:

/ | \

\ | /

Act II

Scene 31

Black as Night

A/n:

So, this thing's finally out

Yay.

But, on a more important note, a few more songs to add to the list, and several of the one's from last time still apply here.

Ok, so, here we go.

First of the Year (Equinox) By Skrillex (Can't believe I forgot this one last chap, it totally fits Ruby, especially if you've seen the Music Video)

Dark Nights By Dorothy

This Is Gonna Hurt By Sixx:A.M.

So, without further ado, enjoy


Monday, October 31

00:45

Torchwick pov

"So Red…" I began, a question burning in my mind.

"What was up with you and Cinder?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Ruby inquired, not even bothering to look at me as she continued to lead the way through the empty halls of the Police Station

"I mean Cinder seemed to have it out for you. It was like it was personal." I elaborated.

"I've never seen Cinder act that way towards someone before. Not that I've actually known her that long, mind you." I added.

"Oh." Red began simply.

"That."

She remained silent for a moment, making me wonder if she was actually going to answer my question. Just when I was about to open my mouth, she spoke again.

"From what I can tell, it's not truly her fault. Something inside just had a strongly negative reaction to me." She explained.

"You mean that creepy, unsettling, feeling of wrongness you give off?" I suggested.

"Well…yes and no." Ruby responded.

"Everyone feels that, to a certain extent, when they meet me."

"…Well, almost everyone." She amended after a pause.

"But…?" I supplied, knowing it was coming.

"But Cinder is a bit different." She finished for me.

"She's…" Ruby began, tilting her head in thought as she drummed her fingers against her leg, searching for the right words to explain this.

"Cinder has….something…coiled around her soul, and whatever it is, it does not like me in the slightest." Ruby finally explained.

Unfortunately, it gave me more questions than answers.

"Something coiled around her soul? You saying she's, like, possessed or something?" I asked, getting a bit unsettled by the idea that my employer was being possessed.

Only a bit, though.

Hey, money's money, and Cinder pays surprisingly well.

Ruby, however, frowned as she righted herself.

"No, a possession would be a parasite on her mind, body, and/or soul. This was more like a symbiotic relationship, give and take rather than simple control." She explained.

"…okay?" I said, starting to get disturbed by this line of thought, not to mention how much Ruby seemed to know about possession.

Unfortunately Ruby didn't seem to be done.

"I'm not sure what it is that's coiled around her soul. Whatever it is, it felt pretty small. Too small, almost. Maybe it wasn't full grown?" She considered, thinking out loud.

"Maybe it's just a fragment?" I suggested before I could stop myself, the idea just popping out of my mouth.

"A fragment?" Ruby considered.

"Yes…that would make sense. A fragment of a greater power attached to her soul…" Ruby mused, trailing off as she got lost in thought.

"Red?" I asked when she began to slow down, trying to bring her back to the real world.

"Hmm?" Ruby hummed, her head jerking back up to me, "Oh, right."

"In any case, whatever it is, it seems almost diametrically opposed to what I am. Sure, Cinder's soul had its own personal response to me, but it's nothing compared to the one fragment had" Ruby continued.

"We talking cats and dogs here?" I asked, trying to wrap my head around this and put it in terms I could comprehend.

"…More like most people and spiders." She corrected after a moment of thought.

"Ok, that does sound pretty bad." I grimaced.

"Yes, but she has a strong will. She should be able to overcome it." Ruby commented.

I think that was a compliment? I thought with a quirked brow.

"But watching the interaction between her soul and the fragment should be quite interesting, not to mention the nature of the fragment itself." She mused out loud with a ghost of hungry smile

Ah, yep, there it is. There's the creepy little twist. I thought, suppressing another grimace at her…eager…attitude.

I was pulled from my thoughts when I heard something. Now, I didn't exactly have the inhuman hearing of a Faunus, but I was a master thief, after all. And in my line of work, you pick up some things or you get caught.

One of those things was a talent for talking in a quiet, but still clear voice without exactly whispering. Another was being able to pick up the sounds of distant footsteps inside a building even while in a conversation.

So when I heard the distant clatter of shoes on hardwood and the distant mumblings of chatter, I threw myself into cover. I pushed myself up against a nearby stone pillar, pressing myself as deeply into the shadows as I could despite the duffel bag on my back and the rifle in my hands. I slowed my breathing, forcing it into calm, shallow, quiet breaths. It was at this time that I silently cursed myself for wearing white.

But of course, I couldn't make it easy, now could? I criticized myself.

