Here we go.

Cover Art: Mystery White Flame

Chapter 11

Once upon a time, like most children, Roman had played with trainsets and imagined being a conductor. He'd meant driver, of course, but no child really understood that a train conductor wasn't a train driver and the title just sounded better. The current situation might not have been what ten-year-old Roman Torchwick had in mind, but he'd be damned if he didn't enjoy himself.

"HONK! HONK!"

The train echoed as he pulled on the horn, droning out his shouts with a far more forlorn horn trapped in the tunnel. Far, far behind him, four huntresses and one traitor fought against the combined might of the White Fang with their robots.

"Man, I hope the dog lives."

"What, sir?" asked Perry, fidgeting nervously.

"The dog, Perry. Didn't you see it? Cute little ball of fluff."

"You... uh... like dogs, sir?"

"Of course I do. What kind of monster doesn't? Don't own one, but only because my lifestyle means I wouldn't be able to give it the walks it deserves, but how can you not love that endless loyalty and optimism? Dogs don't betray you. Dogs love unconditionally."

"Some people like cats more."

"Yes, well, some people like cock and ball torture, too. It doesn't make them normal."

Perry laughed nervously.

"What's wrong, kiddo? We're on a suicidal journey to end our lives for glorious faunus freedom, democracy, or whatever it is you lot want to die for." Roman pulled on the horn again and shouted over it. "Isn't this what you've been wating for!?"

"I thought it was!" Perry yelled. "But now I'm scared!"

"Really? Scared of dying in a fireball? Who'd have thunk it? That's called being sane, Perry. And there's a reason the leaders of the White Fang aren't here dying for the cause with you. You're expendable. Replaceable."

"I'm not sure I want to be!"

"A little too late to have this epiphany, Perry. If I stop this train, the Grimm catch and kill us. Carry on and it's a glorious death."

For him, anyway. Cinder's plan involved Roman being captured. Ugh. Give him death. He could just imagine the news reports going on and on about how a bunch of children brought him to justice, like he hadn't been forced to fake his defeat to them. No one would accept that, though. They'd honestly think he was weak.

"But I want to live! I want to live!" The faunus hunkered down into a squat and cupped his head, crying through his mask. "I don't want to die!"

"Geez, Perry. You're bringing down the mood." Although. "Hm. Tell you what, I don't hate you – not as much as I do the other idiots willing to die for the cause, so how about I give you a little advice, huh? Something to help you maybe get out of this in one piece."

Perry tore off his mask and stared up at Roman. He had an average face, unremarkable, but that only served to make him feel even less suited for a life of terrorism. That was the face of someone who should be going to college, getting a useless degree, settling for a shitty job and falling in love with a coworker over boring water-cooler banter before settling down for some odd sense of contentment as he raised an average family in an average home before dying an average death at the ripe old age of eighty.

He really didn't have a "die in a blaze of glory" look to him.

"A—Anything, sir. Anything!"

Roman grabbed the idiot's shoulder and surged his aura. "For it is in our infamy that we achieve immortality, though this we become a paragon of deceitful glory to rise above all others. Infinite in potential and unbound by law, I release your soul, and by my shoulder, set thee free."

It was an intimate thing, or so he'd been told by kinder people who cared to unlock the aura of young huntsmen. Roman had neither the time nor the inclination, so instead of teasing that door open within Perry he kicked it down and stomped inside like a serial killer. The faunus yelped as his body burned from within, a dull yellow glow permeating his skin.

"W—What was that!?"

"That's aura, kiddo." Roman turned back to the train controls. Not that he had much to do with them, but he didn't want to show Perry how much that had taken out of him. "You have aura now. Congrats. Course, it won't be too much use without training, but unconscious aura shielding is a thing that happens. It's typically passive, but you'll find yourself taking a little more to die, taking a little more to be knocked out, and overall being a little healthier in life. Oh, word of warning. Grimm will notice you a lot more now, and probably prioritise you in a pack of people. Downside to wearing your soul outside your body when there are monsters hunting us down."

