making her uncovered head and arms look like they were floating in the air. "You figured out my goal, so you couldn't just sit still and enjoy the rest of your life with Ruby, could you?"
"No. I know you want to use my gang to overpower the others so that you can rule them all. I never figured you for such ambition," Cinder said, as she stood in front of the lone woman, her hands on her hips.
"Really, you must stop thinking of me as your orphanage mother. That was merely a ruse. A cover to finding a down on their luck child which I could remodel for my uses and you just worked out perfectly for me, going so far as to build up such a huge empire. An empire that was mine and ripe for the taking. But you weren't happy. I thought I was doing you a favor, by relieving you of your gang duties, to finally give you the life you wanted with the love of your life."
"I don't want a happiness you give me!" Cinder snarled back. "And I most definitely cannot allow to let your plan to succeed. You're evil."
"Me, evil? Isn't that the kettle calling the pot black? Since when are you such an angel?"
"I never claimed to be one," Cinder said more calmly. She couldn't let this woman rile her up. She needed to think clearly or else she would lose. Pure power wouldn't win against Salem. Rushing headfirst was suicide. Strategy was needed.
"I just don't like sharing the world with someone eviller than me." Then with a twisted smile, Cinder let the blades she had hidden up her long sleeves slide out. These blades were all black and curved in wicked fashions, made of the toughest glass and dark as night; obsidian. Her weapon, Glass Silence. The blades could be united to form a bow; Cinder wasn't going to use her bow just yet. She wanted to feel Salem's flesh rip and tear under her blades.
Salem arched a brow at this. "It's a shame you chose to come after me. Now you'll die and poor Ruby will be by herself." From the shadows behind Salem, three men came out. Cinder knew who they were, she'd seen enough of their faces in notes on them. One was an immaculately dressed man with a dour expression, the other a hulking brute of a man with a beard that was thick and full as a bush. The last was a thin man with a crazed look on his face and soft laughter on his tongue. Watts, Hazel and Tyrian. She appraised them coolly, her lips curling up when her eyes landed on Tyrian, the one who had poisoned Ruby. She really hoped Adam had a cruel plan for that man.
"Maybe once you're gone, I'll be able to comfort Ruby. She is quite delectable," Salem murmured and Cinder bit back the anger and shivers of disgust that rocked her body. Salem was trying to get her worked up. She couldn't let it happen.
"Who said I was alone?" Behind Cinder walked out her three comrades. Adam in his black garbs, the red on them glowing ominously, Blake by his side, face somber. While they walked smoothly up to Cinder's side, Qrow stumbled over, belching loudly.
"No one is touching my niece," Qrow growled out, wiping his mouth and stashing the flask into his pocket that he had been drinking from.
Salem's lips lifted up into a smile. "You brought two animals and a drunk to fight against me? That's like bringing a stuffed animal to a gun fight."
"Animals?" snarled Adam. "I'll show you how much damage an animal can do!" His hand reached for the blade handle.
"And I'm not drunk. Yet." Qrow amended. Cinder resisted the urge to slap her face. Ruby had insisted her uncle was a bad-ass but Cinder failed to see how, if he was drunk the whole time. Yet Cinder had let him on because Ruby had begged and pleaded with those puppy dog eyes of hers.
I hope he doesn't die, because Ruby is going to be so sad if he does, Cinder thought.
"I suppose it is more of a fair fight now," Salem commented not looking in the least bit worried. "I was worried you'd die in mere seconds but now you have a chance."
"Yes, a chance to kill you," Cinder vowed seriously and with that the battle started.
"You're mine!" Adam snarled at Tyrian, lunging at the man who hopped out of the way.
"Heh!" he laughed, shrill. "The King of the Faunus himself, coming after me? I'm so honored!" He clapped his hands gleefully before raising his arms and arching his tail behind his back. Adam eyed the stinger. That was the real threat in this situation and not the blades on the man's wrists. He would keep that in mind. He activated Moonslice, his semblance, and pulled out Wilt and Blush, keeping the blade and sheath steady as he and Tyrian began their delicate dance in the back portion of the warehouse where it was much darker, but neither minding due to their enhanced eyesight.
