A/N: Hello all! I felt like it was time for another chapter, so here you go! Once again I'd like to thank you all for reading my story and an extra big thank you to those who follow/favourite and leave reviews. Nothing quite compares to the feeling I get when I'm sitting in class or studying and my phone goes off telling me I got a new follower. And I can't tell you how many times I've stopped what I was doing to just read and reread a review with a big smile on my face. It occurs to me that I might want to start replying to some of the reviews I get, and I will try to start doing that from now on. So start expecting some replies to appear in your inbox.

As always, leave a review telling me what you thought about the chapter and anything else you wanna say to me, or drop me a PM if you want a reply before the next chapter.

Now, without further ado:

Scattered Petals:

Chapter 12: The Con

"Thirty-five percent of residual shares."

"Thirty-five? You've got to be joking."

"Thirty-five is generous, considering your bullshit offer. Plus commissions tied to shipment capacities, from overseas no less, catalogued by our marketing team."

"Francis, calm yourself."

"I think it's about time we go for a lunch break, wouldn't you think?" Ruby could tell that the temporary truce she had just eked out was gladly accepted. All the members of the board stood and left the room to seek out direly needed caffeine and let cooler heads prevail.

The only ones left in the room were Ruby and her mark: James Ironwood. He was visibly distressed as he stood and headed to the balcony to look out over the Florida coast. Ruby could make out his entire military career just by how he stood on that balcony.

Hands folded behind back, feet exactly shoulder width apart, back ramrod straight. He's used to standing like that for extended periods of time, probably receiving orders. Yet the set of the shoulders and tilt of the chin suggest leadership and charisma. Probably a squad commander who often reported to and received orders from a superior. And from the look on his face, probably also used to getting bailed out by that officer.

After analysing him, she let him be for a couple seconds before getting to work.

"They're right, you know." Ironwood turned around at the sound of her voice, the light reflecting off the water behind him turned his chiseled face into a mosaic of planes and shadows, while highlighting the strips of grey near his sideburns.

"Excuse me?"

"They're right. Thirty-five is extremely generous." She didn't stop setting refreshments and files down at the various seats as she spoke to him. "Some might even call it a handout."

"And what, exactly, qualifies you to make that assumption?" He asked, moving around the table towards her. She ignored his attempt to use all six-and-a-half feet of his stature to intimidate her and continued setting up the board room for the latter half of the meetings.

"Calculation."

"I'm sorry?" He said, raising an eyebrow.

"Calculation, not assumption. And as for my qualifications, here's my card." She pulled out the business card she had made two days prior and handed it to Ironwood.

Ruby had to stifle a laugh when she saw the CEO of a multinational engineering firm pale at the sight of her alias, and who she supposedly worked for.

"W-What is a Schnee Energy Corporation financial adviser doing here?"

"See, now you're asking the right questions. I was sent here to get a look at a more…clandestine look at the numbers here at Ironwood Engineering."

"And why would that be?" Ironwood asked. The perspiration on his face was starting to show.

"Well, I can't say much, but Schnee Energy Corporation is looking for a financial partner in the Engineering business for some sort of big, new project they're working on. But from what I've seen of the internal affairs of this company, it looks like it might be a little too much for you tohandle." Ruby gave one last look at Ironwood before making her way toward the door.

"W-Wait!" He cried, lunging toward her, his neatly combed and cut hair shifting slightly out of place. "Isn't there someone here I can negotiate with? You know, a project manager of sorts?" Ruby smiled.

Hook.

She took out her phone and hit the speed dial, she heard it ring twice get answered, then hung up. She returned the phone to her pocket and moments later the board room doors opened, and in strolled Weiss with all the grace and beauty of a wealthy heiress. She turned toward Ironwood, but Ruby was too caught up in those cerulean eyes to hear the exchange of greetings. Once again, her attention was pulled to the scar on her left eye. She wished the heiress would tell her what happened, but knew that she had to let Weiss come to her on her own.

"Mr. Ironwood, please tell me that I didn't fly all the way down here just to have to write your firm off." Weiss said in a voice that both intimidated and commanded respect.

"It looks like it, ma'am. As far as the books go, I don't see this company making it past the next quarter without a little help." Ruby said, snapping back into character.

"Wait! Ms. Schnee what abou-"

Line.

"I knew this was a waste of time," Weiss said turning to leave. "Ms. Zawistow, I'll leave the cleaning up to you." Ruby sighed inwardly now that Weiss's part went off without a hitch. She gathered up her stuff and turned to Ironwood.

"Well, Mr. Ironwood, it's been a pleasure-"

"Wait! What if I told you I could give SEC an incentive to help us out financially?"

"What kind of incentive?" Ruby asked, feigning ignorance.

"The highly lucrative kind that tends to stay off the books."

Sinker.

"I'm listening." The sound of voices came from the other side of the door, signaling the end of the lunch break.

"Not here," Ironwood said, pulling out a slip of paper and writing on it. "This is my personal encryption key," he handed the note to Ruby and lowered his voice. "Use one of the company computers and search for Project Paladin. I think it may provide your superiors with the appropriate "incentive"."

"Thank you, have a good day, Mr. Ironwood." After pocketing the slip of paper, Ruby slipped out just as the board was returning, taking one last look around at the security of the building while she made her exit completely unnoticed by the general public.