Despite what people may think, I didn't just wear my white coat as a fashion statement. I mean, sure, it looked damn good on me, but it was also because I wanted a challenge. I'd been sneaking around stealing shit and getting others to steal shit for me since I could walk and talk, it was second nature to me. In fact, usually, it was so painfully easy in stealthy clothing to sneak in and take what I wanted that it became…bland.

Sedate.

Boring.

So I wanted a challenge. Plus, being a cat burglar was so teenage me. A man like me deserved to delve into white crime, and look the part. I had gotten myself into more organized crime and I deserved to look the part.

But then shit comes around like this, and I just hate myself for not letting my practical side win. I internally griped.

It was then, of course, that I noticed a very big, very glaring, problem.

Ruby wasn't hiding with me.

In fact, Ruby wasn't hiding at all.

Instead, she was standing in the middle of the hallway, staring at me with a confused cocked head.

My eyes went wide with panic as I looked back at her silver orbs. She was just standing out there in the open. It'd be impossible for them to miss her like this. But most importantly, she was giving my position away by staring at me.

I mean, if she got caught because she was an idiot, that was her own fault, but she sure as hell wasn't dragging me down with.

"Red! What are you doing?!" I silently mouthed to her, trying to get my point across.

The only thing she did, however, was slightly raise a brow at me, before dismissively shaking her head and returning her attention forward, to the source of the sounds.

Well…someone's probably going to die I thought, expecting her to eat their brains or something.

So I waited in the shadows for them to come. The footsteps grew louder, the mumbles became actual discernible chatter and voices.

"All I'm saying is that Aveline seems less, you know, bitchy." One said

"No, you're trying to get me to commit suicide." The other responded.

"It's not that bad."

"It's pretty bad."

"She wouldn't kill you." The first voice insisted.

"No, but Robin probably would." The Second responded

"…Ok, maybe you have a point."

As they spoke, they crossed into my field of vision, walking across the hardwood floors of the hall, completely ignoring me in the shadows. The walked up to Ruby, stepping ever closer, then…

Then they just walked around her. They both parted, walking around her form, all while continuing their conversation as if nothing important had ever happened.

"You better pray to God that Aveline doesn't hear that you called her bitchy." The second voice said.

"I didn't say she was bitchy." Number one argued defensively.

"You said she was less bitchy, I'm pretty sure she won't see the difference." Number two countered.

I blinked, looking at their disappearing forms, before turning back to Red. She was looking at me with that tilted head again expectantly.

"Are you done yet?" She asked.

While I was surprised by what I saw, I was still cognizant enough to step out of the shadows, look back at the retreating forms of the officers, before looking back at good old creepy red.

"What did you do?' I finally asked. "Did you make yourself invisible to them?"

"No." I shook my head, answering my own question, "They walked around you, and they would have had to have seen you to do that."

"But if they saw you, why didn't they stop? It's like they saw you…but didn't notice you." I mused out loud, cupping my chin with a fist as I thought about what exactly I just saw.

"Basically," Ruby said simply.

I quirked a brow at her questioningly, silently asking her to elaborate.

"It's kind of a perception filter. They still see me, but their brain doesn't perceive me as important enough to do anything with." She tried to explain.

"So…like seeing some random guy out on the street?" I suggested, trying to wrap my head around it.

"…that's not inaccurate." Ruby conceded with another tilt of her head

"Sounds fancy," I admitted.

"It's actually not too hard, the human brain already has a tendency to do it when distracted and dealing with immobile targets, I just enhance it." Ruby elaborated.

"Uhuh…" I replied as I mentally added another power to the list of weird shit Red could do.

Effective invisibility…check

"Are you just going to keep standing there?" Ruby asked, pulling me from my thoughts on the utility of this new gift.

"Hmm?" I hummed, looking up and seeing her a few feet from her last position.

"Yeah, sure." I said distractedly, catching up and walking in step with her.

"So…" I began, breaking the tentative silence.

"Is that what you did to me? Back to the shop, when you seemed to teleport and shit?" I asked, finally.

Instead of vocally responding, Ruby tilted her head to the side ever so slightly, indicating that I had gotten her attention.

"Except, I wasn't distracted. In fact, I was extremely alert, looking out for anything worrying or weird." I mused out loud again.

"So, can you teleport too? Or is that just more of your mind games?" I prodded.

"Why can't it be both?" she asked, a teasing smile in her voice.

"…I'm just going to say mind games," I said after a minute of glaring at the back of her head.

"Really?" Ruby said, a question in her voice.

