Broken Apart Ch. 7: A Fools Move

The evening continued with lots of joy. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang all spent their time swapping tales of what they had done. For Weiss and Blake they had to exaggerate most of what they had done. Unfortunately for them, Ruby and Yang had only told precise accounts of what they had done. It made them feel worse about their lives, but there wasn't much they could do.

"So how long will you be here?" Ruby asked.

"I managed to get a lot of time away from my family," Weiss said.

"And they were already preparing to give my group some time off," Blake added in.

"That's great!" Ruby said. "Unless someone calls us back, we're going to get a whole weekend with each other." All four of them smiled, but it seemed forced. A whole weekend to remind them of what they weren't going have.

Hidden Complex

Cinder walked around the rooms, and smiled. It felt good to be home again, and even better to be online again. As soon as she had returned, Cinder took inventory of every asset they had.

It included the fourteen criminals they had picked up from the prison, the twenty four individual mercenaries that had survived the prison break, and three separate groups of mercenaries that were mostly there to fill out the ranks. It wasn't ideal for their goals, but they would more then do.

Out of the fourteen criminals, only three others ran the same rank as Cinder and Torchwick. Out of the twenty four mercenaries, only six of them were high priced. And of course, there was the groups. They needed no further explanation as to why they weren't ideal.

After RWBY had killed Marcus and Cleo, along with capturing Cinder, she knew that they had only improved. Improvement meant that they would need more to bring them down. Unfortunately, the group of 11 highly ranked criminals wasn't going to cut it.

"Well then, Ms. Fall, I see you've readjusted quite well," a voice called out. Cinder turned around, and nodded.

"Yes Roman," she remarked. "But, I think that you can drop Ms. Fall. I need you as second in command and primary informant in the absence of Marcus and Cleo."

"I think I can do that," Torchwick said happily. "Now, I have good news and bad news. Which would you prefer?"

"I think that my jailed heart could use some good news right now," Cinder said drastically.

"Right. Well, the good news is that team RWBY is no more. They broke apart one month ago." Cinder smiled, and flames flashed across her body. "The bad news is that they have all continued on in difficult career paths. The snotty white one is taking on the roll of heiress for her company. The nosey black one has gone into the New Faunus Rights group. The obnoxious yellow one and of course, red, have stuck with the jobs as huntresses. That would make them easier, except they only take group jobs."

"You are right," Cinder said heavily. "That is unfortunate. But, it's also positive. Divide and conquer, am I correct on that?" Torchwick nodded, since these kinds of sayings were in his playbook. "Well, our greatest enemy has done half of the work for us. They divided themselves, and all that's left is for us to conquer." Torchwick nodded, and then looked over at the main office that was nearby.

"We should discuss our men," Torchwick said instantly. "All of them need to addressed, and more importantly we need to figure out what we want to do with them." Cinder nodded, and gestured to the door. Torchwick popped it open, and Cinder went inside.

Torchwick was already prepared for this. He had found multiple files on exactly what his new employees and allies had done, and pulled them out.

"From what I can gather," Torchwick started, taking a seat at one end of the table. "There are very few here worth noting. The criminals is overall a disappointment. The three that you said were worth noting are, but there are no surprises."

"And what of your mercenaries?" Cinder asked, rubbing two balls of flames together as she waited.

"Lots of surprises," Torchwick replied. "I can tell you that all of them are capable of dealing with run of the mill hunters, and those that weren't are already off our payroll. But only six, as you had previously guessed, are high priced. And as we have come to learn, mercenaries rarely charge more or less then their worth." Cinder nodded, and frowned.

"This news is rather unfortunate," she remarked. "But, I believe that 11 may be enough to take them out individually. But this Faunus Rights Group, what does their security look like?"

"Lots of former hunters camped out in a single location." Cinder nodded, and frowned.

"Then it looks like our best bet is to start with the heiress."

Beacon Academy: Dorms

Beacon was very good at hosting reunions. They hosted when school wasn't in session. They got everyone back. And perhaps most importantly, they managed to setup everyone's old dorms.

Team four former members of RWBY walked down the halls, and laughed generously. Things had been going along well. Ruby and Yang definitely supplied grand tales of their exploits, while Blake and Weiss' tales remained more modest. Of course, to get them to modest they already had to reach quite a bit.

"And you broke his nose?" Yang asked.

"Yup," Blake replied. "He pulled a sword, but luckily it was one of those times I dealt with a drunk. Didn't even draw Gambol Shroud."

"All this unnecessary violence," Weiss muttered. "And all I do is fence."

"What was that?" Ruby asked her former partner.