"I guess it's me and you pal," Qrow pointed at Watts, the immaculately dressed man. "Shame I gotta fight you, cause you look like you'd be a good drinking buddy."
"I don't drink with hobos," was Watts cool reply as he adjusted the gloves on his hands.
"Hobos?" Qrow looked down at his outfit. "What's wrong with my outfit?"
"It reeks of deadbeat alcoholic uncle. I can't believe I'm stuck fighting you. You better not spill any of your liquor on my clothes." With that he ran at Qrow.
The last match up was Hazel and Blake. The two usually silent people eyed each other up, sizing up their strengths and determining their potential weaknesses.
"Huh, me crush puny little girl," Hazel grunted out, clenching his fingers into fists. He was clearly glad that Blake was small and seemed to present no challenge to him.
"No. Me crush giant idiot," Blake said quietly and then jumped into the shadows by her left.
"?" Hazel was left scratching his massive forehead in confusion. "Where did puny cat girl go?" Blake had all but melted into the shadows.
Meanwhile, Ruby was back at the Grimm base, heading towards the dungeons. She was grumbling slightly to herself, upset that Cinder had agreed to let Ruby join the mission only to send her to free Neo, Roman, Mercury, and Emerald from the prisons.
"Ugh! I wanna fight!" she cried out like a little child, pouting fiercely. "I am so having a talk to when I get Cinder alone." Ruby approached the prison cells, making out two huddled forms on the ground. Huh? Only two? Where were the others? Had they been moved?
Ruby unlocked the doors and then in a soft voice, asked, "Mercury, Emerald? Are you guys okay?"
The huddled forms on the brick floor stirred and picked up their heads to look at her. Their faces were bruised and they had empty expressions on their faces. "What did Salem do to you? I hope she didn't hurt you too badly." Ruby hated to see her workers hurt, unless she was the one doing it; it was her job to discipline members of the gang if they slacked in their duty.
The two of them stood up wordlessly, unnerving Ruby with the vacant look in their eyes. Something didn't feel right. And when they lunged at her, hands outstretched, she knew what it was.
They were under mind control.
"You've sent Ruby to get your henchmen free, haven't you?" Salem asked as slowly pulled out her weapon. It was a whip with a barbed end, something that Cinder thought was an odd fit for Salem. She didn't look like the sort to use a whip. Maybe something more elegant, or sharp edged. The whip was long and white, reminding Cinder of a pale root. And as Salem unfurled it, it began to glow, red veins full of dust crisscrossing the length of it.
A whip was long range, which meant Cinder's blades would be pretty much useless-she wouldn't be able to get close enough. It looked like it would be the bow after all.
"Where Ruby is, is none of your concern. You should be focusing on your imminent demise at my hand," Cinder growled out, uniting her blades together to form her bow. Three arrows were conjured up magically by the weapon's power, their tips hot with fire.
"Ah, so you did send her there. You wouldn't let her fight because you are worried for her, because you think of her a child still. But I must say, when Tyrian and I fought her, she did not cut and dice and slice like a child. She reminds me a lot of you. She's powerful; and she carries heaviness in her heart. She was slighted by her parents like you, and so the anger she has rivals your penchant for holding long grudges."
Cinder fired three arrows right at Salem's head, not in the mood to listen to her blabber anymore. Salem simply tilted her head slightly to the right to avoid them, not fazed at the deadly instruments that whizzed right past her. "I watched as the two of you gravitated closer. Watched as the two of you were first introduced to one another. It was hilarious to see your shocked expression when she decided to join your gang even though she had been destroying it mere seconds ago. But it was to be expected." At this Salem dodged the two other sets of arrows thrown at her head.
"Will you shut up and fight me?" Cinder hissed, her skin prickling uncomfortably. How much had this woman seen? And how? How did she know all this?!
"Because, after all, the two of you are the same. And you Cinder, you see in her someone you can mentor, someone who you can turn into your protege, much like I did with you."
"Shut up! I would never do that to Ruby! I would never twist her future like that! Every decision she makes is hers! She won my position from the gang fair and square!"