"Yeah, because I can tell that you love to fuck with people," I said flatly

"Only if they're smart enough to keep up." She quipped back

"…or adorable enough to tease." She amended after a pause of thought.

"Is that a compliment?" I asked tentatively.

"I don't know, you were pretty adorable when you thought I was going to kill you." She jibed back with a grin in her voice.

"Right…" I said, unconvinced.

"Speaking of mind games, however." I began, switching topics.

"What exactly did you do to those guys back at the shop all those months ago?" I asked.

"I told you, I harvested their minds." She answered.

"Yes, you stole their memories or whatever. But that shouldn't kill someone, let alone make them bleed out of their skulls. Plus, you apparently looked at some of my memories and I'm still sane."

"Are you sure about that last part?" She joked back in a hollow voice.

"Did you break me out of jail just so I could be your punching bag?" I shot back, equal parts amused and annoyed by my interactions with her.

To my surprise, however, instead of shooting back a venomous quip, her shoulders sagged as she sighed.

"Sorry." She apologized.

"It's just been a while since I've been able to do this with someone. I…missed…it" She admitted seriously.

"Uh…" I said uncertainly, not really sure where to go from here. I wasn't expecting Ruby to make it all serious and depressing.

"In any case, that's because of the nature of what I'm doing." She explained.

"Which is eating their brains?" I suggested, half-joking.

"Actually, that's not totally inaccurate." She answered, almost surprised herself.

I stopped.

"Wait, what?"

"Hmm?" Ruby hummed curiously, wondering what I was doing with a cocked head.

"You're saying you're a zombie?" I asked.

"…zombie…"Ruby trailed off thoughtfully considering the word

The fact she was considering it at all unnerved me yet again.

Finally, she shook her head from her thoughts and resumed walking.

"If you want a proper analogy, think of the mind as a book. A library book." She began.

I quickly followed behind her, pushing the thoughts of a little zombie girl from my mind.

"Ok." I acknowledged, waiting for the next part of this.

"In that book is every memory, thought, feeling, and experience that makes up who and what you are. I can read that book." She continued.

This wasn't too revealing for me. I already figured she could read minds.

"There are a number of ways to do it, but the simplest is to simply read it, page by page. It's slow, and since I don't own the book, I only have a limited time frame in which I can read the book at any one time, making it go even slower."

"However, the benefit is that I absorb all the knowledge I can from it. It's more thorough, and if I want, I can even cherry pick what information I want. Ignoring some parts while focusing on others."

"Then, there's the other method. When I harvest someone's mind, what I'm essentially doing is grabbing several fistfuls of pages and ripping them out of the book before pocketing them and leaving. As a result, the book is ruined beyond all hope of repair. In some cases, it's little more than shreds of paper when I'm done with it. In return, I get the information much quicker, almost instantly."

"The downside, though, is that I don't get everything, only what I managed to steal from the book. Even worse, I don't usually get to cherry pick, only ripping out what I could dig my hands into. Sometimes the pages I get are torn and incomplete, and sometimes everything I got was useless drivel." She finished.

"Huh." I blinked. "So that's how it works."

"Sort of. It's not a perfect analogy, and there are a bit too many holes and logic problems with it to make me feel completely comfortable with it, but it works well enough." Ruby admitted, a measure of displeasure coming through her voice.

"Eh, it's good enough for me." I shrugged dismissively

"So basically, what I'm gathering from this, is that the faster you go, the more noticeable, sketchier, and all around dangerous it is for you to pull information from someone's head," I said in an open question.

"For the most part, yes." She affirmed.

"But…" She trailed off, twisting her head to give me a side glance with one of those silver eyes.

"It's certainly an effective way to end someone." She said in a dead voice with hollow eyes.

I gulped, despite myself.

"Well, I guess I better not piss you off like Cinder," I said with a dry, nervous chuckle.

"…Piss me off?" She questioned with another cocked head as she turned to face me, walking backward.

"Yeah, you know. Cinder made you mad. Got you angry at her. Invited your fury." I explained.

She blinked owlishly at me.

"I wasn't mad." She corrected.

What

"I was annoyed at her immaturity and utterly human response."

"You were...annoyed?" I questioned, my eyes wide in bewilderment at what she was saying.

"Of course." She answered seriously, "I came to here in a very civil manner, offering my services to her, and instead of doing the logical thing of thinking it through and considering my offer, let alone accepting it, she instead threatens me and even makes an attempt on my life inside my home because of a fragment wrapped around her soul and her own pride."

"All in all, a childish and human response." She added

And with that, she turned around and walked away. Leaving me reeling from the implications of that response.

