Weiss crouched on a rooftop across the street from the Schnee Dust Company branch offices. She'd been there—watching—for almost an hour now. The sun was glaring down at her, and Weiss regretted not finding a rooftop with some shade; her aura was working overtime, trying to keep her fair skin from burning.
Cars could be heard driving back and forth below her, but Weiss was too far back from the edge of the roof to see them. All she needed was a line of sight on the front door and the garage of the office; there was no reason to risk being spotted.
Out of boredom more than any need to, Weiss drew Myrtenaster and spun the cylinder. It spun smoothly, having been oiled the night before. The chambers were all full of Dust, and the barrel was clear. The point tapered into invisibility; so sharp that she couldn't even see it. Poking a finger to the tip only succeeded in giving her a painful jab and drawing blood. Weiss swore and pressed it to her tongue. The pain quickly faded, and by the time Weiss looked at it again, her aura had healed the cut.
She slipped Myrtenaster back into its sheath with a sigh. She half-considered pulling out a nail file, but that was taking it too far—she needed to keep watch.
A few more heat-filled, utterly boring minutes passed and, like a gift from on high, Weiss' quarry left the building across the road. She'd looked up a list of the board members in Mistral and had been waiting for any one of them to leave the building. A black car pulled up in front of the office, and the man got in. He wasn't the man who had appeared to be the leader of the group, but it would have to do.
Weiss watched the car and moved to the left side of the building. The car pulled out and drove to her left for a few metres before swinging in a U-turn and going to her right. Weiss clicked her tongue and dashed after it. A glyph appeared at the edge of the roof and launched Weiss up and onto the roof of the next building.
The continued straight, and Weiss followed. She came to a stop when the car reached a set of traffic lights. Its left indicator was blinking; it was turning away from her. With a muttered curse, Weiss stepped back to the middle of the roof and conjured two glyphs. One at her feet, and another at the edge of the roof. She rocketed forward and was launched over the street, spiralling gracefully through the air before landing on a rooftop across the street from where she'd started. Her shoes slid along the roof for a few metres and when she came to a stop, Weiss dashed to the edge of the roof and glanced down at the car.
The light turned green and it made the turn, taking off faster than the cars around it. Its engine revved as it tore down the street, and Weiss' shoes clicked against the roof as she gave chase. The car gained ground on her whenever she was running, but her glyph-jumps helped her make up the lost distance; if not for the drain it would put on her aura, she'd do nothing but use her glyphs to keep up.
The car turned corners here and there, which gave Weiss a challenge, but for the most part it stayed on long, straight roads. As she landed from another cross-street glyph-jump, her scroll rang. She pulled it out as she ran and put it to her ear.
"Kind of busy right now!" She jumped to another rooftop and grunted as she landed in a roll.
"You found one then?" Neptune sounded concerned.
"What gave you that idea?"
"Well the panting and grunting was a good start." A hint of mischief slipped into his voice. "Though that could mean anything, really."
If Weiss' eyes weren't trained on her quarry, they'd have been rolling. "What's it like? Living in the gutter like that?"
"Dirty, but entertaining," Neptune laughed.
"Anyway—" Weiss jumped over an alleyway, scaring a few stray cats. "—what do you want?"
"So you found one—"
"We've established that."
"—does he know you're following him?"
Weiss smirked. "Oh, he knows. I'm not exactly inconspicuous here, leaping from rooftop to rooftop."
"Good. So we're all set?"
"Now we just wait and see."
"Alright," Neptune said. "I'll let you know if and when anything pops up."
Weiss ended the call without replying and slipped her scroll away before leaping across another street. The car was picking up its pace, but never doing anything too smart, like making consecutive turns. If they were really trying to lose her, they'd wouldn't have had to try too hard. They definitely knew she was following them, and they were making sure she didn't lose them.
