Broken Apart Ch. 8: Attempts

Weiss walked around her mansion, and sighed. It was the day after what was easily the best weekend she had had in a month. Leaving had hurt, but it was necessary. Or so Weiss told herself. She could have accepted Ruby's offer, it would have been easy enough to leave her mansion for months without anyone noticing. But Weiss' pride and dedication to her work had left her stuck.

Arriving "home" after her weekend had left Weiss with an empty feeling. Fun, friends, good times, amusement, enjoyment, all of these things were present at Beacon but not at her own home. She blinked away a pair of tears, and shook her head. Focus Weiss, she thought. You have a duty to fulfill.

She looked around at the servants and guards around her house, and sighed. Half of them were humans while the other half were Faunus. Technically speaking, one of the new Faunus Labor Laws stated that the difference of Faunus and human work force couldn't be more then 65-35 in either direction. But Weiss' father saw benefit in hiring 50/50 amounts.

"No sense in giving the New Faunus Rights group a reason to come after us," Weiss' father had said. Weiss had only nodded at the time, not really seeing the significance in it. But now, her view was changed. It would be a chance to see Blake since that was the career path she had taken.

How funny it was that Blake joined a second Faunus Rights group. She had been one of the instrumental pieces in taking down the first one.

In their third year, the White Fang tried to become more aggressive against hunters and huntresses. They almost did, but the hunters and huntresses had the advantage of one former White Fang at their disposal. Blake had revealed many ins and outs, and while some had changed most did not. The White Fang fell, and the New Faunus Rights group rose up to become the new symbol for the Faunus, and this time they were going to be policed.

"You two," Weiss ordered a nearby pair of body guards {one Faunus and one human}. "Follow me."

"Any reason why, Ms. Schnee?" The Faunus {wolf} asked.

"I want to take a stroll and you know how my father is," Weiss replied. Both of them shrugged, and Weiss made her way out into the front lawn.

She strolled through the walkways, and ran her hand through the flowers. She reached a small patch, and froze. The flowers were red, white, purple, and yellow. They were a portion of the garden planted in honor of her graduation with team RWBY. They took care of them, but the flowers were predicted to die after a year. Here they were, two and a half years later, and they still lived.

"Ms. Schnee?" The human security guard asked. "Any reason for the pause."

"The flowers, Luther," Weiss said. "These are the graduation flowers."

"Still alive, huh?" The Faunus asked.

"Yes, Lincoln," Weiss replied.

"Do you miss them?" Luther pursued.

"Every day," Weiss replied. "I'm doing nothing of importance here."

"Then go back," Lincoln contributed.

"I have a duty to fulfill," Weiss argued.

"A duty only means as much as the overall worth," Luther pushed. "Your worth more out there then you are in here." Weiss smiled at Luther, and thought for a moment. Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden movement, which brought Weiss' eyes to Lincoln.

"What are you-?" Weiss started. Before she could continue, Lincoln shoved her out of the way and a bullet struck across his side, it's momentum slowed down by his aura. But it still went into him, and Weiss and Luther both widened their eyes in surprise.

"Get down Ms. Schnee," Luther ordered.

"The hell I will," Weiss snapped back. She raised up two glyphs on either side of her, and picked up a pistol that rested by Lincoln's body. "Call an ambulance and more security." Luther nodded, and pulled out his phone. Weiss kept up the glyphs while both her and Luther kept eyes where the glyphs couldn't be.

Nearby

The assassin raised his line of sight away from the scope and looked over the scene. His semblance took care of the noise, and it was clear that his target and one of her bodyguards had no idea as to where he was. But the first guard had prevented his shot from striking his target, and her glyphs made it impossible for his bullets to go through. He reached up to his earpiece, and clicked on the automatic patch.

"Target is alive," he said into his communications device. "Objective failed."

"Stay and finish the job," an angry voice replied.

"Sir, you paid me because you know that I'm a skilled assassin. The target has raised her glyphs, she is clearly alert to my presence."

"And the issue is?"

"The issue is that I can't shoot through the glyphs."

"Then wait for them to be lowered."

