A/N: I have re-written this chapter four times and I'm still not very happy with it. That being said, I'm just going to deal with it because I need to figure out how to best write a second big reveal scene for the next chapter. Anyway, hope you guys don't hate it.
"Weiss, get out of there, now!" Yang's shouting was nothing more than a dull hum in her ear as she stared at the open doors. Her heart pounded erratically as her eyes trailed slowly from his well-pressed pants, to his snow-white, double-breasted jacket, to the blood-red handkerchief, to that god-forsaken ring, gleaming coldly under the skylight, and finally up to those painfully familiar, cold, uncaring eyes. It took all of her concentration to keep breathing even as she silently willed herself to get up on stage, or run for her life, or do anything.
She was sure she was going to fail once again, she would be responsible for getting her friends arrested, or worse, killed, and he would be there, still, to sneer at her and remind her that she was nothing without him. The panic coursing through Weiss was so heart-stopping, lung-crushingly paralysing that she barely even registered someone brushing past her on their way to the stage, or the smell of roses and strawberries filling her nose until the gentle cry of a violin broke her of her reverie.
Her faculties restored, Weiss managed to tear her attention away from him and toward the stage, only for her breath to catch once more.
Standing there in an elegant, tailored, three-piece black tuxedo with a rose-red trim was Red. The entire room seemed entranced as she ran the bow over the strings in a haunting melody that was nothing short of awe-inspiring. Were Weiss not watching as closely as she was, she would have never caught the flash of mischief in those sparkling pools of mercury as Red twirled in place, winking in her direction as she passed, before her soft, comforting voice started murmuring in her ear.
"Alright, Weiss, I need you to listen to me carefully. Turn around if you understand." Weiss turned on the spot automatically and almost smiled as she listened to the gentle of husk of her partner's voice. "Good. You're doing great Princess. Now take a deep breath and grab a bottle of water."
"Red, he's here." Weiss whispered shakily, unscrewing the cap off a nearby bottle. "What's he doing here?"
"Don't worry about him," Red whispered reassuringly as the other instruments joined her. "I need you to take another deep breath and drink some water for me. Then just make your way to the back where Pyrrha and the others are waiting."
Weiss did as told, then ran a hand through her fiery locks with a shaky breath before starting to weave her way through the crowd. She could feel the various painful memories trying to fight their way to the forefront of her mind, threatening to drown her in her own misery. She took another deep breath, letting Red's soothing instructions and reminders that she was not alone keep her afloat as she tried to focus on the growing number of untampered happy memories she had made since joining the younger woman. She was more than halfway to the stairs at the back of the entrance hall when her arm was caught in a grip that, while much looser than usual, was hauntingly familiar.
"Excuse me, was that you singing on stage earlier?"
Her body froze as it recognized her father's voice. Slowly, she turned to look up into those same frigid, grey-blue eyes that, even now, judged her in her dreams, and nodded.
"Alright, Weiss, you can do this." Red encouraged quietly. "Just say exactly what I say as close to how I say it as you can."
"Pardon my forwardness, I just wanted to tell you that I haven't heard a voice quite so beautiful in some time."
"Say: Sank you, Monsieur."
"Sank you, Monsieur."
Augustus nodded politely before continuing. "But of course. It is a shame that I only caught the end of your performance." He smiled, and Weiss had to supress a shudder of fear as she noticed how it did nothing for the coldness of his gaze.
"Say: you are too kind Monsieur…"
"Schnee. Augustus Schnee." He reached out to grab her hand and Weiss had to fight the instinct to flinch as he brought it up to his lips. The roughness of his lips and the coarseness of his bushy mustache against the back of her hand made the former heiress yearn for the feeling of Red's over and over until she forgot all about her father.
"C'est un plaisir to meet you Monsieur Schnee."
"The pleasure is all mine, Miss…?"
"Madame Josephine Dubois."
Augustus smiled what most would assume was a charming, confident grin, but it filled Weiss with nothing but dread.
"I must say, that is quite the interesting scar you have there." He observed, and Weiss could see the look in his eyes that said he was trying to figure out where he had seen it before. Luckily she had applied some makeup to it, so the only noticeable part was the gap through her eyebrow. "Might I ask where you got it?"
"From zee attacks on Paree." Weiss replied. Augustus looked like he wanted to press further, but he was cut off as a strong, slim arm wrapped around her waist.
"Pardon, Monsieur," Red cut in. "But ma femme needs to recuperate after her performance. If you would follow the other guests into the main foyer, I can assure you the entertainment is a tad more exotique."
Weiss recognised the look on Augustus's face. It meant he was swallowing his rage for the moment –which would have meant bad news for her in the past –and still made her want to run fast and run far.
