"Today's the day!"
"Ruby, keep it down please! It's too early for this much excitement." Weiss whined as Ruby was practically bouncing on the spot.
Saturday's were always a joy for them, mostly in the fact that the weekend gave them a chance to relax from the lectures all week. Usually that meant getting the chance to sleep in. Sadly that didn't seem to be the case for today.
Ruby rushed to the bathroom, and shortly after the sounds of running water could be heard. Yang groggily lifted her head from her pillow.
"Someone tell Rubes to keep it down, mamma needs her nap time."
Weiss could only roll her eyes at this. Yang was usually the first one up, always wanting to get her hair taken care of first thing in the morning. But there she lay, tangled in her blankets, not wanting to move an inch.
Realizing she wasn't going to get any more sleep with Ruby up and about Weiss slowly slipped out of bed. Stretching a bit as she stood and reached over to her drawer, opening it up as she started getting her things ready for when the bubbly child finished her shower.
"What's got her so up and about?" Blake asked, not even trying to lift her head from the covers.
"Give me, give me a moment... to think." Yang grumbled out as she turned over, eyes still glued shut as her face scrunched up.
Seconds went by as the pair waited for Yang to answer. A few more second went by as Weiss began to grow impatient.
"Yang?" Weiss asked as she waited.
"..."
"Yang." Blake asked this time as she let out a sigh.
"..."
"YANG!"
"WHA-OOF" Yang let out as her head popped up, nearly tumbling out of bed.
"What was that for!? I'm not deaf ice-queen!"
"Maybe try answering next time instead of dosing off." Weiss gave as she took a seat on her bed, content on waiting for Ruby to finish up so she could have her turn.
"I was, I was just in deep thought, that's all."
"Of course you were." Blake gave as she finally popped her head out.
"I'm serious! Now, as for Ruby... today's Saturday right, so that means..."
Yang looked to be actually thinking this time, meaning Weiss didn't need to strain her voice any longer. Yang snapped her fingers as her face lit up.
"Ah ha! The oil!" She said with a lively tone.
"Oil? Yang you're going to need to be more specific." Weiss said as the sounds of the shower stopped.
"Lil sis placed an order a while ago for a special brand of lube for Crescent Rose, only the best for her 'baby'." Yang told as Weiss still held a questioning look, ultimately deciding to just accept it as a 'Ruby thing'.
"Hey Yang!" Ruby could be heard calling from the bathroom.
"Yea?" Yang called back.
"Could you, maybe kind of... hand me in a towel... and some clothes. I kind of forgot them when I got in." She squeaked as Yang started giggling.
"Yang! Please, I'm dripping all over the floor!"
Weiss let out another tired sigh as Yang grabbed some of the girls clothes from the drawer.
"Yea, yea sure Rubes, I'm on my way." She let out as she walked over to the door, still laughing somewhat.
"What a way to start the morning." Blake commented as she stepped out of bed, doing her own set of stretches before grabbing one of her many books.
Blake hopped back in bed with her new reading material as Weiss looked to her.
"You're not getting up?"
"Not today, just planning to relax. Might go for a walk later this evening, maybe." She answered as Weiss looked over.
She saw Yang walking back over with a cheeky grin, Weiss didn't like that grin.
"Yang, what did you do?" She asked as Yang took a look of surprise, bringing a hand to her chest.
"Me?! Why I would never do anything. How could you accuse me of anything other than perfect civil behavior?" She let out as Weiss still held her suspicious gaze.
Before she could speak up the door to the bathroom burst wide open.
"Aaaaaand I'm back!" Ruby cheered as she zipped to the desk.
"Ruby, please slow down. You'll hurt yourself." Weiss let out as she stood and made her way over to the bathroom, turning to give Yang one last look.
With that the door shut, Yang's grin only grew as Blake voiced her curiosity.
"So, what did you do."
Yang kept her grin as she answered.
"Wait for it..."
"XIAO LONG!"