"A skilled assassin doesn't let themselves be caught." He heard a line of silence, and then a sigh.

"Return to base," his employer finally said. "Just know that we're displeased with you right now."

"A danger of the job," he replied. The assassin took to his feet, and brushed his long green cloak to the side. He took one last look over the surrounding areas with his emerald eyes, and tried to note a better spot. There was always round two for redemption.

New Faunus Rights Camp

Blake jumped into her bunk and let out a groan. Her first day back on the job, and almost instantly she was reminded why she hated it. Two broken noses, three cracked wrists, and six cases closed. It was almost no fun when people gave in instantly, because it made Blake feel even more worthless.

"What a great first day back," Sun said as he entered into the room. "This job is so easy."

"Which is why I hate it," Blake grumbled.

"Woho, someone is a bit catty today," he said with a grin. Blake glared daggers at him, and Sun harmlessly raised up his hands. "You should have gone back with your team," Sun said immediately.

"What?" Blake asked.

"You're not fooling anyone kitty cat. You'd rather be there then here." Blake shrugged, and Sun just sighed. "You're impossible."

"You've never met yourself drunk," someone said from the front of their tent. Blake and Sun turned, and saw Tauran with someone else. His company was female, and she had long gray hair. Within her hair was a series of black spots that ran all the way down to the bottom of her hair, which ran to just under her shoulders. She stood two and half heads shorter then her partner, and her frame was built only just above skeletal. Her eyes was a brilliant shade of amber, very similar to Blake's. She was dressed in a long gray fur coat with black spots decorating it. It remained buttoned almost exclusively, so no one knew what it was that she wore underneath it. What was visible was the tips of two whip swords that remained tucked into her sleeves. The whip swords were long blades with two pistols attached to the base and the tips of the blades. Her name was Lyria Spots, and she was Tauran's partner.

"Lyria and Tauran?" Sun started. "Why did we receive this pleasure."

"Can it Wukong," Tauran said. He knew that Sun didn't hand out compliments to anyone directly.

"What my disgruntled partner is trying to say," Lyria cut in. "Is that the four of us have a mission. Someone got shot, and it appears that they're a Faunus worker."

"Four of us?" Blake asked. "The ruler of the Faunus world better of gotten shot for four people to be sent to investigate."

"Actually only myself and Tauran got invited," Lyria corrected. "But, you have a history with this particular Faunus. Well, at least with his employer."

"Really?" Blake asked. "And who would that be?"

Ruby and Yang's Huntress Home

Ruby flipped through more of the case files that had been sent to them, and sighed. Nothing really seemed interesting to her, especially since she had been so close to getting RWBY back together. As her and Yang planned, they asked their former partners to rejoin. Both of them got similar answers, and both of the answers meant rejection.

"You got anything?" Yang called out from the kitchen.

"No," Ruby said dejectedly.

"No challenges? Nothing with other people?"

"No," Ruby repeated sadly. Yang sighed, and walked over to her younger sister. She grabbed onto Ruby's shoulders, and started to rub them slowly.

"I know you feel sad that we couldn't get them to rejoin," Yang said softly. "But you have to let go of it. It was a shot in the dark."

"That doesn't make it any better," Ruby said.

"Ruby, we have to move onto our job. It's important."

"I know it is, but we're also being kept apart from our partners and teammates by important jobs. Yang, I think-." Ruby was cut off by a blaring sound from her scroll. "Hang on, it's the private line." Ruby picked it up, and briefly checked the name. She paused from surprise, but clicked on answer.

"Ozpin?" Ruby said cautiously.

"Ms. Rose," the voice of her former headmaster replied. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," Ruby replied skeptically. "What's our mission?"

"Well, there was an assassination attempt. We needed a team or a highly regarded duo to take care of it. Normally we wouldn't call in a duo, but you two have the background that we desired."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"The airship is at the airfield just outside of your home," Ozpin continued. "Fly safely." The line went dead, and Ruby looked down at it.

"I hate it when he does that," Ruby mumbled.

"What's up?" Yang asked. "What are we doing?"