Good, she thought as she jumped to a lower rooftop. That means they're leading me away from the office for a reason. The car's increasing pace was further evidence of that. The faster it went, while still keeping her in sight, the further from the office she got. Which meant one of two things: something important was going to happen at the office right now, or someone from the office wanted to go somewhere else without being followed. And Weiss knew which one it was.
The leader of the group had said—in the one conversation Weiss and Neptune had managed to successfully eavesdrop on—that any and all meetings on their plots would take place 'at the warehouse'. It had taken Neptune a while, but he'd managed to talk to a contact of Scarlet's—a man who worked in a private security firm—who'd given them a list of probable warehouses. The two of them had cross-referenced the list of heavily guarded warehouses with the city's lists of stored stock.
They'd managed to narrow it down to one most likely warehouse, and few other potential ones. There was one warehouse that was as heavily guarded as the city's main Dust supply—enough troops on the walls and in the grounds to raid a village—but, according to the city's manifests, was empty. The manifests had mentioned supplies of Dust that went in and out of the warehouse, but it never had stock held inside for more than a day.
Their plan had been simple: Weiss would let herself be seen across the street from the office, and follow whoever came out to wherever they led her; Neptune would wait outside the warehouse in question—actually hide—and see if anyone from the Schnee offices arrived while Weiss was distracted. Hopefully—probably—the board members would think Neptune was investigating somewhere else, and not that they'd found the warehouse and he was lying in wait. They had no reason to suspect they'd found it, and that was the only edge that Weiss and Neptune had.
So Weiss chased the car as conspicuously as she could, making sure they knew where she was at all times. As long as this car had her in its sight, they 'knew' they were clear to go to the warehouse. All they needed was to see someone from the office go into the warehouse, and then they'd know for sure.
The chase went on for at least twenty minutes, and Weiss was nearing exhaustion. Her legs burned, she was drenched in sweat, and she could feel her aura pulsing in what passed for pain—she'd been working it too hard. Patronisingly, the car had slowed down as Weiss fell behind. They really wanted to keep her in sight.
They came to another set of traffic lights and Weiss almost collapsed. She sucked in air and gasped it out, looking like a fish plucked from the water. As she watched the car, she caught a glimpse of someone in the passenger seat holding a scroll to their ear. Please be a good sign, she prayed.
As soon as the light turned green, the car sped off, faster than it had gone up until now. Weiss took a few steps, intending to follow, but quickly stopped as it tore around a corner and vanished from sight.
Weiss took in a deep breath. "Yeah, forget that." She forced her aura into action one last time and threw herself off the roof. A glyph slowed her down just before she hit the ground, and she casually stepped off the hovering glyph and walked down the street as if nothing had happened.
Pedestrians nearby looked at her like an Ursa had just dropped out of the sky, but Weiss ignored the looks—she was too busy trying to catch her breath. A café caught her eye and she slipped into a seat at a table just inside the door. A waiter came over and Weiss ordered a jug of water, a sandwich and an iced coffee.
The water was like a breath of life, soothing her throat and cooling her down. Soon after, the food and coffee arrived. Weiss ate the small meal, grateful for the sorely needed calories, and waited for Neptune to call.
It wasn't until she'd finished both the food and the drinks and was leaning back in her chair, watching people walk by, that the call came. She snatched her scroll from the table and pressed it to her ear.
"Tell me we got them."
"We got 'em."
Weiss sighed in relief and sunk into her chair. "You saw them go in?"
"Yeah. The guy in charge of the rest; I saw him go inside about ten minutes ago. I'd say that tells us all we need to know."
"Yeah… Now we just need to find a way in."
"That won't be easy. This place is crawling with guards. Proper security teams too, not the usual, useless ones."
"That's fine. We've got time to plan it out now. As long as we know they're there, we can keep an eye on it while we plan, and then, once we have a way in, we sneak in after them during their next visit and we find out who's behind this and what they're planning."
"Sounds good. Where are you? I'll snap a few photos of the layout and guard positions and come pick you up."