Yang let out a series of laughs, Blake looked to her as she just managed to point at Ruby. Looking up Blake was able to see the young girl holding something.
"Is that... the soap?"
Looking over she was able to see all the various bottles from the bathroom just lined on the desk, atop Ruby's outstretched cloak now acting as a covering for the desk.
"To early she says, pffft. Shows her!" Ruby let out as she gave a dismissive look.
"Uhh..." Blake let out as she looked to Yang.
"I may have told her what Weiss said." The laughing girl spoke, having seemed to calm down now.
"Teaches her for trash talking my baby!" Ruby let out with a look of anger... well, more of a pout really.
"Trash talking? She never trash talked anything." Blake said as Ruby lost her rage face.
"Say what now?" Ruby spoke as she looked to Yang.
"Okay, so maybe I might have exaggerated a bit." She answered as a look of horror spread across Ruby.
.
.
"I'M SO SORRY!"
"I GET IT JUST STOP!" Weiss yelled back as the smaller girl paced beside her.
"I-I know I just-"
"Stop! Please, just stop. I told you it was fine six times now!" She consoled as Ruby still held herself smaller.
"I already told you it was Yang's fault, so can we please stop making a scene?" She went off as Ruby took a moment to look around.
"But there's nobody here." The girl spoke as Weiss facepalmed.
"That, that doesn't mean you need to keep at it." Weiss sighed as they kept walking.
"Fine, it's just that Yang said-"
"Yang says lots of things, doesn't mean it's true. I've already got something in mind to get back at her little 'prank' anyway." Weiss told as she looked over to see the blank face of Ruby.
"What?"
"Weiss, your pranks suck." Weiss took a look of indignation at that.
"W-what do you mean!? My 'pranks' are top notch!"
"What are you going to do, replace all her blue pens with red ones?" Ruby questioned as Weiss' face turned a deeper shade of red.
"N-no!"
"That doesn't sound very sincere."
"You'll see! I'll show you the best practical joke you'll ever witness."
"Keep telling yourself that."
Weiss chose not to rise to the bait, having seen the slight grin on the girl's face. It was too nice of a day to let anyone get the best if her. She let out a sigh as they continued down the barren street. At least Ruby wasn't upset anymore, that was a success however small.
"So, Yang said you were picking up something you ordered today?
"Oh, yea! My shipment should have arrived today, thanks for coming with me to get it." Ruby let out as she seemed in a better mood now.
"It's fine, I needed to get some extra dust anyway. Used most of mine back for that experiment we did on Wednesday." Weiss clarified as the two of them had a slight cringe at the memory.
Needless to say things didn't go exactly as planned, at least nobody got hurt... aside from Jaune's water bottle. He should have known not to have it next to the gravity dust anyway. At least they got some towels afterwards.
The two continued on for another ten or so minutes, taking notice as people started going about the day. Ruby looked down at her scroll, noticing that it was currently a little past eight.
"Place should be open now, we can speed up."
"Finally!" Weiss let out as they picked up the pace.
They'd been circling the same street for the past half hour, Ruby's early rise having put them a little ahead of schedule. They made their way through a crosswalk as their quick pace would have them arriving before anyone else reasonably could, baring there was no one camping outside the shop.
Luckily for the duo they didn't take very long as they soon found themselves just across from the place they needed to be. Unluckily for the duo that place was currently surrounded by police tape.
They were able to see a few officers looking over the very obvious (and quite messy) crime scene. Inside the window the shop looked to have been hit by an earthquake with even the isle looking to be toppled. The two were able to overhear some of the exchange between the police investigating, currently talking with what Weiss assumed was the shop owner.
"And nothing else was taken?"
"No, just the dust. It's always the dust."
"And there were two lots of them?"
"Yes sir, broke out into a fight right as they saw each other."
"So they weren't working together?"
"No."
Weiss let out a grumble as she pulled Ruby away, intent on letting the police handle the issue. Another dust theft, nothing new as far as Vale was concerned.
