This can't be happening. This just can't…
Blake sat on the couch, slumped over. Her face rested in the palms of her hands, as she tried to come to terms with the reality of the situation. Ruby was sitting next to her, trying to talk to her, though Blake wasn't listening. That stupid note kept echoing in her head.
"Blake, we both know you didn't write that message. Someone's obviously trying to frame you." Ruby tried consoling.
Blake dragged her hands down from her face, now folding them together. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled. She then opened her eyes and looked over to Ruby.
"I just don't understand. I don't even know anyone named Junior, and you told me earlier that Yang is the only one that knows I'm in Vale. It just...doesn't make sense."
Ruby began pondering for a moment. A few seconds pasted before suddenly a lit light bulb appeared above her head. She jumped to her feet, shouting in a eureka, "Wait! I think I got it!"
Ruby started zipping all over the apartment. she was gathering everything from poster board, markers, and an impromptu presentation stand. She even had time to grab a pair of Yang's reading glasses and a ruler for pointing to complete a professor look. When finished readying, Ruby cleared her throat and tried to sound very sophisticated.
"Now then," She said, putting up a crude drawing of Yang riding on a bike. Though it was hard to make out much detail, since it was all drawn in crayon and looked like what a three year old would draw.
"Um, Ruby? When did you have time to draw those?" Blake asked with big white circles for eyes.
Ruby shushed Blake, then went back to her teacher act; leaving Blake unanswered.
"As you can see by this completely accurate recreation: earlier last night Yang went out to see if she could find any clues to your current location. She went to Vale's number one crime boss for information, Junior Xiong."
Ruby removed the poster board, revealing another poster board behind it with an equally crude drawing. This one was in the street. It had this Junior character (with a red tie and what appeared to be a beard) laying in the middle of the street with Xs for eyes, Yang jumping out of a window, and Ruby standing in the street with Junior. Though for some reason Ruby was taller then Yang and much more detailed then everyone else.
"Yang ended up arresting Junior, finding out later he knew nothing about you. I can attest for I was there at the scene. That's also when I learned Yang was looking for you, and I even got to see a photo she got through connections." Ruby retrieved a photo from her pockets, handing it to Blake. Blake could see it was a rough image of herself, sleeping in one of the storage cars on the train.
I didn't see any cameras when I went to sleep. And if there's evidence I'm in Vale, why isn't the whole city looking for me? Unless someone...no. Who would cover that up for me? Not any White Fang agents or sympathizers that's for sure. They'd love for me to get caught. Then all it would take is an agent on the inside that could just poison me or something before I could reveal anything. So who would-
"Ahem." Ruby broke through Blake's thoughts, waiting for the Faunus's full attention before continuing with her lecture. "Now, Junior practically owns every criminal on the street, owns many local business including Wonderland Warehouses, and is suspect to thousands of cases of contraband and other big crimes. So it's not unlikely that Yang would've made some very big enemies last night. Which brings me to my, second, theory about all of last night's events."
"Wait, second? What do mean?" Blake questioned.
Suddenly Ruby has somehow changed appearance in the blink of an eye. She had now redressed herself with a bubble blowing tobacco pipe, a deerstalker hat made out of Ursa fur, and a monocle over her right eye. All while trying even harder to sound sophisticated. "All in do time my dear. All in due time. I need more proof if I'm to proclaim such an outlandish idea. Imagine how silly I would look without any further evidence."
The sight made Blake fall face first into the ground, before quickly jumping up on her feet with a red mark on her face and an angry mark pulsing. "How do you keep doing that?"
"Doing what?" Ruby asked, now somehow back in her professor look.
Blake's eyes had become huge white circles. Her right eye was twitching, and her mouth half open. She felt like she was about to fall on her face again, when she decided, screw it. She regained her composer and sat back down on the couch. With a headache forming, she waved her hand for Ruby to continue with her shenanigans.
"My theory is: Junior must have gotten out of custody through usual villainous ways, then orchestrated last night's occurrences. He planned on capturing me and using me as a hostage for Yang. That is, if Yang survived the Wonderland Warehouse ambush. I mean, I just said he owns that place., and it's the perfect place to set up an ambush/murder!" Ruby stated, slowly losing her accent in her excitement.
"And how do I fit into all of this?" Blake asked.
"Well, like I said, Junior knows everything that's going on around town. He even knew about the king dying a month before it was announced to the public. So it stands to reason he must have found out more about you, known Yang was searching for you because that's the whole reason she brought him in, and then used you. After all, you're the perfect fall guy. If Junior failed, it'd come down to a terrorist had done all this for unknown reasons and their'd be little evidence to prove different. And if he won, he'd also just blame you for our murders." Ruby took in a lung full of air after finishing, then set her ruler down. Finishing her thoughts with, "I rest my case."
As insane as it all sounded, Blake could believe it. She didn't know exactly how they did it, but sometimes after Blake had done some "interrogating" or had taken care of a target she was assigned that the White Fang wanted no connection to, she knew there was a whole team dedicated to cover up. The White Fang usually took credit for every action(part of her training was setting up scenes and dramatic executions), but sometimes shifting blame and staying seemingly uninvolved had it's advantages.
"I just happened to show up. I wasn't really supposed to make an appearance. That's what threw everything off." Blake thought out loud.