Salem tipped her head. "Oh, really? Then why is it that you still make most of the decisions for the gang? Why is it that right now Ruby is out rescuing your henchmen when she is gang leader and should be fighting in this battle? It seems to me like you have a lot of control over her."
Cinder felt anger fill her senses, making her hands shake. "It's because she doesn't have the head for reports and finances for the gang. I'm doing it help ease her leadership. I'm doing it to keep her safe from harm because I care about her. I am not acting like you! I would never force her to become a monster like the one you made me! Everything she does is what she wants to do! I AM NOT YOU!"
Salem's lips stretched in a smile, speaking in a fake sweet voice. "We'll see about that. Also, I thought it would be kind to let you know that Ruby's not exempt from battle because there's a little surprise left for her at the prisons."
"What? What did you DO?!" Cinder was screaming but she didn't care. She pulled back on her bow and shot off arrow after arrow. Salem used her whip, the white object flicking through the air and with loud snaps knocking the arrows away from the air.
"I didn't do anything, but even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. So you better hurry up and finish fighting me before they get to her."
Shit, whose they? Does she have more associates I don't know of?
But how? Who had done it? Ruby had heard of mind control Semblances but they were really rare and hard to manage, for sometimes the semblance could cause the mind which was being controlled to be crushed under the pressure of the power. Ruby needed to get her henchmen back to their senses, which meant she would have to hold back when she kicked their ass, even though she knew they were probably going to not stop fighting until they made her unconscious or killed her. She didn't know what order they had been given.
Ruby only managed to bring out her scythe blade in time to block the kick from Mercury's legs that would have cracked her ribs. The force of the blow still sent her flying through two brick walls and into an empty jail cell.
They ran after her, and as Ruby lifted up her blade, it scrapped against the low ceiling, getting stuck. "Shit, there's not enough room here. I need to get outside." She eyed the window behind her. It was small, but light shone through, meaning there was an outside on the other side. Ruby turned her attention back to Mercury and Emerald who were both lunging at her and gearing up for a combined roundhouse kick at her. Ruby flattened herself against the brick wall, folding her weapon so it was more manageable, and when they were in position she rolled out of the way and they broke through the wall with their kick. Green grass and trees could be seen outside. And lots of space.
Ruby let a small smile grace her lips.
"Would you-hold still?" Qrow huffed out between breaths, throwing the weight of his scythe around only for it to sink into concrete or boxes of dust each time rather than the body of his enemy. Watts would not stay put, dodging all of Qrow's attacks with bored ease.
"I already told you, I don't fight hobos." He looked at his gloved fingers in disinterest, one hand behind his back. "But, if you're really itching for a fight, I do know some people who can." At this two figures dropped down from the ceiling, back flipping before they landed with soft thuds. As they straightened up Qrow could see who they were. A little girl with two tone hair and an umbrella. And a man with a hat and cane in his hand.
"Who are they? You're little drinking pals?"
"No, just friend's of the Grimm."
"Ah, if that's the case, then hey guys I'm Qr-ack!" Qrow outstretched his hands to greet them, a smile on his face, only to have the tip of the umbrella slid into his mouth. He started down the object to meet the vacant two toned eyes of the girl.
"I forgot to mention, they used to be friends of the Grimm. Not so friendly anymore."
Then with that Neo clicked the trigger of her umbrella gun.
Adam was spinning his sword and sheath around madly in order to counter the blades and tail of Tyrian. The man was like a whirling dervish and Adam had trouble holding up to his speeds. And Tyrian didn't seem afraid of facing Adam like most of the bull faunus's opponents were, which eventually aided in their downfall. Tyrian loved it, loved every single minute of this fight. Something wasn't right with the man in his head.
"Ahahah!" he laughed as he sent attack after attack at Adam. Adam knew he couldn't keep up this pace forever. He needed to do a final brute strike to sweep Tyrian off of his feet, grab his tail and then run, as his part of the bargain was up. That's right, as soon as he won the tail he was leaving Cinder behind. After all he had fulfilled his part of the deal by coming here and fighting and he didn't see the purpose in staying longer after he had gotten his prize. Cinder could handle the rest herself.