Perry opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. "Not like that matters, does it? Dying to Grimm in the future or dying right here and now. Of course I'll take the Grimm."

"That's the spirit! Now, I'm going to suggest you head on back and get into one of those lovely mechs, and that you not fight the huntresses coming here. You should focus on surviving the crash and getting away – and then quitting the White Fang once and for all."

"I... I will. I will!" Perry ran for the door. "Thank you, sir! I'll never forget this!"

"Oh. One last thing, Perry."

The faunus paused in the doorway. "Yes?"

"Do keep in mind that I've done you a solid here today, hmmm? It'd be great if you could repay that favour down the line."

"I... I will. I'll repay it. Whenever I can."

"Who knows, kid? Maybe that moment will come sooner than you think."

/-/

The rear train cars had begun to decouple. Roman knew that because it turned out the lead car got a little warning whenever that happened, which kind of made sense since losing a carriage full of passengers was probably the kind of problem someone in charge of a train should be made aware of.

Just maybe.

Either way, the brats were doing their job admirably. It was almost certainly them and not Oobleck, because the old prick had a poor record for saving people trapped in tunnels with bombs.

They were still four fifths of the way to Vale before the door behind him slid open.

"About bloody time," he muttered, turning around. Any longer and they'd have hit Vale, and that would be awkward. "It's— Huh. Not Red." He looked the faunus in black and white up and down. "Which one are you again?"

"Roman Torchwick!"

"Uh. No. That would be me."

The girl blinked. "No, I mean... I'm saying you are Roman Torchwick."

"Which is a fact I am deeply aware of. Is this going somewhere?"

"I... Look, can we start over?" The girl walked out, closed the door, opened the door and walked back in. "You!" she accused. "Stop this train immediately!"

Roman crossed his arms. "Have you gotten rid of all the bombs?"

"Yes," she sneered, smiling victoriously at him. "You won't be able to rely on those anymore."

"And the mechs?"

She blinked. "Mechs...?"

"Damn it, Red. You had one— Okay, you had two jobs, but they weren't difficult ones." He shook his head. "Never mind. The train doesn't stop. Do you know why, kitty-cat?" He reached back and yanked on the brakes.

Nothing happened.

"It's because this train can't stop. Turns out the downside of interrupting the White Fang before they can finish repairing a train is the fact that they – shocker! – don't get to finish repairing the train. Brakes were a last concern for them. Dumb animals."

A bullet pinged by his ear.

"I'm sensing some hostility."

"They're not animals!" she hissed, the hairs on her ears poking up to try and make her look taller. Adorable. "And they wouldn't be here doing this if you hadn't let them astray!"

Roman held up a hand. "Whoah, whoah, whoah. What now? I led them astray...?"

"You... The docks," she said, a little weakly. "You were in charge of them."

"Who ever said that? I was commissioned to help out, but I didn't decide the heist or have any control over them. They just listened to me because I'm the professional thief." He rather enjoyed taking the wind out her sails. "And this? You must be joking. Do you really think they need me to plan a terrorist attack with bombs? That's been their M.O long before I arrived on the scene."

"But—"

"And they've been working on this for a while now, while you lot saw me at the museum a couple of days ago." He twirled Ozpin's cane for emphasis, then clicked it down onto the metal grating. "So, I think the words you're looking for are that they led me astray."

"What!? That's not true!"

"Isn't it? Have you ever heard of Roman Torchwick bombing a population centre? Doesn't sound like something I'd normally do. By the way, did you run into a faunus without a mask on the way here...?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Yes. He surrendered so I let him go. You're the ringleader."

"Okay. First of all, good. Secondly, are you going to stick to that bullshit even after I've proved it wrong?" It looked like she was. Roman sighed. "See, this is why I hate your kind of person."

"Faunus?" she snapped.

"No. Teenage girls."

"W—What?"

"What?" he asked back. "Are you telling me you don't realise you're the worst entities to exist on this planet? So cruel, so catty, so vicious – and always with the mind games. Good lord. But worst of all, you'll stick to being wrong even when presented with evidence. At least terrorists believe in the nonsense they spout."