"Ah-Weiss, not so hard!" Ruby coughed as her cloak pulled against her neck from Weiss' sudden motion.
"Oh, sorry."
Ruby rubbed the area around her neck, righting her cloak as she looked to Weiss.
"Why did we suddenly leave?" Weiss shook her head as she gave Ruby a look.
"We can't be in the way of their investigation." She answered as Ruby looked downtrodden.
"But, but my package." She whined as Weiss shook her head.
"We'll have to get it some other time, it looked like they had another run in with the White Fang." Weiss spoke with a sour look.
"How do you know it was them?" Ruby asked as Weiss scoffed.
"Please, it's always them. They've been reported stealing dust since the start of Beacon. Filthy criminals, hopefully something gets done about them soon." Weiss let out a breath as she held a more calm look now.
"So, why don't we try heading somewhere else. Some of the other shops might have some dust left in stock." Ruby took a second to think.
"Okay, but when can we come back, I still want my package."
"Probably a week or so, depends on wither they get the crime scene situated away." Weiss answered as the two started on the move again.
.
.
"And this *cough* is where we used to plan our missions" Shade spoke as Ruby looked on in awe.
False awe that is, because clearly this place hasn't had a good cleaning in a while. If the upstairs had felt moldy, then this was downright toxic.
A heavy coating of dust was practically growing from the walls and surrounding furniture. She walked over, blowing against what looked like a lamp. A cloud of dust flew up into the air, making her cough heavily as she shut her eyes to avoid the sting of it.
Opening her sights again she was able to see just how thick the dust really was, assuming of course that it was only dust. From the way it looked so far that seemed to be the case. The lamp looked to be in alright shape, no major breaks or cracks across it. It would seem that the room was just dirty.
"It's a good room, just needs a bit of sprucing up is all." Shade gave as he cleared some of the dirt from the table in the center of the room.
"I'd say 'wash' would be a better term." Ruby replied as she cleared off a chair, noticing that it was actually a bar stool, just covered in cobwebs.
"It's been years since anyone's been here, cut me some slack."
"No slacking off on the job."
"Oh real funny that one, such a jester." He said with a roll of his eyes, Ruby holding her smirk.
"Throwing out any potential disease from all the filth in here, what's the plan to get me into the castle?" She asked as Shade himself sat as well.
"Not anytime soon, place is locked up like a fortress." Ruby gave him a blank stare.
"Okay... poor choice of words; anyway, deal is that getting in undetected is nearly impossible right now."
"Yea, that's why I asked." Ruby clarified as he sighed.
"Smart ass, look we need some time to observe for a bit. There's never really Been an attack on the place before. Sure we've had some criminals and groups come at the walls around the city, but never a direct attack on the court." Shade explained as Ruby shook her head.
"So what you're telling me is you've got nothing."
"For a lack of better words... yes." He answered, at least having the curtesy to look embarrassed.
Perfect, just what I needed. Light it up and fizzle out halfway there.
Not the optimal way she wanted things to go, but storming the castle on her own presented too many risks. She looked over, seeing Shade clearing away more of the dust around the room. Too bad dust crystals weren't as prevalent as the dust in the room, might have been able to blast her way to victory.
Instead she would just have to wait, Shade said they'd look over it. Why knows, maybe they might just be able to squeeze out a plan given some time. No use trying to force their way in under the hopes of it all just working out.
Standing up, Ruby rolled up her sleeves.
"Alright, if we're stuck here for the time being we're going to make the best of it. This place is a mess, even the wilderness is cleaner than this." She declared, pointing to the stairs as Shade looked her way.
"Get up there and get us any cleaning supplies you've got. We're making this place livable again!" She ordered as he gave a salute.
She watched as he marched animatedly up the stairs. She rolled her eyes as she looked over the room, planning the optimal way to store everything away. Ruby wanted to make the best use of the space they had. She laughed a little on the inside as she caught herself.
