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Patch Island, Vale - 01:53
Ruby woke with a start and jumped off the couch. She thought she'd heard a noise but couldn't have been sure since she had been asleep. Then her stomach growled quietly and she had to laugh.
Out of all the things to wake me…
She walked into the kitchen and quickly made a sandwitch, chopping a chunk of meat and lettuce with her razor sharp chefs knife. She was about to take a bite when she heard the floor just outside the door squeak.
The door opened and three men in black suits carrying needles and pistols walked into the room, looking around as they noticed rose petals falling where Ruby'd just been standing.
One looked up just as Ruby landed on his back, twisting his head and breaking his neck in a smooth assassination. She kicked the body into the arms of the second man as the third lunged at her with the needle. She smacked his arm out of the way and rolled out of the way as he tried to hit her with his gun.
So you're not supposed to make any noise, huh?
She grabbed her knife and threw it at the third man just as the second recovered. The knife landed with a squelch as it punctured the man's eye and killed him instantly by embedding itself through his brain. The second man lunged at Ruby who used her semblance to dodge then redirect the mans arm into his own neck. She pushed the plunger on the needle down and the man fell limp in her arms.
She dropped the body and picked up one of the discarded syringes. She licked it and identified the poison it contained. The heart attack inducing poison wasn't anything new to her, though she hadn't been on the target's side for more than ten years already. She quickly spat any saliva in her mouth out to make sure the small amount of poison wouldn't harm her.
Ruby slowly returned to her living room to look out the window. In front of the house were at least two men with large guns at the ready.
"Time to break out my baby." Ruby smiled as she walked back to the kitchen. She pulled a clip from one of her assailants pisols and found explosive dust rounds.
She pulled out a frying pan and poured a small amount of water in it before dumping it on the stove with the explosive rounds and cranking the heat up to max. She left before it started to boil, heading to her basement. She quickly grabbed the sledge hammer that stood just beside the stairs and kicked a trunk out of the way before she slammed the hammer down on the floor, shattering the concrete covering a hidden weapon crate.
She opened it after cleaning some of the concrete off it and pulled out her oldest and dearest weapon, Crescent Rose. The High-Impact Sniper/Scythe hybrid had been heavily modified since her time at beacon, but still maintained its signature shape when in it's two primary forms. Since then however, she'd modified it to contain a compartment for a small firearm and added a customizable chamber that allowed her to use any round up to and including a 90 caliber. She'd also changed her scythe's blade to be made of detachable combat knives for when the situation called for it. In short, her extremely dangerous weapon had transformed from a simple reaper's tool to a weapon Death himself would be proud and terrified of.
Ruby heard the slight pop indicating the water had evaporated from the frying pan which would now start to warp under the stress while the rounds started to heat up. She quickly holstered her weapon and withdrew the smaller secondary pistol to find the revolver's chamber already loaded with burn dust. Ruby smiled as she thought about the hell she'd caused in the past with a single round. She quickly loaded herself with as much ammo as she could carry and took her combat belt from the bottom of the chest. She walked up the stairs and stopped and waited while her head remained just below the level of the main floor.
A chorus of explosions sounded from her kitchen just as another chorus sounded from much farther away. She listened as wood splintered and dust rained down from the ceiling as a hail of bullets punctured all the way through her house for three solid minutes before she heard footsteps crunch on broken glass and wood. She opened the door in front of her and calmly walked out and into her living room.
She waited patiently until it seemed all the men had entered her house. There were four this time. She picked up a piece of wood and threw it above their heads in the darkness, the noise of it hitting the wall making them spin towards the sound. She stepped out from her hiding spot and shot the first man in the back, a small hole burned right through his kevlar vest and chest instantly. He fell to the ground and Ruby disappeared in an explosion of rose petals.
"Split up, check your corners!" One of the men ordered and two walked into the living room, the other heading for the kitchen while stepping over the body of his comrade.
Ruby sat on the stairs to the upper level, watching the lone man pass. As he drew level, she pulled the trigger, the round punching through his useless helmet and frying his brain. She walked back down the stairs and jumped to the ceiling before doing the splits to remain suspended in the narrow hall. One of the two men from the living room came out of the doorway and passed directly beneath her, finding his fallen comrade with his head still smoking.
Ruby landed silently behind him and pulled the trigger for the third time, sending the man to the ground with a burned out heart. She walked casually into the living room to find the other man had already moved on. She walked back into the next room and still found nothing.