"Enough of this!" The girl shook her head and pointed her weapon at him. "I'll beat you, then stop this train!"

"How? I already told you it has no brakes."

"Then I'll stick your body under the wheels to slow it down!"

"Heh. I just have one question for you, kitty-cat." Roman leered at her and took a stab in the dark. "Will hurting me make you feel better? Will it take away all the pain you feel deep inside?" Her wide eyes said he'd struck bullseye, so of course he doubled down. "Maybe you should consider joining the White Fang yourself. You certainly have the mentality for it. After all, you're good at holding others accountable for your own mistakes—"

Her leg came in toward his face at what to her must have seemed quick.

But it was slow to him.

Which made it all the more galling that he had to close his eyes and let it land.

His back hit the carriage wall and he clumsily brought Ozpin's cane up, casually missing her strike which buried her blade in the aura over his stomach. She fired at point blank range – and that bloody hurt! It made him reflexively bat her away, sending her somersaulting back onto a crouch before she charged in.

If there was any solace in the situation, it was that there were no cameras to record his throwing of the fight. Cinder wanted him bested, but he could at least let it happen in the dark where he could pretend it had been a better fight. Against all odds, the idiot didn't bother to dodge his cane. The reason why became apparent when his weapon ploughed through her body and got caught in a clone made of rock.

Clone based Semblance, huh? Elemental, too. Based on dust by the look of her weapon, but why would a Semblance be influenced by dust...? That doesn't even make any sense. It's her soul for crying out loud. Does she eat dust, too?

She appeared behind her clone and kicked him in the face, knocking him free, then ran in again. This time, he caught her clip feeding up and heard the click of a new dust round over the clunking of the train tracks. Because he was looking for it, he also noticed her hair become a little less affected by gravity. It was like her whole body had shivered and become weightless.

Does she really think someone is going to fall for the exact same trick twice in a row...?

The galling part was that he had to. The stupid twat could at least give him a fight where it was plausible for him to lose. Damn it all to hell. Roman groaned and rolled his eyes as he struck the clone, and sarcastically said "Oh noes" when it exploded into a fireball and sent him soaring away. "How could I have ever anticipated you using another clone?"

"You're outmatched, Torchwick!"

His eye twitched and, for a moment, he considered actually disarming her and feeding her into the train's engine for that insipid comment. But no. Cinder had a plan, and Cinder would kill him if he was the one to ruin it. Roman took a deep breath through his nose and released it out his mouth, then resisted the urge to splatter the cat across the inside of the car.

"This is why I'm a dog person."

Because a dog would have known better than to send in the clones for a third freaking time, and a dog would have known better than to believe he was knocked out when his back hit the wall and he collapsed on his front, cane skittering away from his hand.

A dog would have also not bothered with stomping over his body, grasping the brakes, pulling them, and then shouting, "It's no use! I can't stop the train!"

On the ground, feigning unconsciousness, Roman banged his forehead on the metal grills and wished she'd really knocked him out and spared him this bullshit. He drew his aura up instead, wrapping himself in it as ice crept down the walls and into the car. The Schnee was covering the front of the train in solid ice.

Why, though...?

I can't believe Red is the sanest person on this team.

Roman smirked a second before impact. It was time to see if his plan worked out.

/-/

Cinder smirked as she, Mercury and Emerald "did their part" in helping to secure the breach and protect the innocent people of Vale. The blast was not as large as she'd expected or demanded, but it was also several days early, so she supposed she should be pleased it had happened at all. Something had gone wrong and for once she knew it wasn't Roman's fault.

It was hers for being intercepted at the CCT tower.

Not that she'd ever admit it to him.

Still, for all that the hole wasn't as big as it should be and the loss of life not as great as it could be, there was a hole, there were Grimm, and she'd seen Roman slumped among the rubble ready to be captured by General Ironwood and taken to his flagship. He was already surrounded by Atlas soldiers.