Ruby was now back to normal when she sat next to Blake on the couch. All of her outfits' accessories were now placed on the table, and the presentation station now only showed a drawing of Ruby with a list of "reasons why I'm awesome".
"Well...I'm sure you threw a monkey wrench into things, but I'm pretty sure I could've taken those guys myself." Ruby stopped herself. Her cheeks now flushing with embarrassment. "Sorry... That, sounded better in my head."
Blake shrugged, giving Ruby a reassuring smile and wave. She knew good and well she's only a decent fighter at best. She's an assassin, not so much a soldier. No, Adam was the real fighter of the two.
Ruby rubbed the back of her head, still embarrassed. "Right. Anyway, Yang wouldn't go down without a fight either. So, knowing my sister, right now she's causing trouble. I'm already sure if we check the news, we'll probably hear something about-"
"I burn! Can't hold me back, you got nothing that can stop me!"
Yang's scroll started sing out; A message flashing from the Vale police department. Ruby and Blake huddled around the scroll, opening the message.
Attention all units: We got a possible arson and break-in at Wonderland Warehouses. Any available Units are requested to survey the scene to confirm reports.
WWWWWWWW
"So, remind me again how you plan to figure out what they're saying by listening to music?" Blake asked while pacing along the rooftop the two were on.
Ruby shushed Blake, still trying to listen in. She had brought her tinkered headset, and was now trying to tap into the police chatter. She was also looking through the scope of Crescent Rose to try and see what was happening. Blake had offered to sneak over there and scout, but Ruby assured her that wouldn't be necessary.
"From what I'm getting, something went down here last night. Fires had been set over in one of the warehouses, and another warehouse full of medical supplies and Dust was ransacked. Blood's also been found in both." Ruby finally shared.
Ruby could hear Blake in the background starting to pace again. She was also saying something, but Ruby couldn't hear her as she turned up the headset's volume. Something else had grabbed her attention.
Through her scope, she could see an officer talking to a small punk group. She tapped into his radio, and listened in.
"So two girls just, walked out of the place?"
"Yeah. Both looked like they were in bad shape, like they just got into fight. Both of'em had a ton of bandages and stuff on, but the chick in white looked worse. She had a cast, and her dress looked like it was covered in blood. It was like seeing a bloody ghost."
"And what were you boys doing when you saw these two girls?"
"We was going down to the arcade not far from here, just wanted to have some fun ya'know? Then we see this crowd forming and we decided to see what's up. Next thing ya'knows, this hot blonde was screaming and crying at the white chick. Something 'bout her sister. We thought it was kinda funny was all, thought they were a couple of lesbians having a fight. At the time we really didn't give too much thought 'bout how they looked and what was what."
"You said they were fighting about something. What exactly were these two fighting about?"
"Man, we don't know. Like I said we was busy laughing. That is till the hot blonde breaks into tears and her girlfriend starts waving around a sword and screaming. We didn't want to get clubbed by a crazy chick, so we left. When we got back, the two were gone and coppers were buggin us. Now we done yet?"
Ruby gave up on that signal. She started searching through all the signals again, trying to find some kind of further lead. Yang had been here, but where was she now? And who was this, 'white chick'? Yang didn't have a huge group of friends, so who was with her?
Ruby then spotted two officers, higher ups by the look of the patches, talking. She started tapping their signal, hoping at least they knew something.
"Description matches. Definitely Xiao Long's handy work. Any word on where she and her associate went?"
"Nothing. No one knows where the two went. Though once we finish up here, I'll try to see if anyone at HQ's seen her. If that's a dead end, I'll try calling her house. Maybe her sister knows where she is."
"Talk about a bad morning. Bounty hunter missing, rumors of something big running around the wall, and having to evacuate the area near Beacon's Tide."
"What the hell is that about anyway? We have to block off the whole place because of some 'hazardous' materials were found there, then wait for some hazard team that never shows? I don't buy it. It's right by the wall and abandoned since Beacon went up in flames, what could possibly be there? And the report?"
"Who knows, who cares. I get payed to do what I'm told, not start questioning the orders. Besides, the neighborhood there was mostly empty anyway. It's not like it was a hassle."
"Blake." Ruby said, turning her head to a still pacing Blake. Her ears were twitching under her bow, most likely anxiety.
"I think I got an idea where my sister and her new friend went. And, I'm not so sure about my second theory anymore."
WWWWWWWW
"So let me get this straight, you told those bears to send the word that the attack's been called off, and in response they send back a Death Stalker?!"
"They sent the word out, the troops are pulling back. They just sent one of the higher ups to find out why."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard! Why?! That doesn't make any sense! I mean, I thought you animals were stupid, but my God, these monsters are somehow even worse! They just can't follow one simple order and just leave it at that?!"
"I'll try to ignore that animal remark. But the next time you say something like that Torchwick, it'll be the last thing you ever say."
"Oh pipe down boy. Can't you see I'm stressed out? Pippi screwed up, my personal ship is ruined, now there's a giant scorpion here...and when's the last time you took off that mask?"
"I'm fine. I'm stronger with it on anyway. And from what I hear of this human girl, I'll need the extra strength."
"...No. You won't. I just thought of something our new friend can do for us."