Her combat sense made her spin to see the last remaining man raise his gun and open fire. Ruby almost felt herself laugh for the first time in a long while as she easily dodged the first bullet with her semblance and dove behind the wall. She kept moving as the man seemed intent on simply shooting every possible round in the large bucket attached to his weapon.
She entered the kitchen and kept going after she used her semblance to create fresh rose petals leading behind the island. She saw the area start exploding as the man entered and found the fresh evidence of her whereabouts and Ruby had to laugh as she circled around, her footsteps hidden by the loud rattling of the machine gun.
Ruby smiled to herself, pulling back the hammer to make a loud click right beside the mans head as his gun jammed. He turned toward her as her smile grew and she pulled the trigger.
The mans body fell limp and she started her age old ritual of scavenging rounds. Its not that she needed them, but she never knew when her enemies would bring new toys for her to play with.
Only explosive. Disappointing.
She finished a second more gruesome ritual her sister had taught her many years ago that involved her chefs knife and a ziplock bag. At one point, she'd been disgusted by the method, but its results were unquestionable. She then left the house, grabbing her team's picture and her old red cloak on the way. Behind her, she heard the building creak as the wind picked up in a sudden gust. A portion of the living room collapsed, burrying her couch and the plant she'd tried to grow.
Well, it wasn't working out too well anyhow….
She decided it was time to go on a vacation.
ATLAS CITY, Atlas - 23:02
Weiss sighed as she finished the large stack of paperwork on her desk. She loved the android secretary she worked with, but she could be like a drill sargent at times. She stood and stretched her arms, satisfied that she'd gotten the days work finished.
"Miss Schnee, there are a group of people here to see you." Penny's voice sounded through the phone on her desk.
Weiss looked out the window at the building that was being constructed alongside her own and made a mental note to move her office to face another direction so she wouldn't have to stare at the metal monstrosity when it was completed.
"Very well, send them in." Weiss called to the phone she often left on speaker. She turned to her door and opened it to the hall. She started walking to meet whoever it was that decided to call so late in the evening and froze as she found herself in the sights of three assault rifles.
"Fire!" a man out of view ordered and Weiss acted instinctually, throwing up thousands of miniature glyphs in front of her that each caught a single round and held it suspended in the air. She was thankful to Ruby's uncle, not for the first time over the years, that he'd forced her to learn to use her semblance without the assistance of a weapon or dust.
She yawned lazily behind her brightly glowing wall as the men ceased fire. "Are you finished now?" She asked impatiently, turning her glyphs around and releasing the bullets all at once to continue on their new flight path to pepper the men with their own exploding rounds.
Weiss waited for several moments to see if the man outside her view would try next. When he didn't, she sighed. It was almost always the same. She'd kill most of them, but the last few always got scared and ran. Honestly she was considering retirement just to get away from these idiot White Fang assassins. They didn't even have any reason to target her anymore because she was the largest equal rights employer on Remnant since she'd taken the company over from her father.
Just as she was about to reenter her office, she saw a small white flash from the building directly across the street. She pulled up a glyph as fast as she could, but it didn't help. The glyph shattered as the bullet went through, barely skimming past her head, cutting a strand of her hair as it continued past her. She heard the crack of it impacting down the hall and a short scream before a dull thump ended in silence as the glass of her window continued to shatter on the ground. Weiss knew she was in a corner and stayed where she was. If the sniper wanted her dead, there was nothing she could do to stop them since she knew the round they'd used was one of the most powerful she'd ever invented.
She watched the shadows carefully as she waited to find out her fate. Then after a minute, the shadows shifted and a red cape fluttered in the wind before disappearing. Weiss smiled and made her way out of her office, making sure to close the door behind her. She found Penny sparking from a hole in her chest where she'd been shot. Weiss sighed in exasperation.
"You do know that repairs on you cost a fortune, right?" Weiss asked as she stepped behind Penny's desk to take the shadow box containing her old Multi-Action Dust Rapier, Myrtenaster.
"I knOW!" Penny replied, her speaker making her voice's volume fluctuate as she remained immobile. "I'M SOrry, Miss, Miss, Miss SCHNEE!"
"That's alright, but this is the third time this year, please try to be more careful going forward." Weiss replied with a sigh, seeing that she only had ice dust left inside the rapiers cartridge.
The door to the elevator dinged before it started to open and Weiss didn't even look over to know who it was.
"You almost killed me, you know." Weiss said, turning to face Ruby who was now in her full combat uniform, her black and red combat skirt swaying as she walked into the room to inspect the man she'd shot.
