A/N: So this and the next chapter were originally going to be one really long one, but I split it in two for reasons. Anyway, I'm hoping that this chapter helps set the tone for where things are going without bogging it down too much. Hopefully I haven't accidentally created any drama that is useless to the plot.
As always a big thanks to those of you who follow this, and another one goes out to those of you who tell me what you thought of the chapter. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people thinking the things I write and how I mean for things to be interpreted.
"It's so hot!" Yang cried as she flopped on to a lounge chair before resting her head on Blake's lap. "How much longer do we have to wait on this God-forsaken boat?"
Weiss tore her eyes from their place watching Red negotiate with the Cuban man whose rusty, old, repurposed fishing boat they were currently relaxing on, and turned to raise her eyebrow at Yang. "Weren't you the one who said, and I quote, 'I am so sick of Canada', and that you 'couldn't wait for some fun in the sun'?"
"Well, yeah, but that was before I knew you'd be flying us to Cuba in a series of crappy Cessnas only to take an even crappier boat all the way down to Brazil. Meanwhile, Pyrrha's flying first-class all the way down and meeting us there."
"That's because, besides your sister, Pyrrha's the only one of us who could take an international flight without any trouble." Blake explained, her eyes never leaving the book she was reading even as she idly ran her fingers through her girlfriend's golden tresses.
"And were you really expecting any less from Red?" Weiss asked.
"How can you be so fine with this, Weiss?" Yang asked accusingly. "I thought for sure you would be having a fit over the distinct lack of luxury."
Weiss merely shrugged and turned her attention back to Red. "The things your sister has given me are worth the decrease in comfort. Besides," she added, "the world thinks I'm dead. So I'm pretty sure more than a few eyebrows would be raised if I was seen strutting through airports."
"Is Yang complaining again?" Red asked as she walked up next to the former heiress.
"Apparently, your sister is dissatisfied with our accommodations." Weiss said with a smile when she felt Red's hand on her shoulder, the other holding a rather large duffle bag.
"Really sis? I thought you were excited for some fun in the sun?" Red teased.
"When you mentioned going to Brazil, I was thinking more along the lines of martinis by the pool and seeing Blake in a bikini, not boat rides with smelly Cuban fishermen." Yang pouted.
"Well I can't help much with that second one," Red smirked, "I did manage to convince Bernard to let us bring his husband's lounge chairs and drinks are below deck if you want them. He also assured me that what little crew he has are freshly bathed and have been instructed to leave us alone."
"Don't worry Babe, I'm sure there'll be plenty of time to see me in a bikini after we deal with the terrorists for hire and catch up to the man who stole millions from us and tried to kill Weiss and your sister." Blake reassured her with more than a hint of sarcasm.
The cat-burglar seemed to be getting more and more irritable the closer they got to their destination, and Weiss couldn't help feeling concerned. Clearly whatever history Blake had with the White Fang was a greater source of distress than she thought. She had asked Red on more than one occasion if there was anything they could do, only to be told that the best they could do was keep letting Blake know they were there for her.
"Anyway," Weiss said in an effort to change the subject, "what's in the duffle bag?"
"Oh, right," Red sat down in one of the unoccupied lounge chairs and opened the bag, Weiss's eyes when she pulled out a pistol, "these are for you." The sun glinted off the firearm's chrome barrel as Red tossed it to her sister before pulling out one for Blake and finally offering one to Weiss.
"W-What are these for?" Weiss asked as she gingerly inspected the weapon in her hands.
"We're gonna be illegally passing through a few countries that have prisons you definitely don't want to find yourself in." Red explained. "You're gonna need this."
"Red… I-I don't think I can do this. I can't kill someone." Weiss whispered fearfully.
"And I wouldn't ask you to." Red reassured her. "But from here on out, things are going to be a lot more dangerous, and I'd feel a whole lot better if you guys have these just in case."
"Just aim for pretty much anywhere but the head and chest and you'll be fine." Yang added.
Weiss nodded and took a deep breath in relief. She knew realistically not having something to defend herself with wasn't the smartest move, but it helped having Red lay it out calmly for her.
"What about you, Red?" Blake asked. "Where's yours?"
"It would make sense for the best shot out of all of us had a gun too." Yang pointed out.
"Don't worry," Red replied cockily with a pat on the duffle bag, "I've got something in the works."
"How does Bernard feel about this?" Blake asked.
"He'd rather have four armed women on his boat than risk running into pirates without."
The others nodded in understanding.
"So what's our plan?" Yang inquired after a minute of silence.
"Pyrrha's meeting Nora and Ren in Columbia, then they're going to take another boat and meet us off the coast of Venezuela. From there, we'll take their ship down to Paramaribo where a plane will be waiting for Weiss to fly us down to Rio de Janeiro." Red paused in her explanation to look them each in the eye before continuing. "Once we get there, I'll meet up with Adam, see what needs to be done in order to get his help finding Torchwick and meet up with you guys after. Any questions?"