If burning someone at the stake inside some kind of shadow realm is her answer to annoyance…I don't want to see her angry


Monday, October 31

01:00

The large elevator finished it's descent at the bottom of the shaft with a rumbling clunk. The massive metal doors slid open to reveal that we were at the nexus of three halls.

I whistled as I looked around at the cavernous place. It was surprisingly spacious for an underground level.

Gone was the hardwood floors and marble columns. In its place was rock and metal. It was like going from a mansion to a bunker. The halls were massive round tunnels of dark rock reinforced with dark metal ribs. The tunnels were lit by lights imbedded into the bottoms of the walls, leaving the ceiling cast in dark shadows while the metal floor was well lit. The tunnels were so massive it looked like they could drive a tank column through it.

"You sure you brought enough charges to blow this place?" I asked distractedly as I looked around me.

"I brought enough explosives to level this place three times." Ruby answered matter-of-factly

"That seems excessive." I said with a side glance.

"I prefer to be thorough rather than good enough." She answered.

"Fair enough." I conceded with a shrug.

"So, where to next?" I asked, switching topics.

"This way." Ruby said, taking the tunnel to our right.

We continued down it in silence for a few minutes, the earthy scent of earth and rock filling my nose and an eerie dead silence attempting to rattle my nerves. Finally, I decided to break the silence.

"So, where are we going?" I asked.

"To meet up with Neo." She answered.

"I figured that. Sort of wanted clarification on where."

"We're heading to the section containing the evidence lockup."

"So that's where all my stuff they took would be?" I inquired.

"Yes." She answered.

I nodded in agreement, glad I'd finally be getting back everything I needed.

Melodic Cudgel, my hat, and most importantly, my cigars.

Yes. I smiled

Of course, it couldn't last. My good mood was shattered by the distant sound of a bang echoing throughout the tunnels. It was muffled and quiet, and didn't exactly sound like a gunshot, but I couldn't be sure.

Well…that's not a good sign I sighed.

Considering I wasn't hearing any screams, however, it might not be that bad.

Still, better safe than sorry I thought, shifting Jack's rifle so I carried it with both hands, rather than lazily holding it with one.

I spared a glance at Ruby to see how she was responding to it. She didn't seem to give any visible reaction, but considering her hood was up and her back was facing me, that didn't mean much.

Still, moments later we found ourselves in front of a pair of metal doors and an electronic lock, all with a sign glowing green saying "Evidence Locker"

"Why don't you do the honors?" I "offered" Ruby.

And with a touch of side eye and a wave of her hands, the doors slide to the side to reveal an unexpected, but not uncommon, sight.

"Hello, Neo." I greeted with a false smile.

"I see you made some friends," I added, gesturing with the rifle to the others in the room.

And sure enough, there stood my ice cream themed partner in crime, Neo. Her brown and pink hair cascading down her pink and white dress jacket and her dark pants hugging the shapely legs of her short form. And all over it were flecks of fresh crimson blood.

Laying around her were three bodies on the ground. Two were some boys in blue I didn't recognize, not that that really meant anything. The last, however, was something of a surprise.

It was Mila.

She was lying on the ground in front of Neo. She was unconscious, if the rising and falling of her chest and closed eyes was any indication.

The other two, however, were not so lucky. Each officer had a pool of blood forming under them, their bodies still. Neo's umbrella blade still had blood dripping from its tip. Their bodies were covered in lacerations and bleeding puncture wounds, practically torn to ribbons by Neo's blade, a death by a thousand cuts. In fact, now that I looked at it a bit closer, I could actually see patterns in them, like Neo had been drawing art with their body and blood. Each one had something stuffed in their mouths, gagging them to keep from screaming while Neo had her "fun" with them.

Knowing Neo, she knocked them all out, probably with some kind of stun grenade, before tying them all up. She probably woke the two officers up first because of their weak aura, which made them less dangerous and easier to torture. Then, she' would wake them both up at the same time, and take turns torturing them in front of each other. Considering the size of the pool of blood, she probably just killed them before we walked in ourselves.

Before I could think further on the subject Neo collided with me, wrapping her arms around me as she nuzzled her head into my chest. She hugged me tightly, like a child seeing their father for the first time in months.

I stared at her blankly.

"You know I don't actually have any money on me right now, right?" I said drily

And with those words Neo recoiled from me like I had the plague with a betrayed expression.

"You're breaking me out of jail, it's not like they were going to let me keep all my cash on me," I said, pointing out the flaw in her plan.