"Some kind of a protection job I think," Ruby said. "He said that there was an assassin attempt and that he needed a highly regarded duo to take care of it."

"Attempt leads me to believe that they're still alive," Yang stated.

"Well, duh."

"Who for?" The blonde pursued.

"All he said was that we had the background necessary and then he hung up." Yang just shook her head, and smiled.

"He likes to do that, huh? Nothing's ever straight forward." Ruby just nodded, and looked out the window. The airfield was within a rocks throw {even without Yang or Ruby's strength}, and she could see the pilot waiting on them.

"I guess we should see what this is about," Ruby said. Yang nodded, and picked up her travel bag. Ruby already had hers slung over her shoulder, and both girls set out for the airfield.

Hidden Complex

The tall assassin strolled through the halls. His green cloak rolled on the ground, and his two daggers rested within partial view from within it. His sniper rested on a sling over his shoulder, and his emerald eyes and black hair made him stand out. It was the only thing apart from his height that really made him standout from the crowd. The brilliance of his eyes in contrast to the muted pallet of the rest of his appearance.

He walked right over to the main planning room, and calmly opened it up. He noticed his two primary employers standing around a table, and sighed. It was not looking good for him.

"Ah," the woman, Cinder he believed it was, said. "It's you. Come over here, and have a seat." The assassin complied, and took a seat in the chair that she had indicated.

"Do you know why we called you here?" The male, Torchwick asked.

"It's most likely because one of the Schnee girl's bodyguards pushed her out of the way and took the bullet," he said easily.

"Now why would he do that?" Cinder asked easily, placing a ball of flames within her hands.

"Eyesight," he said slowly. "He appeared to be a Faunus, thus making it extremely likely that his sudden reaction was brought on by the notice of something."

"I thought you said you wouldn't be spotted," Torchwick replied.

"A single error in my career. I'm sure that you'll find that the rest of it is more than-."

"Stop!" Cinder ordered. He complied, and leaned back in his chair. "Tell me, what's your name?"

"Distrio Columbi," the man added in. "Or better known as simply the sniper."

"Distrio," Torchwick continued. "Do you understand the importance of this shot?"

"A chance to kill a Dust company heiress," Distrio continued.

"Wrong!" Cinder snapped. "This heiress was an instrumental piece of killing two of my compatriots, several of my associates, and imprisoning me. You were one of those people to break me out, am I correct?" Distrio nodded, beginning to realize exactly what was going on.

"Failure here meant a very hard task down the road," Torchwick pursued. "And now it seems as though our job has been made harder because of you. Do you know how difficult it is to forgive?" Distrio nodded slowly, and went to reach for his daggers. Before he got a chance, Cinder slipped both of them from their sheaths and held them up to his throat. Her hands began to glow, and the blades temperature began to rise.

"It would be so simple to kill you right now," Cinder said, pushing the blade closer. At this point, the only thing keeping Distrio alive was his aura. "Your semblance could silence things, and then mine would leave almost no mess. You'd still be dead, but I wouldn't have to clean anything up." Distrio closed his eyes, and waited for death to greet him. Before it could, all of the pressure was relieved.

"Luckily for you, we still need an assassin of your caliber," Torchwick said. "You can kill without being heard or seen, and most importantly we need someone who can take one shot and kill everything he needs too." Distrio nodded appreciatively, and looked down at the desk. He could see his contract on top, and he already knew the next part.

"A pay cut will be necessary," Cinder started. "Complete our next three tasks, and we'll bump it back up. Are we clear?" Distrio nodded, understanding that he had no leverage in this discussion. "Good. Now, here's an image and a location." Cinder handed over a single file, and watched as Distrio flipped through it.

"This location will be difficult to access," Distrio noted. "Give me one day of prep work, and I can have it done."

"You have three hours," Torchwick said impatiently.

"Then I will adjust."

"Excellent," Cinder said. "Time to let them know that we have returned."

End: Ending it before most would like me too probably. Pull out your American History books for the origins of the three OC's that made a first appearance here {not counting Lyria as she was mentioned in an earlier chapter}. Questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback is appreciated.