A/N:
For J.
You helped me put myself back together when it felt like everything was falling apart. Now I can only hope everything you taught me about living will help keep me whole without you.
"We sure this is going to work?" Yang's voice chirped through the earpiece as Ruby walked up to the doors of the skyscraper towering over them.
"Come on, sis," Ruby muttered as she readjusted the stack of papers in her hands. "When have my plans ever not worked?"
"Well, there was that one time in Amsterdam." Blake replied as she and Weiss passed by her.
"Not to mention the entire reason we're here." Weiss added. The recently-dyed redhead looked every bit her role in her beige pantsuit and cream blouse as she strutted purposefully in front of an appropriately ruffled Blake.
Ruby smirked and watched as her partner power-walked through the doors and up to the reception desk before schooling her face and pushing the big, dorky glasses back up her nose.
She made sure to look understandably intimidated as she stood next to Blake and listened to Weiss berate the young man sitting behind the front desk.
"Now you listen here," Weiss growled shrilly as she leaned forward to read the attendant's name tag, "Pedro. I love your people. Hell, Gabriela, is originally from around here, and now she's my best assistant yet."
Blake jumped at the mention of her alias and looked down muttering, "I, uh… I'm actually from Puerto Rico."
"Same difference," Weiss replied with a dismissive wave, her eyes never moving from where they boring into poor Pedro's very soul. "Point is, I am a kind and generous woman, but if you don't do what I ask of you, I will make your life so miserable you'll be taking daily walks around that Olympic stadium your country can't afford to build hoping the next thing that falls apart crushes you to death."
Ruby forced down a chuckle at the extravagant threat. She made sure to follow the example of the audience Weiss's rage was accumulating and watched passively as Pedro gulped fearfully.
"I-I am sorry, Miss Aldren. There simply no record of any company by the name of… Chense and Rogers in our directory. Is it at-at all possible you have the wrong address?"
Weiss scowled fiercely and glared at him. "Is it at all…? No it most certainly is not. I was told to come to this building so I could meet with…" She paused and repeatedly snapped her fingers in Blake's direction expectantly.
"James Knight, Miss Aldren." The cat-burglar squeaked timidly, prompting a round of chuckle's from Yang over their earpieces.
"Right, him. And I did not fly all the way from Washington to this humid, insect-ridden, tourist trap of a city to be stopped by a dead-beat, twenty-something, is-probably-just-a-temp, kid sitting behind a desk who doesn't know how to do his job."
"I'm pretty sure those are all complaints you've made since we got here, Yang." Pyrrha teased quietly.
"She forgot dangerous, hot as balls, and liable to kill you with the tap water alone."
"I-I guess I can do a search for anybody named James Knight working in the building."
"There won't be any need for that Pedro," A deep voice called out and Ruby noticed the subtle stiffening of Weiss's shoulders as a man approached from the other end of the lobby. "She's here to see me."
Standing at the desk in a bright eggshell coloured suit was none other than James Ironwood. The newly-tanned skin around his eyes crinkled as he smiled and reached his hand out to shake Weiss's. "Congresswoman Aldren, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Pedro, I'll see to the congresswoman here, you can get back to work."
Pedro nodded his head emphatically, glad to be rid of the she-demon haunting his lobby. "Yes sir, Mister Steele."
Ironwood led Weiss and Blake towards the elevators at the back of the lobby while Ruby took a step forward and hastily explained that she was an IT specialist there to upgrade the security of the servers belonging to a company that just so happened to be situated one floor above the one her friends and Ironwood were headed for.
She grabbed her guest ID and hurried after the others. Ironwood had just called the elevator when she cried, "Watch out!" and crashed right into him, nearly knocking them both over as papers were scattered across the floor.
"Mi dispiace! I am so sorry." She said in a smooth Italian accent as she slipped the ID badge off the clip on his hip and tucked it up her sleeve into the card scanner strapped to her forearm.
"Alright, the card's magnetic and RFID info are being copied as we speak," Pyrrha informed them. "Stall him."
"That's quite alright, miss." Ironwood replied courteously.
"Oh, I am such a klutz." Ruby cried, dropping to her hands and knees to gather the loose sheets. She felt her heartrate increase and forced herself to keep breathing as Ironwood crouched down next to her, grabbing any papers within arms' reach.
"Here. Let me help."
"O-Oh… thank you." She stuttered. She moved to readjust her almost comically large glasses and froze as Torchwick paused, looking her in the eye, their faces mere inches apart.
"I'm sorry, have we met before? You look familiar."
"Shit. Sis, he's made you. Get out of there."
"I just need a little more time." Pyrrha said calmly.
"She doesn't have time!"
"I-I doubt it, sir. I just moved here from Roma." Ruby said forcing heat into her cheeks as she pandered to Ironwood's sense of chivalry.