She pouted, crossing her arms and looking away from me angrily, her eyes changing to double whites with a few blinks.

"I'm confused," Ruby said, speaking up.

"Neo likes to try and pickpocket me whenever she gets the chance. It's just that this time, I don't have anything to pickpocket." I explained, sending Neo a withering glare for being an idiot.

"Which she forgot because she's an idiot," I added, which prompted a brown-eyed eyed glare from the multi-color girl.

"Hey, there's a reason why I'm the brains and you're the…well…psycho," I countered, gesturing to the pair of gentlemen that "entertained" her with a confident smile.

"I'm actually surprised you managed to finish so fast. Usually you take your time," I commented

Neo's pale face twisted into a childish and exaggerated frown as she silently huffed and angrily kicked the one on the left's leg.

Translation? She was very disappointed. Either in their ability to survive her "fun" and entertain her, the lack of time she had to thoroughly enjoy her time, or a combination of both.

"Is this normal for her?" Ruby asked, looking up at me with a quirked brow.

"Oh, this fun little bundle of psychopathic kleptomania and sadism does shit like this all the time," I remarked.

"Why?" I added

"Feel like joining her on a tirade of running through the station, hacking and slashing at everyone still breathing until there's nothing left but us and some bloody corpses to keep us company?" I asked goadingly.

At this, Ruby actually seemed to recoil slightly in surprise.

"No! That would be grossly inefficient. There are for more efficient methods of neutralization than running around playing axe-murderer." She argued, seemingly insulted that I would even suggest such a thing.

"What, you're saying you don't get all hot and bothered killing people? That it doesn't make you wet in the loins? Give you a satisfying feeling each time their heart stops?" I continued, looming over her with a sharks grin, hoping she took the bait.

I knew she was twisted, and I knew she took some pleasure in what she did to Cinder, what she did was too…passionate…for her not to have taken some joy in watching her burn. I had to know, however, if she was like so many I had met. Like Neo. Someone who loved to kill, who enjoyed it. It wouldn't deter me from her, I mean I'd been working with Neo for years, if she couldn't give me nightmare I doubt much else could. But I still wanted to know if I could trust little Red not to kill me for the hell of it.

"Of course not."

I blinked.

"Why would I enjoy killing?" She questioned with a disapproving frown, like I was some idiot child asking stupid questions.

"So you don't like to kill?" I asked.

It would be weird if she didn't like to kill, considering how well she did it, but I'd seen it before. People willing to kill if they thought it was necessary, but not really liking having to do it.

"I don't care." She answered.

"You don't care?" I said with a raised brow.

"Killing is simply a way to remove a piece from the board. Humans, due to their limited perception of mortality, try to place so much weight on it. Death comes to all that lives, it is inevitable. I simply enact a natural process in an unnatural way." She explained

"So you don't mind killing?" I said for confirmation.

"If anything I dislike killing because it is wasteful and easy. Humans are fragile and killing them usually isn't too difficult. If I kill someone without gaining anything from them or there was a better way than I am ashamed of myself simply because I was acting in a weak, simpleminded, and shortsighted manner." She explained coldly.

"And blowing up this police station isn't doing just that?" I questioned.

"This whole action serves multiple purposes and kills four birds with one stone." She answered.

"Oh really?" I said casually, leaning back away from her, "Care to share?"

"Well, I'd prefer to have you out of here. Unlike Cinder, you don't have a voice screaming in your head to kill me every second you're in the same room as me. Also you have the mind of a businessman, something I can work with." She explained.

"It also lets me test the practical effects of the Thorn Mk VI using experimental Nerve rounds." She added, drawing and inspecting it her hand cannon from her blood red cloak.

"And the other two?" I asked

"объявление" She said distractedly in something that sounded suspiciously like a dialect of Atlesian for "Classified".

Not really sure how she knew Atlesian well enough to speak it so casually, but who knows. Considering everything else this little unspeakable horror in a little girl's body could do and had done, it didn't even really make the top ten interesting things.

"Uhuh." I said drily, turning back to Neo I asked, "So, how's things been without me?"

Neo paused and stared off in thought as she struck a pose, tapping her chin thoughtfully whilst tapping her foot. Finally, she pulled out of it, giving me a slight grimace while wobbling her hand side to side.

Translation: "oh god-creator in heaven, things have been terrible without you incredible guidance and wisdom. Truly, I am lost without you."

Or she meant "eh"

But I like to think it's the first one.

"Awe, I knew you missed me." I said with a teasing grin.

Neo just rolled her brown and white eyes at me.

"Roman." Ruby said, breaking me from my conversation with Neo.