Looks like you rubbed off on me Weiss.
.
.
"What do you make of it Qrow?"
"Same as last time Oz."
Both men looked over the report. Just last night Qrow had asked Junior to try and get info on the White Fang, and with the criminal side covered they were now covering the legal rout of things, reading through a copy of the police report.
"They never got as much dust this time." Ozpin mumbled as he was able to see the aftermath of the battle that had taken place, the police pictures capturing all the angles of the scene.
"They weren't the first ones there." Qrow spoke as he received a nod in return.
"True, I highly doubt that little scuffle was planned." Qrow agreed as he slipped his flask back in his pocket.
"Yea, an informant of mine tells me that the criminal underworld isn't too keen on the White Fang either. They're starting to run low on dust too."
"Explains why they've started stealing it, they want to ensure they have some supply for the coming year." Ozpin theorized as Qrow took a seat.
"I don't like this, it's too much dust." Qzpin agreed with that.
"Yes, it's highly likely they're planning something big."
"And that's not the worst of it. Oz, tell me what's wrong with this." Ozpin looked up as Qrow continued.
"A highly known terrorist group who's main strategy of attack are public spectacles, is suddenly gathering large amounts of dust and storing it away. What's wrong here?"
Ozpin took a seat in his chair, linking his fingers together as he lay his head atop them.
"It's quiet." He answered as Qrow gave a nod.
"Exactly. These people are known for their displays of destruction, yet nobody, not even the underworld has any clue as to what they're doing with all that dust. Heck, we don't even know where they're hiding it." Qrow took a harder look as he continued.
"The only times they've gone quiet was right before their larger attacks. Bombings, shootouts, executions, you name it. The only times they stay quiet is when they have a plan." Ozpin looked over the report again.
"Yes, it is quite concerning. With Salem involved, wither they know it or not, this is a surefire sign of something major. This isn't your everyday Grimm or terrorist attack; no, when Salem's involved, the only outcome is death." Ozpin told, standing as he slammed his hands on the desk and catching Qrow's attention.
"I want you to locate them. I don't care how you do it, we need to stop this as quickly as possible. Use all your possible sources if you can, Salem's plan cannot be allowed to come to fruition." Qrow nodded as he stood up.
"I'll get on that."
"One last thing Qrow, I want you to contact me as soon as you locate them. Do not, and I repeat, do not engage if you see them. Call me, and I'll deal with her little experiment myself, Understand?" Ozpin spoke, getting a nod from Qrow.
"Right; don't fight, call you. I got it."
With that Qrow left, the ding of the elevator signaling his decent as Ozpin sat down once more. As much as he worried about what Salem had planned, he still needed to think about the Vytal Festival.
They still had to determine the spacing of the various stands that were scheduled to arrive, as well as what stand got what space. They needed to come up with a layout that had all of them visible and easily reachable.
Normally it was first come first served for events like this, not for the Vytal Festival. It was a festival of peace, so having a bunch of people fight over 'who got what' would make them all look bad. And so it was up to the host to determine the placement of the attractions, to avoid all the bickering.
The Fang on their own could be worked around, (at least according to the council) meaning that Beacon still had to handle this setup and execution of the events. As much as he would like to try and dig deeper into the White Fang, he didn't have a viable excuse to justify it.
Unless of course the White Fang got tired of the waiting and did something major, but what were the chances of that happening.
.
.
"Are you kidding me?!" Sienna let out, irritation clear in her voice.
"No, as far as I'm aware we'll leave some time soon." She heard V speak as she sat down.
Fuck! Another thing to worry about!
And so, the list of things she hadn't heard of continues to expand.
"Okay, fine, I can work with this. Keep me updated." She said as she stood, walking over to her desk and taking out a folder.
She opened it up, taking a pen and writing down on one of the pages inside.
"I will, anything else you need?" V asked as she looked over the notes.
So far she had begun to categorize the various bits of information, the assignments and contacts that she was unaware of. She was done with being left in the dark, and she didn't believe a word of the bullshit Adam was peddling.