"Very well," he nodded to them both in turn, "ladies."
She heaved a sigh of relief as she watched him go, and collapsed into Red's side once he was out of sight. The brunette squeezed her tightly and gently led her up the stairs to join the others. They gathered on one of the balconies outside, and, had it been a few months ago, she would have been angry and defensive, mistaking the looks of concern on their faces for pity. Now, though, she understood that they were genuinely worried about her, because they too had experiences and pasts that they still carried and struggled with.
In spite of that, she was glad when they didn't talk about what just happened, opting instead to address their leader.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, sis." Yang joked, cutting some of the tension hanging around them.
"Thanks," Red grinned lopsidedly, looking each of them in the eye. "Being dead was getting a bit boring."
"So do we get to find out what we're stealing now?" Pyrrha asked.
"That depends." Red replied.
"On what?"
"Well, the minute I got within ten feet of Augustus Schnee, I managed to hack his phone and funnel a hundred million out of his various accounts." Red took out her phone and showed them all the screen displaying multiple transfers to different accounts. "So, if you guys want, we could be done here, and just leave."
The other four women looked amongst each other before turning back to her as Pyrrha answered for them. "Forget it, Red. We all agreed, we're with you to the end."
There was a split second where the mask slipped, and Weiss saw the surprise and how genuinely touched Red was cross her face.
"In that case, I'll explain everything once we get out of here. In the meantime, here's the plan."
*(OoO)*
Blake took a deep breath and sighed through her nose. She readjusted the uncomfortable, starchy collar of her shirt and leaned back to watch the guests lounging around the in the many booths set up around the foyer as scantily clad women wandered between them and loud techno music accompanied by pulsing strobe lights completed the effect. At first glance, it looked like nothing more than another run-of-the-mill gentlemen's party, but as she watched one of the dancers take a slip of paper from a bald older man, walk over to another table, sit on the lap of a beady-eyed, middle-aged man with dyed blond hair, and hand him the sheet, it became clear something far more sophisticated was going on in the background.
With another deep breath, Blake readjusted her jacket once more and started making her way across the room toward the heavy wooden doors standing inconspicuously at the back. There were two guards standing next to them, obscured by the poor lighting and a thick marble pillar supporting the second floor. She kept her pace steady, bumping into one of the wait staff on her way, and watched as Yang and Ruby seemingly appeared out of nowhere to knock both guards out with simultaneous chokeholds.
Without a word, she slipped the key card she had lifted from the waiter into the electronic lock and opened the door for them to drag in the unconscious men.
"Okay, we're in." Yang grunted, shifting the knocked out thugs weight on her arm while Ruby grabbed her violin case. "What now?"
Ruby directed them into the office down the hall where they tied up and gagged the guards before throwing them into the closet at the back of the room. Shutting the door, she stepped behind the nearby desk and started taking off her jacket.
"Now, Blake hands you that card and takes these." She took out a set of lock picks from her discarded jacket and handed them along with the violin case to Blake, who frowned in confusion. "It has a false bottom." She offered as an explanation.
"Of course it does." Blake deadpanned.
They could almost hear Ruby rolling her eyes as she turned around and began unbuttoning her shirt. She undid her belt next and slipped the dress shirt off her shoulders, revealing a black tank top underneath. "Take the window and meet up with Pyrrha and Weiss in Gregorovitch's private study. It's three floors up from here."
Blake nodded and pecked Yang on the cheek on her way out the window just as Ruby began slipping out of her pants. At this point, Yang couldn't contain her curiosity.
"Okay, you wanna tell me why your stripping in the middle of a job?"
Instead of answering, Ruby simply turned around as she kicked away her pants, revealing that what was thought to be a tank top was actually the top half of a gorgeous midnight black cocktail dress.
"Because," she said as she began tying her hair in an intricate up do, "after my little performance, everyone here is going to recognise me. Now, if we run into anyone, they'll either think I'm just one of the display girls for the auction and you're the helpful staff member showing me around, or be too distracted by my cleavage to notice you knocking them out." She then reversed her dress shirt, showing glittering gold material lining the inside, and arranged it in her arms like a shawl. Satisfied with her appearance, Ruby snagged her phone from her jacket, securing it down the front of her dress, before hanging it on a nearby coatrack and turning to face her Yang. "Alright. Let's go."
*(OoO)*
Weiss had been uncharacteristically quiet, even for her, as she and Pyrrha crept up the stairs toward Gregorovitch's private study. Normally, the heiress-turned-criminal would be making observations or asking the occasional question about the job, or her and the others lives, or –more often than not –Ruby. Not that Pyrrha could blame her. Ruby had been her best friend for years, and, especially with the appearance of Father Antonio, she was willing to admit that she still had a hard time understanding the woman. But now, it seemed as if Weiss was lost in thought, barely even paying attention as they snuck their way through the villa (and nearly getting them caught twice as a result), and Pyrrha could guess what was on her mind.