"Hmm?" I hummed, turning back to her.

"You seemed to recognize the woman still breathing in the back. Who is she?" Ruby asked

"Her?" I said, gesturing toward Mila. "That's Mila."

"Full name?" She insisted

"Lyudmila Odessa" I answered.

At that, Ruby's eyes widened ever so slightly as her brow lifted just a hair above normal.

"Really…" she said, staring at the woman

"What can you tell me of her?" She inquired.

"Well…she's a new Watchman. The team's new sniper, I believe. She's a dog faunus, and thanks that and her being the new guy on the force, she's generally looked down on by her colleges." I rattled off

"Oh, she's also fun to tease. Adorable, even." I added.

"Really?" Ruby looked up at me skeptically.

"Oh yeah, she's incredibly naïve." I responded.

I looked back up to see Neo poking Mila's unconscious face with her blade.

"You gonna kill her or what?" I asked

Neo turned to pout at me, silently begging me not to kill her fun.

"Neo." I chastised, "We don't have time for games. Just kill her and be done with it."

Some part of me deep didn't like telling Neo to kill this woman I had grown to know. Some part of me yearned to step in and do something about, to save her life. Something deep inside my hea-

Wait

No.

Those are my lungs.

Dammit, I need a smoke. I coughed.

"Just fucking kill her already." I said, waving her off dismissively as I went in search of the cigarettes, at the very least, they no doubt confiscated and put in here.

Hopefully they didn't get rid of them.

I swear, if I find out that one of those fat pigs took one of my cigars… I grumbled internally.

I was pulled from my thoguhts by a simple word.

"Wait."

I turned to look Ruby from the corner of my eye. "What?"

"Don't kill her." Ruby said, looking Mila with an inquisitive look on her face, studying every part of the young woman's body with the eyes of a scientist, not a lecher.

"Don't kill her?" I questioned incredulously with a flat look.

"Yes."

At that, Neo seemed to cheer up a bit, no doubt thinking she'd get to have some personal play time with Mila now.

"I want her." Ruby asserted.

"You want her?" I questioned again.

"For science." She added.

"Really?"

"And…personal reasons"

"Which are…?"

"She reminds me of somebody I knew." She explained, her face softening for a moment.

"So you want to kidnap her…for the memories." I said flatly.

"Well, that, and I'd like to have a Faunus I can be free to experiment on to my leisure." She explained.

Sparing a pointed look at me, she elaborated, "I find the existence of Faunus fascinating, and I doubt most Faunus would be willing to let me conduct the experiments I desire on them. Especially the White Fang in Cinder's employ. I doubt, however, they will have issue with one such as her."

"Red…that sounds incredibly stupid. What if she escapes? What if people come looking for her? She could compromise everything!" I sighed as I pinched the bridge of my nose

"So's having your 'secretive' boss chauffer you around in a bullhead wearing easily recognizable and undisguised clothing." Ruby countered pointedly.

Ok, that's pretty bad I grimaced.

"Plus, no one will come looking for her. The explosion will be so complete that there won't be nearly enough evidence to point to her kidnapping. She'll just be one missing body among dozens." Ruby added

"And finally, considering what I have planned for her, she will be in no shape to escape. Especially not with Neo here to assist me." Ruby finished, glancing at the little psycho in question.

"You know what? Fuck it, it's your problem." I said dismissively, throwing my hands in the air and deciding it was best to just move on and not question the motive of two little psychos.

Neo, of course, being given the opportunity to help "play" with Mila gave me a blindingly bright smile.

She looked as happy as….well…Neo given the opportunity to have some "fun" with someone. Honestly, fat kids in candy stores wished they could be as happy as her.

I decided to fix that.

"And you know what, here's a present." I said, throwing the duffel bag of stuff I had at the little ice cream thief.

She stumbled back a few steps, but caught it well enough. She sent an angry glare at me that might have meant something a few years ago, but as it was I just shrugged it off.

Then, the duffel bag shattered.

It shattered into a thousand shards of glass, but…the glass disappeared soon after. And the duffel bag was nowhere in sight.

"Thankyou." I said with a smile and mocking bow.

That was Neo's semblance in action.

"Fascinating." Ruby said, staring at the girl in question.

Even after all this time, I didn't know the technical specifics of what her semblance actually did. What I did know, was what it could do in a practical sense.

So in essence, it made Neo the world's greatest magician. She could conjure up illusions, conjure objects from out of thin air, make them disappear in shattering of non-existent glass, and even teleport the same way.

It was the perfect ability for thieves such as ourselves.