"You can't honestly think we'll let you see this Adam character on your own, can you?" Weiss exclaimed. "You said yourself that he was a terrorist, and a dangerous one at that!"
"Weiss is right, Red." Blake said slowly. She looked down at her lap and seemed to be considering something before raising her head and looking the con woman in the eye determinedly. "I'll go with you."
"Like hell you will!" Yang exploded.
"Blake, I can't ask you to do that." Red said softly.
"You bet your ass you can't!" Yang shouted before turning back to look at her girlfriend pleadingly. "Blake, you can't go back to see him. Please."
"I know you're worried Yang, but no one knows Adam like I do. Odds are he won't even let Red through the front door, but he will talk to me."
"Blake, are you absolutely sure you want to do this?" Red asked carefully.
Blake nodded resolutely. "Yes, I need to do this."
"Well if you're going, I am too." Yang declared angrily.
"Yang, you know you can't." Blake implored. "I need to do this on my own."
"Besides, Pyrrha might be needing you and Weiss for another job when we get there." Red added soothingly.
"No way," Yang said, her golden mane flying as she shook her head, "I'm not letting you near that son of a bitch without me. It's too dangerous."
"Dammit Yang! If I don't go your sister could be killed!" Blake shouted.
"And if you do, you both will!" Yang retorted. "He knows you just as well as you do him, Blake. He'll know exactly where to push to break you."
"That's why I'll be there, Yang." Red reminded her soothingly.
"You think that makes it any better?!" The brawler demanded, her eyes shining with barely restrained tears. "I almost lost you to him last time Blake. Now you're asking me to risk letting that sociopath take not only the woman I love, but my sister as well?"
"Oh, Yang…" Blake whispered, her eyes glossing over with tears as well before she hugged her girlfriend tightly.
"Yang," Weiss said carefully, wary of disrupting the moment between the two women, "I know it's hard, but try to look at it objectively. If this man is as dangerous and manipulative as you say, you'll only be putting your sister and Blake in more danger by accompanying them."
Yang sniffed and glared at her weakly. "What are you talking about?"
Red sighed and Weiss watched her exterior harden as she slipped behind her professional criminal mask, albeit reluctantly, before answering impassively. "Adam will be able to see how close you are to both Blake and myself. He'll use Blake to get under your skin and throw you off balance, then he'll probably provoke you into attacking before taking you hostage and using you against both of us."
"Yang, your passion and concern for those you care about is one of the things I love most about you." Blake's voice was brimming with affection as kissed the fiery woman tenderly. "But we both know Adam is the type of person who will use it to his advantage. He doesn't fell mercy or compassion, he just see them as weaknesses. To him, you're just the person who stole his most prized possession from him."
"And what's going to stop him from taking advantage of you?" Yang croaked as tears slowly dripped down her cheeks.
"I will." Red declared. She reached out and grabbed her sister's hand reassuringly. "Dealing with guys like him is what I'm best at. I'll make sure nothing happens to her."
Weiss looked between the three women sitting around her, taking note of the love they showed for each other. She wasn't sure why, but she felt strangely privileged to not just witness it, but to actually be a part of it herself. Tears stung her eyes as she came to a realisation.
Is this what a family feels like?
*(OoO)*
Ruby sighed as she listened to her sister snore from her place in Blake's arms and grabbed her duffle bag before heading outside.
It had been an unexpectedly emotional day as they tried to plan their next move in the hunt for Torchwick and their stolen money. She knew it was dangerous for Blake to confront Adam due to their history. That was why she had volunteered to meet with him alone, and while she was wary of the burglar joining her, it still warmed her heart to see the concern the others showed for her.
She took a seat on one of the lounge chairs and looked out at the sea. The moon was currently behind some clouds and the inky darkness of the night sky was reflected perfectly in the waves surrounding her, making it almost impossible to locate the horizon and creating the illusion that Ruby was floating amongst the stars, far away from the troubles that littered the ground below.
She smiled to herself before returning to earth and opening the bag to pull out its contents one by one. There were several different guns, a spool of cord, assorted matte-black plastic parts of varying shaped and sizes, and a tube containing a set of blueprints. Ruby examined each item carefully before returning them carefully and pulling out to laptops that she plugged into the covered set of outlets on the ships deck.
"Do you ever stop working?"
Ruby almost jumped at the sound of Weiss's voice behind her, offhandedly cursing her own sloppiness in the back of her mind. She turned around in her seat and smiled softly at the sight of her partner standing there, a thin blanket draped around her nightgown, the light of the remerging moon reflecting off the waves gave her an almost ethereal glow.
"Shouldn't you be asleep?" Ruby asked.
"Driving for six hours before flying across the continent makes a woman restless." Weiss replied as she stepped forward to take a seat between the young criminal's legs and lean against her chest. "What's your excuse?"