"Where are you!" Hazel bellowed out loudly, tossing and pushing cases of dust aside in search of Blake. The girl was nowhere to be seen. He had really been looking forward to having this fight with her. To crushing her in his massive hands. He headed towards a part of the warehouse where there was an overhanging walkway. Standing under it and scratching the side of his face, he didn't notice Blake, who hanging down down upside down from the walkway by a ribbon from her Gambol Shroud, wrapped a ribbon around his neck and began to tighten it.
Hazel's hands went up to his throat and he tried to twist and turn in the hold but Blake held on tight. Had Adam wanted this man killed? No, he had only said to stun or knock out enemies, that they weren't here to work as Cinder's disposal team.
So Blake kept the ribbon in place only long enough to cut off the oxygen that would result in Hazel passing out. The man's eyes rolled into the back of his head and his mouth gasped uselessly for breath before his hands dropped to his side and Blake removed the ribbon letting him drop to the floor. He made a massive thud noise upon impact while she made no noise as she dropped down by him. She looked at his prone form, then bent down to quickly riffle through his pockets. It wouldn't hurt to check if he had any cash on him.
Ruby raced through the trees, Mercury hot on her trail. He was the only one who could sort of keep up with her semblance, but only for a set amount of time before he started to lag behind. He was ten paces behind her, now twenty, now fifty as Ruby poured on the speed. Mercury's legs, while enabling him to be faster than regular humans, were no match for Ruby's powers. They let her get ahead of him and then she swerved to the right and hid in some bushes, waiting for Mercury to come by. The man's heavy footsteps and gasped breathing were heard long before he was sighted. That man could be as loud as a train when he was using his legs. Good thing he wasn't used for infiltration missions. He approached Ruby's hiding spot, looking for her but not being able to find her because he had lost sight of her. As he got closer to the bush Ruby was in, she jumped out, swinging her scythe like a giant bat, using the blunt end of it to knock him out. He fell to the ground, incapacitated. Ruby let out a sigh.
That was over. Now she could head back to help Cinder. There was no way Ruby was going to let her fight that evil woman by herself. Picking up Mercury's body and hauling it over her shoulder she began to race back the way she had come, reminding herself to pick up Emerald's unconscious body too. Ruby had knocked out the girl before, leaving her tied up to a tree in case she woke up.
Ruby didn't know how long the mind control semblance worked but she wasn't going to take any risks. She would have to tie them back up. She was only lucky that Emerald hadn't been able to use her semblance or else that would have been a difficult fight. One in which Ruby would have had to severely hurt the green haired woman in.
"Whoa!" Qrow managed to duck down before the bullet fired from the umbrella. Instead it hit the wall a couple of feet behind him. "That almost got me! Pretty young ladies like you shouldn't fire such dangerous things into people's mouths!" Qrow rubbed his throat, that call too close to his liking.
The small girl didn't say anything. She just aimed her umbrella at him once more and tried to fire at him. Qrow evaded all the bullets, running this way and that. But he hadn't forgotten about the red haired man with the cane. Said man came flying at him, swinging his cane around like a madman. Qrow expertly blocked the blow, using the fight to maneuver the man's body around so that the two of them were never still or far enough from one another that the girl could shoot him without shooting her friend. She noticed this and relented from firing the bullets, instead opting for a short range attack. Now Qrow had a cane and an umbrella being swung at him, with the occasional spray of bullets or explosions ( just great, the cane worked as long range too) aimed at him when the chance arose.
He was able to dodge most if not deflect them but then he felt someone push him-and he looked back to see it was Watts- and ended up right in the blast radius. Qrow stumbled as a blast ruptured the floor underneath his feet and sent him back into some Dust crates. He coughed as dust filled the air, obscuring his vision. There was the sound of a large swish and flick and then the drop of something heavy. When he got back up he saw Ruby was standing in place of where his two opponents had been. There was now knocked out and tied up to one of the pillars in the warehouse.
"Hey uncle Qrow, taking a nap?" she asked, beaming up at him. She genuinely thought he had been when she arrived here not three seconds ago via her semblance.