Forgot my ass!
The second she heard that she knew it was a lie, and from the way that V spoke he knew it too. Oh how she wished she could be there, just to beat some sense out of Adam. But she couldn't, not yet.
Adam was already onto her, V had all but confirmed that, and yet V had also survived. Sienna had lost contact with her previous spy, no doubt disposed of by Adam. It had surprised her, she had actually been right with her previous guess on Adam's reaction to V.
So he wants V for something...
Question was, what? Why did Adam want V, other than being strong. That would be good, if the answer was really that simple. But she knew better. Adam had a use for V, something that would be much easier with him around.
"There is one thing you can help me with."
But that would have to wait, right now she needed to set her own plans in motion.
"What is it?"
"Well, I have something in mind, but it requires you to speak with someone else."
"Someone else?" He asked as she closed her folder, slipping it back in the desk.
"Yes, but I need time to set things up first. I'll call you when, alright?"
"Sure, if that's all, I'll take my leave."
And so the call ended, and Sienna set her scroll back in her robe. That was the easy part, and now came the hard bit.
She left her room, walking down the hall as she nodded to the guards she passed. Making her way through and out of the base she headed about. She passed several people, each making way for her as she put on her best calm face.
As far as they were aware she was just spending her time relaxing a bit more. She stopped as she reached the docks, deciding to continue along as the crowds of people thinned.
Her destination was the far edge, usually reserved for shipping. Normally it was the most active during the Vytal Festival, with some Faunus choosing to go see it in person. However with the festival not quite here yet the place was all but abandoned.
This made it the perfect place for her right now.
"Done spying yet?" Sienna called as she looked up.
There, standing on top of the small dock house, she was able to see Ilia as she appeared against the roof. Ilia (deciding to show off from the looks of it) leaped off the roof, doing several flips as she landed in a roll. Sienna gave a small clap as Ilia stood and walked up to her.
"What gave it away this time?" She whined as Sienna chuckled.
"Yes, however was I able to see the blur rushing between rooftops. Truly it must be a spring of luck." She taunted as Ilia crossed her arms.
"Alright I get it, Stay off the roofs until night." Ilia stretched her arms behind her head.
"So... you out on a walk again?" She asked as Sienna nodded.
"Well I was, but now that you're here I was thinking that I could take care of something."
"Really?" Ilia asked as Sienna waved her closer.
"Yes, it's something that I can only trust you with." She spoke as Ilia came closer.
She led Ilia over against the wall, motioning her to sit. She did so as Sienna proceeded to let out a breath.
"Good, now that we're alone we can talk." She said as Ilia looked puzzled.
"What do we need to talk about?" Ilia asked as Sienna looked over at her.
"Simple, I need your help."
"My help?"
"Yes, your help, are you willing to do it?" Sienna asked as Ilia stopped.
She was able to see Ilia take a moment to think to herself. Several seconds passed by before Ilia turned to her again.
"Okay, fine. What do you need help with?"
"That's the spirit." Sienna said, only for her face to darken immediately after.
"Listen, I've been keeping tabs with some of my contacts across the various different locations of the White Fang's operations, and let's just say that things aren't looking good."
"What do you mean?" Ilia asked as Sienna gave a flat look.
"What do I... Ilia, how many times have I already talked about just how stupid the grunts are?"
"Yea, what about it?" Ilia asked as Sienna sighed.
"Ilia, if they were only stupid here I wouldn't care, I'd be able to deal with them. The problem is that they're stupid everywhere. The amount of times I've gotten word from my contacts talking about their sections latest fuck up could fill a book!" Sienna practically yelled as Ilia held up her hands in defense.
"Okay, point taken. So the others aren't up to stuff, where do I come in?" She asked as Sienna took a moment to calm herself.
"That's the easier part. After looking at how each branch of the White Fang operates I began to notice something. All of the branches were filled with countless failures, all except one." Sienna grew a smirk as she continued.