"You've also got a two day boat ride followed by a ten hour flight to look forward to." Ruby deflected as she booted up both laptops.
"What do you need two laptops for, anyway?"
Ruby sighed and wrapped her arms around Weiss as she waited for the computers to start up. "This one is so I can keep up with current events." She explained as she plugged a portable Wi-Fi hotspot into one of the computers before opening up her program and watching as familiar blocks of information scrolled by, interrupted occasionally by blocks of red that seemed to be steadily increasing in frequency.
"And the second one?"
Reaching into the bag, Ruby pulled out the hard drive she had acquired from Junior and the drive Pyrrha had given her. "So I can look at these."
"You never did explain why we needed to essentially steal two of the same thing from Junior." Weiss remarked as she settled comfortably against Ruby's chest so as to watch the woman work.
"Just being thorough." Ruby said vaguely.
Weiss turned her hear to look up at her and Ruby saw the former heiress's concern swirling in glacial sapphires.
"Red," She implored, "talk to me."
Ruby buried her face in platinum locks and took a deep breath of soothing vanilla. "I meant what I said about things getting more dangerous, you know."
"I know," Weiss whispered, "that's why I agreed to keep the gun."
"And you know that I would never ask you to kill someone, right?" Ruby asked, her voice struggling to remain steady.
"Of course you wouldn't. You're not… that kind of person." Weiss reassured her, and Ruby was sure she was thinking of her father. "You just want to keep us safe." She paused and they sat there quietly for a long moment. "But you can't do that if you keep us all completely in the dark."
Ruby sighed in defeat. "I know," she acquiesced, "and I'm trying to be more open with you guys, I swear."
"I can see that." Weiss replied gently. "We all can."
"But it's hard when there are things that do have to be kept quiet for the moment, and it's not always easy knowing what I can or can't tell you."
"Okay, then how about this:" Weiss suggested, "when it's just the two of us and I ask you something, instead of replying automatically with some form of non-answer, take the time to really consider whether or not it's okay for me to know. If it isn't, then you just tell me you can't answer and I'll drop it, no questions asked. Deal?"
Ruby considered what her partner was suggesting before giving her answer. "Only when we're alone?" Weiss nodded. "Alright, but when we're with the others, you can't push for more than what I give at all, and you don't trust anything other than what Blake, Yang, Pyrrha, or I tell you directly, got it?"
"Seems reasonable." Weiss agreed. "Now, can you tell me why we stole the same files twice?"
Ruby paused and thought about the question as she plugged the hard drive into the second laptop. "This hard drive has files on basically every bit of business Junior has been involved in since he became a somebody in the criminal underworld we call home. He kept it on him in case he ever needed to make a quick exit so he could keep his business running." She opened up the hard drive and quickly scanned the long list of files before clicking the first few. "You and Pyrrha broke into his office to access the only other copies of everything Junior does that exist. They go into his computer where only he sees them before copying them to his hard drive, the complete contents of which were, until now, known only to him."
"You want to see if there was anything on Junior's computer that he chose to keep off his hard drive." Weiss concluded.
"I knew you were more than just a pretty face." Ruby teased, she smiled when Weiss turned her head to bury her blushing face in the brunette's neck as she continued. "I had already figured that Junior was working for some pretty powerful individuals."
"Like who?"
"I can't tell you that." Ruby answered cautiously only to release a small breath in relief when Weiss nodded in understanding.
"What can you tell me?" She asked as she watched the boxes filled with reports and predictions scroll by on the first laptop.
"I can tell you that they're a lot scarier than I originally thought."
"How so?"
"Junior's paranoid, but he's not as smart or forward thinking as he'd like you to think." Ruby supplied. "Nor is he a very good liar. I took the hard drive with the assurance that I'd keep the right people happy in order to keep him alive, but the police still raided his office."
"So why was he only worried about the hard drive?" Weiss reasoned, the gears in her head visibly turning. Ruby waited and watched as her friend put the pieces together. "Because he knew they'd be gone by the time the police got there." She concluded.
"Exactly. And you and Pyrrha went down because…"
"If whoever's behind this can beat the police to the files, they can check the security tapes too."
"And as long as they think they got away scot-free, we have the upper hand." Ruby finished.
"Alright, so why the second laptop?" Weiss asked.
"This computer is fresh off the factory floor." Ruby answered. "It's never been connected to a network before so if these files have a virus hidden amongst them, it can't notify anyone that their files are being looked at."
"So what's our next move?"
"Right now, I'm gonna look through these files. You are going to try to get some sleep." Ruby grinned as Weiss grumbled petulantly before burrowing deeper into her chest and shutting her eyes. Within minutes, Ruby could hear the subtle change in her breathing as she fell asleep. The young con woman smiled and planted a quick kiss on her partner's head.
"Sweet dreams, Princess." She whispered before focusing on the screens in front of her.
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