"No one blames you, you know." She said quietly as she glanced around a corner.
This seemed to snap Weiss out of her head. "What do you mean?" She asked defensively.
"I don't mean to imply anything." Pyrrha placated. "I just wanted you to know that no one blames you for what happened back there."
"How could they not? I nearly ruined everything."
They waited for a guard to pass and made their way down the hall towards the door to the study. "Look, I'm not going to say the whole situation couldn't have been handled better. But it's as much our fault for putting you in that situation unprepared. Either way, it's done. I wouldn't overthink it."
"But-"
Pyrrha raised her hand, cutting her off when she tested the doorknob only to find it unlocked. Quietly, she pushed the door open a crack and tried to steal a glance of whoever was in there. A flash of dark hair and the open window at the back of the room were enough for her to sigh in exasperation and push open the door. "Dammit Blake. You know our comms work up here. They're only being blocked on the first floor."
The cat-burglar looked up from where she was bent over a massive, ornate desk and smirked. "Sorry, I just got here."
"What are you doing here, anyway?"
"Red sent me. Said you'd need this." She held up the violin case and Pyrrha nodded. She grabbed the case, removing the instrument as she opened it, and ran her fingers along the inside. She found the latch and clicked, pulling the velvet bottom up to reveal a small laptop and cables.
"Excellent." Pyrrha smiled at her friend's forward-thinking and turned to the other two. "I'm going to hack into Gregorovitch's computer. You two look around for a safe or locker of some sort. Odds are that's where he keeps the hard copies of the really important files." She waited until the other women nodded in agreement before plugging the laptop into the computer on the desk and getting to work.
*(OoO)*
Ruby held her hand up and pulled out her phone as she and Yang came to a stop around the corner from the lot storage.
"What are you waiting for?" Yang whispered.
"Watch."
The door opened and a tall, typically beautiful woman in a dress like hers walked out and typed in a six-digit code just as Ruby opened a program on her phone. Once they were sure the woman had left, they walked up to the lock and she typed in the correct code, smiling as the door clicked open.
"Okay, how'd you do that?" Yang asked, impressed as they entered a hallway containing several storage rooms.'
"The head of design of the company that makes that kind of lock works for me. I had him slip in a few lines of code that react in proximity to another program, making each key tone sound different while I'm within earshot. Lucky for me, no one ever pays enough attention to notice the difference." Ruby explained. They walked up to the third set of doors and slipped through the one on the left.
There were several pieces of stolen art, along with black market weapons and hard drives containing all sorts of secrets lining the shelves of the small room. Ruby ignored them all, though, and made her way to the back of the room.
"Hey, here's the hard drive Adam took." Yang noted.
"Leave it."
"Really? What about the whole it-has-plans-for-a-super-dangerous-battery thing?"
"Don't worry. I'll explain once we get out of here."
Yang rolled her eyes and sighed. "Alright then, what are we looking for?"
Ruby picked up the thin gold statue and tossed it to her sister. "This."
Yang snatched it out of the air and started turning it around in her hands curiously. "What's so special about this?"
"The lot descriptions says it's solid gold with real jewels." Ruby explained. "See any problems with that?"
"It's too light." Yang observed tossing it from hand to hand before handing it back to her sister.
"Exactly. So, why would Torchwick be selling a fake golden statue?"
"I dunno, a quick buck?"
"Maybe. Or," Ruby held the idol up and started twisting it in her hands, smiling triumphantly when she a faint click.
"Or it's hiding what he really plans on selling." Yang finished with a wicked grin.
Inside the statue were a handful of browning papers covered in writing. Ruby grabbed her phone and opened the camera while Yang started reading them.
"They're letters." She observed. "To the Royal Geographical Society of London, from Mister John Hemming. These things have to be thirty years old, what could Torchwick need them for?"
She turned her attention back to Ruby who simply laughed as she scanned each one quickly before snapping a picture and rolling them back up. "Oh he is going to love this." She put the letters back in the idol, replaced it where she found it, and turned to her sister. "Come on. Let's get out of here."
Yang looked confused as ever, but nodded and followed her sister out of the storeroom regardless. They managed to sneak their way back through the halls to the kitchen where Yang pretended to escort her sister outside. Once clear of the estate, they made a break for the beach where Antonio, Ren, Nora, and the others were already waiting on a boat to leave. Weiss had already taken them a good twenty minutes out before anyone at the party had even noticed that there had been a break in.