"You know me Ruby, so cool that I take naps during battles because I know no one can harm me," he said, dusting himself off. He knew he shouldn't be encouraging Ruby's disillusions about how cool he was. She already thought he was the best thing since sliced bread, doing all these awesome things during battle when in reality he just stumbled into them by accident. Like the time he took down a super mega evil sky fortress by accident because he had been flying as a crow and gotten sucked into the engine, destroying it and causing the fortress to lose altitude and crash down.
But everyone and their mother had thought he had done it on purpose.
Not that he was going to correct their thinking. He got a lot of ladies and free drinks this way.
"You ruined my playthings," Watt's sniffed coldly, coming up from the shadows where he had been waiting.
"That's the guy," Ruby growled, her eyes flashing. "The one who mind controlled my gang!" Ruby cared a lot about her members, and she wasn't going to let someone else control them. That was her job as leader!
"It's okay, Rubes. I'll get him. You go focus on helping out Cinder."
"Yes, just like you have been 'getting me' for the past hour," Watts sniffed haughtily, doing air quotes.
"I would have, if you weren't a coward and had to hide behind your minions backs."
That seemed to draw a reaction out of Watts. The vein in his forehead popped and he reached behind his back to fetch his weapon.
Blake watched from up in the rafters as Adam and Tyrian went at it, both men sweating profusely from this battle. Adam was angrily growling at his opponent in frustration by how long this was taking, while Tyrian just giggled gleefully, enjoying this fight way too much. "More! More!" he begged and Adam snarled out, "shut up!"
Should she help Adam out? Adam hated having people fight his fights for him, but this thing was taking too long and they were supposed to be out of here already with the tail in their grasp. She chomped thoughtfully on the sandwich she had found in Hazel's pockets. It was a bit warm but it was tuna fish salad. She had to admit, the man had great taste in food.
As she continued watching the struggle, she decided it wouldn't hurt if she helped out just a teensy bit, and using her ribbons, she quietly and slowly slid one onto the floor, right next to Tyrian's foot. The material wrapped around his ankle and pulled him back just gently enough that he stumbled a bit in his next lunge forwards. She retreated it quickly before anyone could notice and Adam took the chance to make his move. Parrying one of Tyrian's wrist blades with his sheathe, Adam did a spin, the scorpion faunus now utilizing his tail and aiming at the bull faunus. The spin saved Adam from being stung, the stinger passing by his back harmlessly as he raised his blade and swung down on the extended member.
Tyrian let out a scream of pain as he dropped to his knees, sniveling. "No, my tail!" He wailed. The cut off member was wriggling about on the floor, leaking poison.
"Oh shut up," Adam growled, planting his blade straight through the unguarded man's throat. "You talk too much."
Tyrian's eyes bulged out as he tried to speak but couldn't with all that metal, blood pooling out of his mouth. His eyes rolled up into the back of his head and when Adam pulled the sword out, the dead man collapsed forwards.
Adam carefully picked up the tail, a manic grin stretching his lips. With this new tool in his arsenal, he would be unstoppable! "Blake!" he called out and a second later the cat faunus was by his side.
"It's time to go home," he said and with that the two of them left.
Cinder hit the ground hard, her Glass Silence skidding away from her. She tried to get back up to get it, but a loud snap stopped her, followed by a thin burning line of pain on her back.
"You should be grateful I am doing all this for you!" Salem hissed out and her words were followed by another bright line of pain on Cinder's back, forcing her back down to the ground. "I gave you everything- the tools you needed, the path and determination, the motivation, for you to become one of the most feared leaders! And when I take the burden off of your hands, and open up your way to live a life with your love, you repay me by acting like a spoiled brat and try to get both! You can't have everything in life Cinder. You have to choose!" Two more loud snaps and Cinder grit her teeth. She wasn't going to give this woman the satisfaction of hearing her scream. She just had to keep inching forwards so she could get her weapon and shut this woman up!
"I'm not going to choose from options you have given me! And fuck your rules! I own this town, I can take life and I can give it, so I most certainly can do whatever I want, have whatever I want!"
"Looks like I'll have to punish you until you stop acting like a little child," Salem threatened, the whip in her hand now glowing red. That couldn't be a good sign.
But before she could so much as swing it, a sharp blade found its way into her chest.