Ironwood didn't look very convinced, but just as he opened his mouth, the first set of elevator doors opened with a ding.
"Mister Knight –or Steele –if you could, my time is not without value." Weiss snapped. "I'd rather not spend it watching you woo young, foreign women."
"Of course," Ironwood replied curtly, standing up and stepping into the elevator.
"Sounds like someone doesn't appreciate you fawning over the mark, sis."
Ruby rolled her eyes and continued to shuffle around the papers on the floor. Meanwhile she watched Ironwood start patting himself down in search of his ID badge.
"Hurry it up, Pyrrha." She muttered.
"Come on, come on. Got it!" Pyrrha exclaimed. "You're good to go."
As soon as she heard the confirmation, Ruby slipped the card out the device on her arm. She slid it along the floor and Blake trapped it under her foot just as Ironwood looked up suspiciously.
"I'm sorry, I must have dropped-"
"Um… sir. I believe this is yours." Blake announced.
Ruby watched her and Weiss enter the elevator, effectively blocking him from exiting the car. She took that opportunity to slip away into the elevator adjacent to his.
"Ah, thank you." Ironwood's voice crackled over the speaker in her ear. "This building used to be a hotel," he explained, "so you can see how it be ideal for explaining the lack of an entire floor."
"I'm not interested in your history lessons, Mr. Knight." Weiss replied. "I'm here to receive an update whatever it is you're working on, and that's it."
"Wow, Princess is a better actress than I thought." Yang remarked.
"Told you." Ruby replied as the doors opened and Ren stepped on wearing a janitor's uniform. She pulled out her phone and tapped on the screen as he stripped out of the coveralls and shoved them into bin on his cart. "You have two minutes before the sensors turn back on." The elevator stopped again and Yang stepped on, taking a different set of coveralls from the bin as Ren hopped up and opened the hatch on the ceiling of the elevator. He climbed out just as Ironwood's voice rose over the earpieces again, catching their attention.
"I've dealt with con artists before. So, if you think you can just show up and convince me to reveal classified secrets without so much as a phone call confirming who you are, you have another thing comin-"
He was interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. Yang paused in getting dressed and looked at Ruby with a mixture of curiosity and concern, but her sister remained calm and kept her eyes trained on the doors to the elevator.
"I told you he made you."
"Doesn't matter." Ruby smiled as she listened in on Ironwood's phone call.
"James Knight."
"Mister Ironwood, this is Director Roger Gornett with the National Security Agency." Ruby's grin widened as her grandfather's gravelly voice boomed over the speaker in a perfect Midwest accent.
"How do you-"
"If you don't want to be charged with fraud as well as starting an international incident," Antonio cut him off, "I suggest you do whatever Miss Aldren asks of you. Do I make myself clear?"
"Crystal. Sir. " Ironwood replied stiffly.
"Who's the old guy on the phone?" Yang asked as they stepped off the elevator.
"Just an old friend." Ruby answered vaguely, much to the chagrin of her sister, the smile never leaving her face as she listened to Antonio chew out Ironwood.
"Must be a pretty old friend," Pyrrha remarked. "Because I don't recognise him either."
After that, everything ran smoothly. In less than an hour, all of their prep work was finished and they were making their way to an abandoned floor in a building directly across the street.
*(OoO)*
They stayed in the building across the street long past sundown going over the plan again and again until the each knew every step inside out. It was close to midnight and Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang were gathered on the roof of the first building while Pyrrha remained across the street, monitoring their progress remotely.
Blake stood next to her girlfriend and watched as Ruby shifted from the excitable young woman she had come to love as a sister to the calculating tactical genius she was renowned for. She frowned and turned to face Yang.
The brawler turned away from her sister. "Alright, Blakey. You're up first." She said with just a little too much cheer as she pecked the raven-haired woman on the lips. They stood there for a moment, foreheads together, enjoying the quiet seconds of closeness. "Come back to me, okay?"
Blake smiled at her girlfriend's quiet concern and kissed her again. "Don't I always?" She took two steps back toward the edge of the building and took in the genuine grin on the blonde's face.
"Yeah, you do."
With that, she leaned back and plummeted into the nothingness below. The high-pitched whine of her rope the only assurance she wasn't falling to her doom. After what almost seemed like too long, she slowed to a stop at one of the windows of the thirteenth floor and took a moment to look around.
"Remember, Blake," Red's voice chimed in her ear. "The oxy-torch may not set off the vibration alarms, but the slightest touch from you anywhere but the frames will."
"Got it." Blake replied as she pulled the torch out of her belt and began cutting a circle. No pressure. The process was slow and her fingers weren't appreciating holding her entire weight upside down on the frame of the window. Thirteen stories up.
Once the hole was cut, she gently pushed the glass circle in, listening and sighing in relief as it, of course, landed on the carpeted floor of the office within. Trust in Red to think of everything. She thought with a deep breath before reaching up and disconnecting the rope from her harness and swinging herself perfectly through the hole and onto the desk nearby.