Weiss gave him the name of the café and ended the call. She called a waiter over, ordered another sandwich and settled in to wait.
"It doesn't look good," Neptune grumbled. The pair stood over his dining table, with a blueprint of the warehouse spread across it. The photos he'd taken—freshly printed—were scattered on top of it and they'd marked the places where stationary guard posts were set up. The late afternoon sun was shining through a window, casting the room in an orange glow.
"That's putting it lightly." Weiss scratched at her nose as she pored over the plans. "Is there any way to get the guards out of there?"
Neptune shook his head. "The warehouse is empty, so we don't have anything to play with there."
"So we can't use the old 'volatile-batch-of-Dust' trick…"
"Exactly."
"Hmm…" Weiss pulled a chair back and sank into it, crossing her legs. "And there's no way in from underground."
"I'll say one thing for these guys: they know how to choose a good hideout. It's too far from any of the adjacent buildings to jump across, and the sewer system runs under the building behind it. The gates are too heavily guarded and the grounds are too heavily patrolled."
Something he'd said caught Weiss' attention. She stood up and checked over all of the photos he'd taken. Her scroll—sitting on the kitchen bench—started ringing, but Weiss ignored it. Most of the pictures didn't help her, but there were a few that had good shots of the building's roof.
She looked up at Neptune. "How many guards did you see on the roof?"
He pursed his lips and glanced at the photos. "Two… Yeah, just two. One on each end."
"Good. That's got to be our way in."
Neptune scratched at his chin. "So what're you thinking?" he asked. "Airship? They're not going to miss a Haven airship hovering over their hideout. That'll set the alarm off faster than anything."
Weiss frowned. He was right, but they really had no other way in.
The blue-haired Huntsmen snapped his fingers. "What if—"
"—we don't stop the airship," Weiss finished. She'd had the same thought, and immediately realised how stupid it was. But, she realised, there really was no other way in. "I'd have to go in alone," she added. "There's no way you could make that landing."
He frowned. "Couldn't you use bigger glyphs to slow us both down?"
Weiss shook her head. "I'd be putting everything I have into slowing myself down. Falling from a moving airship is never a fun landing—even for me. I can't take care of your landing too; we'd both end up smears on the rooftop."
"Damn it…"
"Once I get in, I can try turning on a fire alarm." Weiss glanced over the blueprints again. "There's no guarantee it would get the guards out of the way though."
"Bad idea." Neptune shook his head. "They'd know nothing was inside—nothing that could cause a fire. Switching on an alarm would just let them know you're there."
"Well then… I guess that's the plan sorted out… Now we just have to time it right."
"Yeah…" Neptune pored over the plans and photos for a few seconds. "I may not like it, but it's really the only choice we have. I can keep an airship on standby for you at Haven. It won't be ready to take off as soon as you are, but it should only take fifteen minutes or so."
"Fifteen minute wait, five minute flight. Will twenty minutes be too long?"
He shook his head. "It should be fine. They were in there for almost an hour today."
"So you'll keep watch on the warehouse, and let me know when one of them goes in…"
"And then you drop in and finish this thing."
They smiled at each other and nodded. Neptune walked over to the fridge and pulled out a carton of milk. Weiss lanced over the blueprints for a while longer, trying to plan out her plan of action once she got inside. She'd have to take out one or both of the guards on the roof—depending on where she landed—and cut through the roof. There was no other way to get in without risking being seen.
The plans showed two floors to the building: a ground floor and a basement. Once she cut through the roof, there was a maze of rafters which she could use to move around without being seen. If no one was on the ground floor, then she'd have to sneak down to the basement.
Her scroll rang again.
There were two ways into the basement: the stairs and the freight elevator. The stairs would be watched, so she had to climb down the elevator shaft. From there… she'd have to wing it. There could be any number of people in there, and there was no way to plan for it.