"I just remarked on how much more violence there is on your side of things," Weiss continued, changing around her words. Truthfully, Weiss missed killing Grimm. She felt as though she was doing something with her life, something for the good of everyone. "All I do is negotiations and occasionally fence." Which is only beneficial for my parents company, Weiss thought angrily. Weiss even had to add in something as boring as negotiations, as she didn't even do that. But being ever the dignitary, Weiss didn't let anything show.

The four girls reached their former dorm, and popped it open.

"What?" Ruby said, her face showing mass amounts of confusion.

"Is this real?" Weiss asked.

"I'm not sure," Blake continued.

"Man, they are really thorough," Yang continued. The girls had walked into something that seemed very familiar to the dorm they had used in their time at Beacon. The personal items were all missing, sure. But, something that had surprised them, the beds were bunk beds. More importantly, they were held up in the same way as they had been when RWBY was staying at the dorms.

"Well," Ruby said after she recovered from the initial surprise. "I get top bunk."

"Well they did go through all of this trouble to get it exactly right," Weiss continued. "So I'll take the bottom bunk, Ruby'll take the top bunk, Blake'll take the other bottom bunk, and Yang'll take the last bed."

"You really are a dignitary now," Blake remarked. "And trust me, I've dealt with quite the few in my last month."

"I'll take that as a compliment."

And so the four girls unpacked their small bags. Weiss had the largest, while Ruby and Yang tied for the smallest. But all of them had only packed for a single weekend at Beacon, and so they were prepared. After they had finished, all four girls took a seat in their beds.

The first feeling that came to Weiss was uneasiness. As much as she had enjoyed her time at Beacon, the execution that rested above her head never made her feel anything but dread and impending doom.

"How're you feeling?" Ruby called down.

"Fine," Weiss said through gritted teeth.

"You don't sound it," Ruby said sweetly.

"I hate you," Weiss said again. Ruby went silent for a moment, and Weiss just sighed. "You do realize I was joking, right?"

"Oh yeah," Ruby called down. "I just don't have a reply."

"Dolt," Weiss muttered. There was a slight pause, but then both girls started to laugh.

"I miss this," Ruby said softly. Weiss elected not to reply, but those words cut deep.

After their rocky start, Ruby and Weiss' relationship had grown in leaps and bounds. Weiss began to trust in the younger girls leadership skills, while Ruby agreed to let Weiss aid in her maturation process. Things weren't always smooth, Ruby's youth and Weiss' poor tolerance saw to that, but they always pulled together. They had to as partners. Now, they were apart. Weiss assumed it would have been easier than it was, but the lack of anything to do of any importance saw to making that claim false.

"Hey Weiss," Ruby called out.

"Hm?" Weiss called back, snapping back to reality.

"If you could come back and make us Embers and Ice, would you do it?" Weiss froze. She wasn't expecting this to be offered. Here was Ruby, offering her a way out of the boring life that she currently lead. Sure it wouldn't make her family happy, but she was more then prepared to take over the company. All she had to do was say yes.

But saying yes would erase everything that she had thrown up. All of the things that she had lied about would be brought to the forefront. Everything that she had done would be confirmed that she was doing nothing important. So what would it be? Pride or happiness?

"I can't," Weiss said. "I have to complete my training and then take over the company. Thanks though."

"Oh," Ruby said sadly. "Okay." From there, silence filled the right side of the room.

Yang and Blake hadn't heard anything. Yang was still filling Blake with stories, as that was her personality. Blake remained silent, only contributing a few stories here and there.

"I miss our talks," Yang said.

"If you want to call them talks," Blake added in.

"Okay, I miss talking to you."

"That's a little bit better." There was a brief pause of silence, but Yang was able to follow up.

"Any interesting people over at the New Faunus Rights Group?" She asked.

"Yup," Blake replied. "Tauran Brownfur and Lyria Spots. There interesting, kind of like the odd couple of strength and speed."

"Like you and me, ey Blakey?" Yang challenged. Blake went silent for a moment, but then decided to follow up.

"Like you and I were," Blake corrected.

"Right. Were." Yang went silent for a little bit longer, but then came up with something else. "Hey Blake."

"What?" Blake asked as she curled up a little bit more.

"How about you come and join up with me and Ruby again? We could be a trio, and you'd still be doing good. I'm sure that Sun would get a new partner, and that these people would be able to fill in for you." Blake felt conflict enter her mind, and she leaned back.

There was nothing in the world that she wanted more then to join up again. Even without Weiss, three members of her old team would be more fulfilling then anything that she was currently doing. But that being said, Blake still wanted to believe that the New Faunus Rights Group could be impactful. She wanted to think that they were going to make a difference.

"I can't leave my job, Yang," Blake said. "But I'm glad you offered."

"Had to try," Yang said. What Yang couldn't see was the single tear that rested in Blake's eye.

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