"I'm in." She whispered as she slipped out of the office and ran silently down the hall towards the elevator. She took out the duplicate ID card and swiped it in the slot next to the doors.
Seconds later, the doors opened and the others stepped out of the elevator.
"Nice job, Blake. Yang," Red addressed her sister, "you and Weiss head down to the server-room and start hacking the door. Use this," She reached in her bag and handed a blocky device with a single cable coming out the top to Weiss, "to breach the door. I'll be by once it's opened."
"What are you gonna do?" Yang asked.
"I'm gonna break into Ironwood's office." Her sister replied before tossing her bag to Blake. "There's an open security panel just on top of the car. You can monitor us from there."
Yang watched her girlfriend hop off the riling in the elevator and pull herself through the small opening at the top. She shouldered her bag and turned toward her destination.
"Come on, Princess. Let's get to work." She allowed herself a smirk at the sound of the newly-redhead huffing behind her. They arrived at a thick, metal door and Weiss stepped forward.
"Okay, Weiss. There should be a slot beneath the number pad," Pyrrha explained, "plug the device in there and slide the ID badge in the slot at the bottom."
Yang let out a low, appreciative whistle as she watched her sister's toy work its magic. "Ten digits. Impressive."
"I've seen better." Red murmured, seemingly to herself. "Blake, how are we on time?"
"Not good. I'm watching the surveillance room, and it's looking like they've decided to do their rounds a few minutes early."
"What?" Weiss hissed. "Why would they do that?"
"Pyrrha, can you squelch their comms?" Red asked.
"On it."
"Blake, there should be controls for the elevators there. Cut the guards speed by twenty percent."
"What should we do?" Weiss asked, but by the time she turned around, Yang had already gotten herself into position at the cubicles near the elevator doors. "Yang!" The doors dinged and four guards walked out, batons already out as they crept suspiciously closer and closer to Weiss.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"We need backup on floor thirteen!"
"Comms are down!"
Yang stayed in position as the other two guards came running. She waited and watched, admittedly with a hint of childish glee, as Weiss was forced out of her place near the door to stand with her hands up.
"Drop the bag!"
Yang took that as her cue. The moment Weiss let go of her bag, she burst out of hiding, delivering swift punches and kicks before the guards even noticed. In no time flat, all four men were on the ground, unconscious.
"Did-did you just use me as bait?!" The driver all but shrieked.
The brawler shrugged as Red rounded the corner down the hall. "Thanks for the distraction. Let's grab what we need and get out."
She walked past them both and pushed open the door. Inside the room were rows upon rows of servers containing, what Yang suspected were, all kinds of secret American government plans. Red walked straight over to one of the towers, pulled out a small computer from her bag, and plugged it in. Moments later, the whirring of fans was joined by the rapid-fire rap-tap-tapping of the brunette's fingers as they flew across the miniature keyboard.
"How much longer?" Weiss asked quietly from her position near the door.
"Not much." Red mumbled. "I'm almost done."
"You had better hurry up," Pyrrha announced. "Because they just rest all of the alarms."
"They must have noticed their missing friends." Yang observed, obstinately ignoring the gnawing worry that accompanied the thought of Blake still being in the elevator shaft when the alarms went off. She watched Red sit still, staring unblinkingly at the progress bar steadily filling on her screen.
"How do you want to handle this?" Blake asked.
Red remained silent up until the moment the computer notified her of the file transfer being complete, at which point she unplugged the laptop and snapped it shut.
"Pyrrha. Where's the nearest service hatch to Blake?"
"There's one two floors above her that connects to the docking entrance and one three floors down that opens to an abandoned floor of the building."
Red closed her eyes and Yang could almost see her envisioning the layout of the building in her mind, deciding on the safest route to take.
"Blake. Take the one beneath you." She ordered as they stepped onto the elevator. "Head for the south side of the building and take the stair to the . . . third floor. That should get you close enough to the building east of us to jump."
"Got it."
They heard pounding above their heads as the cat burglar vaulted herself down the elevator shaft.
"You'll have to use the torch on one of the farther windows, as the office ones have weight sensors as well as vibration."
"What about us?" Yang inquired.
Ruby smirked, tossed her bag on the ground, and pulled out a Velcro cast. "Burn-man con."
"What's the Burn-man con?" Weiss asked carefully, eyeing the cast.
"You'll see," Ruby replied, taking a pair of collapsible crutches out of her bag and handing the cast to the redheaded driver. "Put this on."
By the time the doors opened on the ground floor, Yang could barely contain her smug grin as the guards at the front desk not only watched them walk out, but actually got up and helped a hobbling, grunting Weiss to the front doors while Ruby carried their stolen goods right out the door and down the street to the nearby car where Blake and Pyrrha sat waiting.