"Meh, you should know if I wanted you dead you wouldn't have been able to pull up that glyph." Ruby replied with a shrug. "Nice to see you again by the way, and sorry I kind of redecorated."
Weiss looked over at the area of the white painted room that now shone red with the exploded mans blood. She shrugged and placed her rapier at her hip. "Oh well, I suppose it does add character to the place. And thanks for the assist by the way, even though I didn't intend to get a haircut."
Ruby laughed and gave Weiss a hug. "It was nothing. Anyway, you kind of have to be alive to buy me a drink, remember?"
"Fine. Let's go." Weiss pressed the button on the elevator and the doors slid open. The two women entered and Ruby waved to Penny who managed a nod before the doors shut.
"I can't believe she was so awesome back when we were in Beacon and now… not so much." Ruby laughed more to herself than anything.
"I think she's still the same, but she's limited by her programming. Intelligent or not, she can't improve unless her algorithms are refined." Weiss stated. "Also, thinking of Beacon, have you heard from the other two?"
"Not Blake, but I heard Yang is living in one of those assisted living facilities that went up a couple years back in the south side of the city." Ruby said with a shrug.
"Assisted…?" Weiss started to ask, then thought better of it. "Never mind, I don't want to know."
Ruby shrugged and the two waited in silence until the elevator opened up to a large white atrium with a massive chandellier hanging from the three story high ceiling.
"You know, I never really get used to all this." Ruby stated, waving at the shining room as they passed through. "I mean, I know to expect it, but it just seems…"
"Unnecessary?" Weiss provided emotionlessly as she pulled her keys from her pocket.
"Yeah, sorry." Ruby admitted, following her old partner into a parkade.
"Don't be. The main reason I keep junk like that is so the cleaning staff feel needed." Weiss shrugged. "It takes thirty of them two days to clean all the crystal on that thing, as well as keeping the office staff happy with how bright it keeps the building, even at night."
"Meh, it's still just a useless waste of glass." Ruby shrugged and hopped over the locked door into Weiss's convertible sports car as Weiss unlocked her door and slipped behind the wheel.
"Yes, Ruby. Yes it is." Weiss sighed as she gunned the motor and sped out onto the street, the powerful dust engine in the rear purring like a crouched puma, ready to strike. After several turns, Weiss slowed the car considerably as they passed into a street that had many bright neon signs. "Since you're the guest, you may pick where we go."
"Sure…" Ruby looked down the street, one place catching her eye. The building was taller than those around it, reaching three stories in height. The front side was illuminated with strobe lights that shone white and red in alternating colors, making the white building look alive. "What's that place?"
Weiss didn't need to look at Ruby's hand to see she was pointing at the monstrosity at the far end of the street. "I don't know. The place was supposed to be an art gallery but someone sniped the auction."
"Just saying, you make a good target for a sniper. You don't move enough." Ruby laughed, earning her a punch in the shoulder.
"Very funny." Weiss pulled up in front of the flashing establishment to find a white and red neon sign above the entrance. It depicted several different drink glasses on either side of the name 'Hide Out'.
Weiss set the alarm on her vehicle before she aproached a muscled man standing in front of the door with Ruby. She nodded to him before stepping past with Ruby, causing a chorus of mumbling from the long line behind a velvet rope that stretched around the side of the building.
"I guess owning half of Remnant really does get you places." Ruby joked heading over to a table as Weiss stopped a passing waiter.
"Only if you know what you're doing." Weiss replied as she sat across from Ruby. "So what brings you to Atlas so suddenly? I wasn't expecting you to show up the night after I offered you a drink."
"Well, it was a spur-of-the-moment sort of thing." Ruby replied as the waiter from earlier came by with two drinks. "This brings me back."
"I figured the first round could be for old times' sake." Weiss replied, taking the glass that was filled with ice and vodka.
"Cheers!" Ruby took the remaining glass with ice and scotch and took a small swallow before glancing around.
They were situated in a dark corner of the club where the tables were mostly abandoned, the patrons mostly at the bar or on the dance floor that made up the other half of the room. The loud music was quiet enough to avoid yelling, but was still loud enough to mask any conversation. In other words it was a perfect place to talk privately, even being surrounded by other people.
"So I hardly doubt you'd come to Atlas with Crescent Rose 'just because'. Is there something I should be concerned about?" Weiss asked as she set her drink back onto the table.
"I'm not quite sure. I guess I was a bit suspicious that I had some unexpected company last night." Ruby said, attempting to guage her old teammate's reaction.