Great for getting out of a sticky situation, and pocketing a horde of loot without needing to worry about carrying it all. The only downside was that Neo couldn't teleport anywhere she hadn't been before or had line of sight of. She also couldn't do it when her aura was drained. Its why she couldn't just pop in and bust me out on her own. She'd never get anywhere close to my cell by herself. Not to mention the 24 hour watchmen guard I had.

Turning away from the girls, who were no doubt moving to Shatter Mila's body into whatever pocket dimension Neo used, I moved back toward the shelves upon shelves of "evidence" looking for my stuff.

"Now where, oh where, did they put my stuff?" I murmured as I browsed the shelves. They didn't put it in alphabetical order, instead using some fancy high minded police sorting system using codes, dashes, numbers, and a whole bunch of other shit I didn't understand.

Frankly, it felt like they just shoved things in here at random.

"Aha!" I cried in triumph, seeing a panel with my name on it, a code underneath, and an electronic lock beside it.

"Red, if you would be so kind." I said, gesturing to her and the panel.

I got the impression she wanted to roll her eyes at me, but instead she just brushed her fingers over the lock and opened it. The panel popped out of the wall, arms swing it down and out of the way as box slid out of the hole. Opening the box, I found everything inside. My cane, my hat, my wallet, my gloves, my gun, my lighter, my clippers, and best of all

My cigar box.

"Oh, it's been too long." I said in a hushed, excited, whisper, as I opened the box and pulled out a nice long cancer stick.

I rolled it in my hand for a moment, feeling the nice firm roll of tobacco, before taking a pair of cigar clippers and cutting of the end. Stowing the clippers in my coat pocket, I pulled my lighter out of the box, and flicked it open. I spun the wheel and lit a dust fueled flame in the wick. Carefully hovering one end of the cigar over the flame, I waited until the cigar began to glow and smoke with its own embers. Pulling the cigar from the lighter, I snuffed out the flame, snapped it shut, and shoved it in my pocket as I turned my full attention back to the lovely cigar I had missed.

Putting it in my mouth, I sucked in a puff of smoke. Now, unlike how most idiots started, I didn't inhale that smoke, that's how you end up hacking up your lungs on the first go. Instead, I just pulled it into my mouth, held it, then blew out threw my lips. I did this a few times to get the garbage out before I could finally take a nice long drag. And oh, it was so nice.

Pulling the cigar from my lips, I looked back down at the roll of tobacco with a fond smile.

"Truly, nothing tastes better than a glass of water when you're dying of thirst." I commented fondly.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ruby take a cigar from my box and roll it around in her tiny pale fingers for a minute inquisitively. Then, she pulled a knife out of her cloak and, emulating me, snipped off the end of the cigar. From there, she put the knife back, pulled out a small blow torch of all things, lit the end, and stuck it in her mouth.

And to my surprise, did not end up hacking her lungs up like most first-timers do.

As my brow raised and my eyes widened ever so slightly, she puffed out a few plumes of smoke herself before finally taking a nice long drag, and holding it.

"Hmm…" She hummed in thought as she savored the flavor and rolled the cigar around in her hands.

"You know, those things'll give you cancer." I teased.

"I can't get cancer." She countered distractedly, still focusing on the stogie in her hand.

"Yeah, so did the last 50 hunters that died of cancer." I remarked. Lots of hunters liked to think that their aura would protect them from cancer. It sort of did, but it didn't give them the license to chain smoke four packs a day.

"If several dozen Sieverts can't do anything to me, I doubt a few rolls of tobacco will" She argued flatly.

"Sieverts?" I questioned, unfamiliar with the term.

She rolled her eyes with a heavy, annoyed sigh, "Several thousand REMs, or Rads if you can't wrap your head around that." She translated.

I got the feeling she was disappointed in me.

"That...sounds like a lot," I said, not really sure what to do with that.

I mean, I've heard of rads, but I didn't really know what they meant. But a few thousand of anything is rarely a good thing.

"Капиталистические суки и их имперская система" She cursed under her breath, something about an imperial system and bitches.

And capitalism.

"Uhuh…" I said blankly, not understand what that was actually supposed to mean.

"In any case, now that you have your stuff, can we leave?" Ruby asked, twirling the cigar around in her fingers.

"Sure, I guess, you done here?" I asked her.

"Neo, did you plant all the charges?" Ruby asked, turning to the multi-color girl in question.

She nodded cheerfully in response, Mila already draped over her shoulder somehow.

"Good, then we have one last stop then we can go." Ruby nodded approvingly.