She sighed and sat down again. The sun had set now; the sky was still lit, but was darkening quickly. She could see stars shining here and there.
"Hey," Neptune called. "Do you want to answer this?"
She glanced over at him and—after a moment's thought—nodded. He picked up the still-ringing scroll and tossed it to her. With a swipe of her thumb, Weiss opened the scroll and answered the call.
"Hello?" She glanced back out the window.
"Uh… hi, Weiss."
Weiss frowned and glanced at Neptune, who was watching her with an expression of curiosity. The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it. "Who is this?"
There was a moment of silence. Weiss opened her mouth to ask again—
"It's Ruby."
The floor seemed to shift under Weiss' feet. Her heart leapt into her throat so fast she thought she was going to throw up. Neptune looked at her with concern at her sudden change of expression.
"R-Ruby… Hi." As nervous as Weiss was, just being able to say those two words made her heart soar. Neptune's eyebrows nearly shot off his face; he downed the last of his glass of milk and left the room. Weiss heard the apartment door open and shut and footsteps walking down the corridor outside. She smiled silent and unseen thanks at the man.
"How've you been?" Weiss continued.
"Aaah, you know. Getting by. How about you?"
"Y-yeah," Weiss chuckled. "Me too."
They sat in silence for a while, neither of them knowing what to say.
It was Ruby who broke it. "Sorry I didn't get your call a few days ago. I'd have called back sooner but—"
"No, no. It's fine!" Weiss cut in. "You were busy; I get it."
"Yeah… busy…" A hint of sadness made its way into Ruby's voice.
"Ruby… Are you sure—"
"So anyway!" Ruby cut her off. "What've you been up to?"
Weiss smiled to herself. Typical Ruby. "Just working; nothing too exciting. Yourself?"
"Yeah, just… working." Weiss felt a stab of heartache at Ruby's hesitation; Blake had told her all about Ruby's self-destructive monster hunting crusade. "Been working a bit too much, really," Ruby added with a small chuckle. "I've been thinking of getting away for a while, taking a little holiday."
Weiss' heart started beating faster, and her breathing quickened. "I-Is that right?" she asked, hoping she sounded normal.
"I… uh… yeah. I thought it might be good to get out of Vale for a few days. Maybe head to another kingdom for a while, see the sights. Maybe… Mistral…"
Weiss almost laughed, despite her overpowering nervousness. Ruby had always been about as subtle as a bullet to the face. "Funny you mention Mistral. I'm actually there now, working a job."
"Oh… is that right? How's that going?"
"Good. We're just waiting things out now; but everything should be sorted within a few days. Then uh… I'd… be happy to show you around the city…"
Another moment of silence. Weiss thought she heard a muffled sob and struggled to fight back tears of her own.
"That'd be great," Ruby finally answered.
"Yeah… Yeah, it would." Weiss smiled. She glanced at the blueprints as she answered and had a sudden brainwave. "Hey, you know… if you're feeling up to it—I know you're coming here for a holiday—but I could probably use some help with this job."
"Oh… Y-yeah, sure. Of course. I'd love to help. But… aren't you working with Neptune?"
"Neptune can't drop out of a moving airship like you can." Weiss smiled. Ruby was the only person Weiss knew—besides herself—who could drop out of a moving airship. "It'll be like old times: dropping out of the sky, taking out the bad guys."
Ruby laughed. The sound made Weiss' head spin and brought a tear to her eye. She hadn't heard that laugh in over a year, and hearing the sound of Ruby's happiness made her heart soar all over again.
"Yeah," Ruby answered. "That sounds like fun. I'll be on the first airship out."
"Wonderful." Weiss hadn't felt this happy in a long time. "Let me know when you're going to get in, and I'll pick you up." This is it, she thought, Ruby's going to be a part of my life again. She couldn't keep herself from grinning.
"Awesome. I guess I… I'll… I'll see you then, Weiss." Ruby's voice broke when she said her name, and Weiss laughed quietly.