She left the building turned right and walked for three blocks until she came upon a beautiful black convertible, but her eyes weren't on the car. She had eyes only for the gorgeous silver-haired young woman sitting in the passenger seat. She hopped into the driver seat and flashed her gorgeous companion a grin before gunning the sports car all the way back to an unassuming Miami Beach resort.

"And that's how it's done girls!" Ruby said, clinking her bourbon with a beer bottle and a wine glass. Trust a man like Ironwood to have a piano bar on the ground floor of his Florida headquarters. Rich cherry booths lined the walls, open shutters and breezeway offering solace to the overheated patrons as Blake the bartender arranged orange slices and cherries on the rims of their fruity cocktails. It was a bit of celebration, mission complete and all that. Weiss had turned her nose up at doing something as reckless as celebrating prematurely, and had instead charged on ahead to do, what she insisted was "her job".

With the help of Blake, Weiss had snuck up to the third floor of the building to get access to Ironwood's computer and access his accounts. From there, she could steal every secret Ironwood Engineering had, and odds were that she had been sent on this job so that whatever it was they were stealing was only seen by Weiss's eyes.

Unfortunately for whoever hired them, the data cartridge Weiss was using to steal the files had a subroutine that sent everything loaded onto it to Ruby's private server for further study. She didn't like being left out of the loop.

Ruby stared at her bourbon and wondered if maybe she should have argued more against letting her go alone. Especially because she was running this job, meaning she was responsible for her teammates.

"I'll be perfectly content doing this on my own." Weiss had said.

"But there'll be guards outside the office. And Yang said they were professionals. Like, dishonourable-discharge-and-looking-for-something-to-punch professionals."

"Don't worry. I'll be in and out before anyone notices. Your twenty million is safe."

Ruby almost told her it wasn't the money she was worried about. Normally, Ruby would have suspected the woman didn't want witnesses while she transferred the other girls' assets to her personal account, forgoing a four-way split for a singular treachery. The entire thing didn't feel right for 'Red'. But for some reason Ruby could recognize the heiress's intent as sincere, and was walking that fine line between doubt and trust. It felt very much like balancing on a power line a hundred feet above the ground. If something electrifying didn't kill her, the fall would get its chance. Or she could make it across, safe, sound, and better for the experience.

Who knew?

Ruby was jostled from her thoughts by the buzz of Yang's phone. The buxom brawler took out the device and tapped on the screen, smiling as she shoved the piece in Ruby's face.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Said Yang. "Look at all those zeroes!"

Ruby stared at the screen, a confirmation email from one of her sister's Swiss accounts had received a twenty million dollar deposit. As Ruby regarded the admittedly sinful progression of zeroes, several things happened at once:

The stampede of boots in the front lobby; someone shouting, "They called for backup!" the screen of Yang's phone hiccoughing, words and backlight blurring as the device powered down.

"Shit," Ruby said, standing from her stool. "Something's happened."

"What th-let's bolt!" Yang said, rising.

"No! We're not leaving Weiss! Something's wrong."

"Red, Weiss is probably fine." Blake said calmingly.

Two more men in black dashed through the lobby.

"I'm going to help her."

"And what are you gonna do, Ruby?" Yang asked.

"I'm not gonna sit around and let her get caught. I'm the leader on this job and that means she's my responsibility."

It was a weak defense and she knew it. But hell if she was going to let Weiss, a regular citizen before this job, take the fall for three international criminals. Something inside her torso was straining, tight, like a rubber band pulled to its tension limit. Or a muscle, resisting a stretch after going unused for some time. It was new and scary and it hurt.

The heart was a muscle.

Funny.

"Let's go," Yang grunted.

The trio found the maintenance stairs. Ruby took unhurried, calculating steps down the labyrinth of Ironwood Engineering's third floor. Gun powder scents filled her nostrils and she broke into a quick jog toward the office.

Turning another corner, that's when she noticed the barricade of bodies. All men upwards of six feet, all burly, all looking to cause her bodily pain. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see her sister smiling down at her.

"We got this, you go ahead and get Weiss."

Ruby nodded and waited for the action of the five-on-two fight to pick up before slipping away and sneaking her way into the office. She was greeted to the sight of Weiss standing behind Ironwood's computer, in front of the window, with her hands in the air, and a man with orange hair, in a bowler hat and a white trench coat pointing a gun at her. On his free hand was a ring with some sort of insignia on it, though she couldn't make it out.

Weiss spotted her first and turned towards her. "Red. Run!"

Faster than he should have been able, the man in the bowler hat grabbed her arm and pushed Ruby toward the other woman.

"Alright," began the man in the hat. "Maybe you'll listen better than the albino bitch here. Give me the drive and I'll let you go."

Ruby glanced at the computer screen and saw that the file transfer had been completed. As slowly as possible, she reached down and ejected the drive.

"Red, no-"

"Quiet, Weiss. It's the only option."

She pulled the drive out of the desktop and tossed it to the man in the bowler hat. He caught it out of the air and smiled. "There, was that so hard?" He slipped the drive into his jacket before pointing is gun at Weiss. "Now to take care of that other job."

It all happened too fast for Weiss to comprehend. One moment, there's a loud bang and she can hear Red screaming. The next there's a loud crash and the feeling of weightlessness. Then suddenly it's extremely cold and she can't breathe. Finally something warm wraps around her and pulls her up and she can breathe. After that, it all goes dark.