"I'm sure you remember Vermillion right? Kid came out of nowhere, helped me out a little." She asked as Ilia nodded.
"You mean the one you personally recruited right?"
"The same. Do you know why I got him in with us?" She asked as Ilia shook her head.
"You didn't say. Actually, you never told anybody anything about what happened. We just assumed you two were in bed with each other." Ilia spoke as Sienna stuttered.
"What! W-we're not!"
"Really? Because you were spending an awful lot of time together. Multiple walks, a trip, you even invited him to your room and spent the rest of the day with him afterwards." Ilia was smiling now as Sienna had gone beet red.
"That's not it at all! I was checking him out!"
"So you admit it."
"Not like that!"
Sienna took a moment to calm down again as Ilia was still giggling. After a moment of breathing she turned back.
"I was checking to see if he was a spy. His sudden appearance made no sense so I decided to follow him around for a bit, see what he was all about." She clarified as Ilia had calmed down.
"Okay okay, I believe you. So you were saying?" Ilia spoke as Sienna let out a sigh and relaxed again.
"Alright, so I was checking him out. Things were fine up until something came up, I asked if he would help me and he said yes. We went out to deal with the problem and I was able to see how good he was with that fancy sword of his." Sienna spoke as Ilia grew a mischievous look.
"Not like that! Anyway, turns out he's better than I thought. That itself wouldn't be anything special, but... let's just say he had some other skills that made him more than meets the eye. So, seeing as he was better than most of our current force I decided to try and put it to use." Sienna's tone got lower as she leaned into Ilia.
"Turns out that the 'one branch' that wasn't consistently reporting back failures to me was the Vale branch, the one lead by Adam Taurus. Despite how little they report back to me it's usually only success. And so, I put together a little team and sent them out to work under him. He's obviously doing something right, so I decided to ask Vermillion to watch how he does things."
"So you can give better orders to everybody else." Ilia finished for her as she nodded.
"Exactly!" Sienna responded as Ilia looked confused again.
"Alright, so that's why you sent them out, but what do I have to do with this?" Ilia questioned as Sienna tensed a bit.
"That's the issue, turns out things aren't quite that simple. Vermillion's been reporting some of the things they've been coming across, and it's not pretty. It's why I want your help. I'm gonna give Vermillion your number."
"Huh?"
"Look, I've got my hands full with dealing out orders to everybody else and can't take the calls from him all the time. What I want you to do is take them for me, write the information he gives down and hand it over to me later, got it." Sienna finished as Ilia nodded.
"Okay, sure. That sounds easy enough."
"Thanks. Oh, and one other thing." Sienna said as both of them stood up.
"Yea?"
"If Vermillion reports something super serious, like a massive attack on base or just something that's incredibly disturbing, I want you to come to me. I'd rather deal with those as soon as possible got it?"
"I can do that. So only if it's extreme right, just write everything else down."
"You got it. I'll come to you when I'm ready." Sienna replied as Ilia started to walk off, only to turn back.
"Wait, you're not coming back to base?"
"Not yet, thought I might take in a bit more air before I go back to screaming at the stupid." She gave as Ilia had one last laugh, walking off.
Sienna let out a breath as she looked out to sea again, letting the stress and worry wash off. Ilia hadn't been planned like that, honestly she wanted to meet her later on her way back at base. But how could she resist picking fun at the wannabe ninja when she was just so obvious. Sienna had been left with one thought after that exchange.
Well, that went easier than expected.
Author's note
...
Alright, here we go again.
This time I thought it might be nice to finally start introducing the rest of the main cast, not all of them though. Let's be real here, it's about time that team RWBY starts to matter. I can't develop them if there not there.
I also gave a small snippet with future Ruby as well, she won't be showing up much yet, I need to set some things up first. She'll get her time again don't worry, She's a main character along with V, and I have plans for her.
Other than that, let me know hat you think. See you later.