"Yeah, Ruby. I'll see you then." She went to end the call, but remembered something. "R-Ruby!"
"Yeah?"
Weiss sighed. "I just wanted to say… that… umm… I… I'm…" I'm sorry. Try as she might, she couldn't get the words out.
"I know, Weiss. Me too…" Weiss smiled as she felt a tear spill down her cheek. "I'll see you soon," Ruby finished. The call ended.
Weiss looked at her scroll for a minute, trying to convince herself that she'd actually had that conversation. She smiled, cried, and laughed. Her heart was a roiling mess of emotions, and she couldn't even pick out an individual one that she was feeling. Joy, she told herself. That has to be the main one…
Weiss slid her scroll closed with a smile and set it back on the table. Her chair creaked as she leant back and closed her eyes. This is it, she thought to herself again. Gods… I love you, Ruby Rose.
In the semi-darkness of the early evening, a woman gazed up at an apartment building in Mistral. She stood under a streetlight, with her arms crossed. Her clothes were almost entirely blue: a short, light blue, silk skirt, with dark blue shorts underneath; a deep blue blouse; and a short, thick jacket. Her boots and stockings were black, as was the belt she wore at her waist. Two long knives—almost swords—hung from the belt; she wore one knife on each hip, and had an assortment of small Dust canisters attached to the rest of the available space on the belt.
The woman pulled out her scroll and dialled the first number in her contacts list. On the third ring, he answered.
"Good evening, Ao. Is everything going smoothly?"
"Of course," she answered with a smirk. "You left me in charge here for a reason, didn't you?"
"Just making sure," the man laughed. "Even you make mistakes sometimes."
"Myrka Vald!" Ao cried with feigned outrage. "When was the last time I made a mistake?"
"Uh… Atlas?"
"That… That doesn't count."
"Of course it doesn't," Myrka muttered, resigned. "Anyway, what's going on?"
"The Schnee girl is hot on my tail. My guards saw her boyfriend spying on the warehouse today when Randall came by. They know where we are now."
"Excellent. So it should only be a few days before she tries to break in."
"If I were her, I'd have someone watching the warehouse, waiting for one of the board members to go in, and then make my move. So I'll tell Randall to come by again tomorrow; that should draw her in sooner—before she has a chance to call in back-up."
"I'll leave it to you then. Make sure she dies, Ao."
"Of course," Ao replied. "How are things in Vale?"
"Moving along smoothly. I had to pull back the Grimm—Beacon was sending out too many extermination parties—but the Talon is managing to sneak in easily enough."
"Have you got any intel from—"
"Yes," Myrka cut in. "A very effective spy, I must say. An excellent choice on your part. It took a little while, but now we know where they all live; I'm planning the invasion so that I can kill as many of them as I can along the way."
"Is it just the three still?"
"There's seven now. I've heard about a team that seems very close to them, so I figured we'll kill them as well. Ruby Rose, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long, Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren are all marked to die."
"I recognise those names… From the incident with the White Fang, yes?"
"Indeed."
"Well, consider the Schnee girl dead. You take care of the rest."
"Of course," Myrka said, his voice full of confidence. "Now, once she's dead, I'll need you to head to Vacuo; matters still aren't exactly settled there, and I'll need the rest of the Talon in Vale for the invasion."
"I'll take care of it."
"I know you will. Thank you, Ao, for coming this far with me."
"We've been in this together since we started, Myrka. I'd never abandon you. Especially not after coming this far."
"I'll meet you at the top. Once we take Vale, the world is ours."
Ao grinned. "Make sure the cushion on my throne is blue."
Myrka laughed. "Of course. Best of luck to you, my friend."
"And to you," Ao replied before ending the call. She looked up at the apartment building again with a sigh.
Weiss Schnee, she thought, I hope you enjoy your evening. I wish we could have avoided this, but by this time tomorrow, you'll be dead.