"Oh?" I asked, taking another drag from the cigar.

"We're going to the Watchmen vault."


A/n:

Alright

Jesus fucking christ

Thank god over

This...

this wasn't the funnest chapter to write.

Not like the last one.

Still, it was necessary.

It also didn't help that I couldn't really even work on it that much since I had a bunch of work.

Then, of course, was the massive out pouring of games over the past week or so.

Well, maybe not massive, but in that span of time I got Forza Horizion 3, Destiny Rise of Iron, then I picked up Deus Ex Mankind Divided.

All in all, great games, but seriously cut into my free time to write.

Sort of my own fault though.

Speaking of Destiny Rise of Iron, some people seemed to be saying something about Ruby's hand cannon. They seemed to be under the impression that the Thorn Mk VI is connected to this "exotic" hand cannon from Destiny called the Thorn as well.

But that's just ridiculous. I mean, what makes you think that I would give the gun of Dregden Yor, the once shining light of guardians turned corrupted villain, to a girl that started out as a sweet and simple soul and was twisted into a hollow verison of herself? Not to mention how the theme of the beautiful rose loosing its petals and leaving nothing but thorns.

But that's just crazy, right?

Ha

Ha

Ha

Anyways, this combined with my dying muse meant it was a pain to actually write this chapter.

But it's out.

Yea.

Now, in this chap we see Neo again.

We also see the more interaction between Ruby and Roman, as well as throwing Neo into the mix.

I wanted to have Neo have more of a presence, but I wasn't sure how to do that considering she doesn't talk and usually plays second fiddle to Roman anyway.

As Roman said, he's the brains, and she's the psycho.

We also got more insight into Ruby, her disdain for the imperial system(seriously, it's fucking retarded.), her perception on killing, among other things.

If you don't know what the imperial system is, it's America's measurement system. It's one of the only countries in the world that still uses the fucking thing. It's the Inches, feet, yards, miles thing.

And as an American myself, it's one of the things I think is fucking retarded about this country. Metric system is so nice.

Anyways, getting off topic.

I also gave you why Cinder tried to kill Ruby when they met. On a meta level, I'm going to just tell you that it's because of the Fall Maiden powers.

Why am I telling you that straight up? Because that's what I'm trying to have Ruby say when she talks about the fragment, but neither Roman or Ruby know what the hell it actually is, and I didn't feel like waiting another 32 chapters or so to finally have the reveal of what the fuck it's actual name is.

So yes, the Fall Maiden powers DO NOT LIKE RUBY.

AT ALL

Why?

Now there's the question.

In other news, Ruby and crew are kidnapping Mila.

Yeah, that's a thing.

All in all, I felt like this chapter was kind of flimsy, but I don't really know what to do to fix it, and more importantly, I want to move on.

The Next chapter should be out...soonish

No promises.

I should never promise things because it makes me a liar.

But Scene 32 will round out the Act.

In other news,

It turns out that last Scene appeared to be everyone's favorite Scene.

Or, well, a lot of people's favorite scene. Seriosuly, the response from that was epic.

I got more reviews for that chap than any other chap i've ever posted, which is pretty sweet.

Unless of course that was just because of the review game I mentioned, where I randomly pick one person to give me a prompt.

hmmm

well, speaking of which as promised, Mine's Dreamstate chap was posted, so now yalls can go read it.

And, without further ado, the person who one the thing thang.

It's Touhou is Life

Congrats

I'll PM you the stuffs, don't put it in a review.

Anyways, that's that thing

Oh, also, It turns out a lot of people like Evil!Ruby

or, at least, what they think is evil ruby. Truth be told, this is more neutral dark Ruby. She's not so much evil as she doesn't give a fuck, understand how to give a fuck, or even understand why giving a fuck is a thing.

She's not doing it because she's mustache-twirling evil. She's doing it because she doesn't see it as evil. She see's it as effective, logical, beneficial, and even, to a degree, righteous.

Even more to the point of her not being "evil", as I said before, there are many paths this story can take, with three extremely general paths of Renegade, Paragon, and Neutral.

I've shown you a bit of what Paragon looks like with Ruby being all nice and shit with Glynda. Now I'm showing you some Renegade with Torchwick and friends. At this point, she can still go either way, we haven't reached a division point yet. As it stands, there's still the potential for Ruby to sway back to good and have something of a normal family of people who truly love her.

At the same time, it's entirely possible the opposite happens and she swears off any trace of humanity left of her, and does what she can to see the whole world that betrayed her burn.

But that's about it, see you guys later.