Salem looked down quietly at the curved blade, her own peaceful reflection in the bloody metal. Cinder took this distraction to stumbled to her feet and grab Glass Silence. "Ruby?" she said in a horrified whisper. "Ruby, what are you doing here?" The small brunette was standing behind Salem, a wide smile on her face.
"I wanted to help you. I didn't want you to fight alone."
"But I'm not. I have Qrow and-"
"That's not what I meant." Ruby shook her head, twisting the blade painfully in Salem's chest and this time a gasp of pain left her lips as one hand came up as if it could somehow push the intrusion back out. "You always fight Salem alone. I can tell she...scares you, and I don't want you to face scary things alone." The body on Ruby's blade was getting heavier and she hefted the blade up higher before letting the woman slide off of it and onto the floor. A pool of red surrounded her as she gasped and panted, hands clawing as she tried to breathe.
"Salem!" an anguished cry broke out of Watt's mouth and he was running towards them, Qrow hot on his trial. The well dressed man threw something out, and Ruby was ready to knock it out of the air when she realized it wasn't aimed at her, but the crates behind them.
"Cinder move!" Ruby cried out when she realized what it was, and with a burst of speed, she moved them out of the way. The highly explosive Dust crates combusted and if they had stayed there, they would have been toast by now.
"Are you okay?" Ruby asked, letting go of her tight hold on Cinder when the woman hissed in pain.
"I'm fine. It's only a couple of whip wounds. I think their bleeding." Cinder could feel the stickiness of blood coating her back.
Another loud explosion rocked the warehouse and both girls ducked down as wood went flying. "We need to leave asap," Ruby informed. "The fire's only going to spread and set off more Dust crates."
"No, you go."
"What?!" Ruby's mouth gaped open at that insane request.
"I still have something to finish," Cinder growled out, eyeing Salem's prone form. Watts was by her side, lifting her into his arms.
"But she's as good as dead. She'll bleed out in a few more minutes."
"No. She's survived death once, I can't trust that she won't survive it a second time. I won't be satisfied until I render her limb from limb!" Cinder's eyes flashed darkly and Ruby was concerned by how much hatred she saw in them.
There was another explosion, closer this time to them.
"What do we do?" Qrow asked over the noise. He had come up to join them. He wouldn't strike an enemy that had their back to him. It was cowardly. Watts was in no state to fight them. He was struggling to get Salem up, his brows furrowed in worry.
"Uncle Qrow, get Roman and Neo out of here. Their tied up somewhere down there," Ruby pointed vaguely. "We'll meet you outside."
"Got it." Qrow went off.
"I'll meet you outside," Cinder corrected.
"Cinder no."
The dark haired woman lunged forwards but Ruby wrapped two strong arms around her waist, wary of aggravating the older woman's wounds. "Ruby let me go! I have to finish her off!"
"Cinder it's too dangerous. We can look for her afterwards."
"There won't be a body to find afterwards. If we don't leave now, we'll never find her again until she wants us to!" Cinder struggled valiantly, watching in concern and panic as Watts dragged Salem's body further away.
"Cinder I care more about you! Please, I don't want you to risk your life over her. Please, let's just go."
A giant explosion rocked the warehouse this time. It was so big it threw both women to their feet and knocked a portion of the roof down, officially blocking Cinder from following after Watts. Ruby pulled Cinder and got the two of them out just in time. The warehouse collapsed in on itself with a loud groan.
"You think they got away?" Qrow asked, dropping down an unconscious Roman and Neo to the ground.
"I hope not," Ruby said. She looked over at Cinder whose eyes were cold and distant as if she was somewhere else mentally. Somewhere terrible.
"Even if they didn't, it doesn't matter. She will be back." Cinder turned on her heel and walked off, fuming with anger and worry.
Two days later
Everything had more or less returned to normal. Ruby and Cinder were both reinstated leaders of the Grimm, their operations were back to running smoothly, all mind control victims had returned back to their regular minds, and Cinder was recovering from her whip injuries. The only thing that hadn't changed was Cinder's anger at Ruby.
"You should have let me get her. I could have killed her and gotten out in time," Cinder argued when Ruby raised the topic for the third time.