"Did you get ID's?" Weiss asked, leaning forward. "Or any other info?"
"I'm taking some material to Yang tomorrow for the ID. Other than that they were unmarked, trained to today's standards, and only one was a faunus." Ruby elaborated noting her teammate didn't seem at all nervous. "And I know it's rude to ask, but did you send them my way?"
"Interesting…" Weiss sat back and closed her eyes for a second. "And no, I didn't hire them…. Not White Fang because they almost always wear the flag. And not any of the anti-faunus groups either since there was a faunus there…"
"Welp, I'm sure Yang will find something out. She's got more connections than even you do." Ruby sighed, taking another sip of her drink.
"So just out of curiosity, how hard did they try?" Weiss smiled. "I mean, the ones in my office seemed a bit weak."
"Yeah, they were a bit stupid. If it was me I would have just used an AP round with an infared scope. Not to mention you sat at your desk for two hours without moving. A sniper would have been the smart choice. Instead of a bunch of foot soldiers." Ruby laughed, caressing the weapon on her back. "Plus I'm retired. I shouldn't have to deal with this crap anymore."
"Honestly, considering where my office is, I can't see why they didn't use a sniper." Weiss mused, finishing off her drink.
"They did. Just so happens I surprised him by already sitting in his spot." Ruby laughed. "You should have seen the look on his face as he fell off the side of that building. It was priceless!"
"Just as fun loving as ever, I see." Weiss smiled and watched Ruby finish her drink.
"Anyway… I actually think I might come out of retirement after this." Ruby said with a slight grin on her face.
"What? I thought you were, and quote, 'getting too old for this'. Remember that? From two minutes ago?" Weiss asked in response, her eyebrows raised in her usual amazement at Ruby's changes in opinion.
"Yeah, but I'm so bored. I have nothing to do anymore. Honestly, before yesterday, I hadn't killed anything in years!" Ruby exclaimed rather loudly, making a couple of people that were walking by run back into the crowd of the dance floor.
"That's sad… truly." Weiss grinned. "Actually, if that's the case, you came at a perfect time."
"Huh?" Ruby tilted her head in confusion.
"Well, last week my head of security was killed and I've been rather hesitant to find a new one. They dont train them as well as they used to. If you want, the job is yours." Weiss shrugged.
"I dunno… you know I never liked wearing suits…" Ruby complained, playing with the edge of her red cloak.
"I know it might be a bit slow compared to what you used to do, but I honestly don't want to do interviews again. And you'd be fine with your combat wear. It's not as… flashy as some others I've seen." Weiss said, remembering her other teammate's clothing choices.
"I guess I have no choice then… Ms. Schnee." Ruby smirked as she bowed slightly.
"Ruby, that's weird. Just say my name normally and don't bow." Weiss cringed.
"Well doesn't everyone else do that?" Ruby asked innocently.
"Everyone else aren't my friends." Weiss replied.
"Awww! I'm your friend!" Ruby giggled.
"But I can still fire you." Weiss threatened angrily.
"Fine…" Ruby mumbled looking downcast.
"I swear…." Weiss sighed. "Never mind. You start in a month."
"A month?" Ruby asked confused.
"We take vacation time together. And it starts tomorrow." Weiss explained.
"Then… I'm hired today?" Ruby asked hopefully.
"Ruby, I'm not going to start paying you just so you get time off!" Weiss reprimanded her old team leader.
"But… I saved your life…" Ruby pulled her puppy dog eyes. Admittedly it was far less cute these days but simply the way her lip quivered brought memories back that Weiss had rather have forgotten. Memories that were very difficult to say no to.
"Fine! You start right now. Happy?" Weiss asked, somewhat frustrated with herself for giving in.
"I'm not unhappy." Ruby commented, the smile back on her face.
"Good. Then I'm going home now. I've had a long day and the adrenaline from you almost shooting me has worn off." Weiss said standing and leaving a bill under her glass.
"I told you I wasn't aiming at you!" Ruby argued again. "Also I was going to ask if I could crash at your place tonight?"
Weiss was conflicted for the barest of moments, then she relented and nodded as her old teammate followed her back to the car. "Just promise you won't break anything this time?"
"We both know that was Yang's fault! I never break things." Weiss raised a doubting eyebrow at Ruby's comment. "You know, unless I want to."
Weiss couldn't help but feel, as she led Ruby out of the club, that the coming days would get much more interesting than they had been for a long while.