"Cinder no. You know that wasn't a realistic opportunity," Ruby shook her head. "Besides, I didn't want to see you waste your life on killing her. She's not worth it. We'll find another way. Another day, to fight and finally destroy her." Ruby tried to plead and beg with her girlfriend, pulling her into a hug. Cinder was stiff in her hold.
"It's selfish of you," Ruby mumbled into Cinder's chest as the older woman's hand unconsciously delved into red brown locks.
"What is?"
"You wanting to die for her. You're only supposed to do that for people you love." Ruby pouted, shooting Cinder her best puppy dog eyes.
There was no way anyone could resist that look, and Cinder found a bit of her anger melting away. Ruby was right. She was maybe a bit too obsessed on the point of Salem. Maybe Salem's survival had been a fluke last time. Maybe she was dead this time? But no, something told her she wasn't.
"Are you jealous, Ruby?" Cinder teased.
"You spend so much time thinking about her, it's almost like you like her," Ruby huffed and Cinder couldn't resist putting a warm kiss on the shorter girl's forehead.
"The only one I love is you. I'm sorry I was upset at you. But I was just worried. Salem is an incredibly conniving and resourceful woman. I don't want her harming you."
"She won't. She won't be harming anyone, because I'll be protecting you and you'll be protecting me." Ruby smiled sweetly, nuzzling under Cinder's chin.
Ruby's warm words made Cinder's heart swell with false hope. False hope because she knew if Salem really wanted something, there was no stopping her. But for now, she'd allow herself to hope. Then, she'd get to planning a counter strike in this secret war, because she swore to herself she wouldn't get Ruby caught up in that woman's vile schemes.
"Where did it go!?" Adam howled out in anger and distraught, all the faunus scientists in the underground White Fang lab around him wincing at his volume. "It was right here. Right fucking here!" He pointed in accusation at the now empty spot where the stinger had once been. The tail had been his hope for a better future for faunus, for a more powerful future, and now it was gone! Who had taken it?!
With a scream he fell to his knees and began to hit the floor angrily. "Blake, go find them for me." The silent figure nodded her head from the shadows but even she couldn't find results this time. For an even an assassin cannot find a thief.
"I've secured the tail," Emerald told Cinder through the scroll as she shouldered the bag and went on with her day, dressed casually for a warm day out and looking not at all like she had done a daring raid into the heart of White Fang territory. She had already slipped the perimeters of the gang hideout and was on the street looking at some wares.
"Excellent. Report back to base so we can dispose of it." Cinder wasn't going to let Adam have it, no matter the deal. He was a megalomaniac. And she didn't want the tail either, too many bad memories of what it had done to Ruby still attached to her mind for her to want to use it as a weapon no matter how useful it would be.
"Roger." Emerald pocketed the scroll, smiling to herself as Adam's cries still rang through the air.
"I got you the usual," Qrow slid the shot glass over to Ruby who picked it up and downed the milk inside it in one go.
She let out a belch before sighing heavily.
"What's got you down kid?" Qrow asked, taking a sip of his whiskey on the rocks.
"It's Cinder. Even though everything's back to normal, she's still tense. And I'm worried. I don't like seeing her like this," Ruby let her fingers run around the rim of the glass before she raised two fingers. The bar tender sent her another shot her way. She downed that one quickly too, wiping away the milk mustache from it.
"Maybe it's time for a break? Like a vacation?"
Ruby's eyes lit up. "That's a great idea!" Then she sobered up. "But she probably won't want to go, saying she has to be vigilante for Salem."
"Not if you go somewhere warm. Somewhere tropical. Somewhere with...bikinis." Qrow suggested, wiggling his brows.
"Oh, you are evil, uncle," Ruby laughed. There was no way Cinder would turn down another beach day with Ruby. "I'm off to set up some arrangements."
"Let me help," Qrow offered as Ruby jumped out of her seat, bursting with energy. "I know a guy who sells cruises for cheap."
"This is gonna be so much fun!" Ruby cheered. "The Grimm Gang goes vacationing!"
A/N:I haven't watched the newest season of Rwby yet, so I have no clue if the bad guys had their powers revealed yet or not, as well as their weapons. So I've made up my own.
Next chapter: Vacation! Our villains deserve some rest after all that's happened.