Everything was going according to plan.

Until, suddenly, it wasn't.

A large mech swept out of nowhere and scattered the soldiers, sending them ducking for cover. It skidded across the floor, swept Roman's body up in one mechanical hand and – before she could even think of how to stop it without revealing herself; Ruby Rose having seen her fight with swords and bow at the CCT, and Goodwitch having seen her use her fire before Beacon began – he was off. The robot tore away with an unconscious Roman in his grasp.

Cinder's jaw dropped open.

Her plans.

Her carefully crafted plans.

"Um." Emerald tugged her arm. "W—What do we do?"

"Roman. This must be his fault! That must be Neo—" A finger tapped her elbow and Cinder looked back. There was a pale-skinned, black-haired, green-eyed girl behind her. Neo had arrived in her disguise as instructed.

Cinder poked her in the forehead just to be sure it wasn't an illusion.

Neo's nose scrunched up and her eyes crossed as she tried to look up at the finger pushing against her skin. The girl was real, which meant that she wasn't piloting the vehicle already taking Roman away, which meant that Roman hadn't gone against her orders. Cinder stared between Neo and the fleeing mech, then bit the bullet.

"What happened?"

Neo shrugged.

/-/

Roman let out a groan and clutched an ice pack to his face as the door to his apartment was kicked open. He lounged over the back of his sofa, dust and soot from the crash over his clothing and skin both. There was blood from a cracked lip, and that at least wasn't faked. The impact had sent him crashing around the train car like a pinball in a machine, and while aura had prevented broken bones and death, it hadn't quite prevented his tooth catching on his lip.

If only an aura a day kept the dentist away, Remnant would be a better world.

"WHAT HAPPENED!? Cinder howled. "YOU HAD ONE JOB!"

"Cinder, hey." Roman faked a weak cough and cradled his ribs. "I was hoping you would have an answer for me. I thought the plan was to let me be captured. Why did you change it to a last minute rescue? New plan?"

Cinder paused.

He'd injected doubt into the conversation. Roman was many things, and an excellent actor was one of them. He'd actually say he was a better actor than a thief – because showmanship and magician work was important to become a gentleman thief and not some two-bit mugger.

"Explain," she ordered.

"What is there to say? The White Fang operation was rumbled not half a day after I arrived. A team from Beacon dropped in, but I told them to stay quiet and avoid trouble. Mountain Glenn is a big place and it's not like they'd stumble upon us. Sadly, the White Fang were a little gung-ho and captured one of them."

Her eyebrows rose. "They captured a huntress?"

"Shocking, I know, but you can ask that Ruby Rose girl in Beacon. She's the one they caught. Idiots even brought her back to the camp thinking to make some stupid video execution to show off online." He rolled his eyes. "I cut that off before everyone online figured out from the background where we were." Cinder nodded. "But the absolute tools didn't think to remove her scroll before they took her."

"Fools!" Cinder snarled.

"Tell me about it. By th time I deactivated her team tracker, they already had our location. I got us all on the train before the plan was ruined and set us going, but they managed to get on board, Disconnected the carriages to let the bombs detonate far away from Vale, but they weren't able to stop the train."

He smirked, knowing Cinder would double-check this with Team RWBY by feigning friendship with them. That was why his words needed to coincide with that the teenage girls would say. Their stories needed to match up.

"I snapped the brake mechanism so it couldn't be used. Dumb cat didn't know what to do – and I staged a loss to her as you wanted me to. Last thing I remember is ice creeping over the front of the train from the Schnee—"

"Why...?"

"Beats me. Maybe she thought a thin sheet of ice would break the impact."

Emerald perked up. "Maybe it was a thick sheet around her and her allies?"

"Wouldn't that freeze them to death?" asked Mercury. "Or just break them in two when it snapped?"

Cinder silenced them with a wave of her hand. Roman continued. "So, there I am half-playing dead but mostly just on the verge of consciousness in the aftermath, waiting to be picked up by Atlas and hoping the Grimm don't get to me first, when a bloody mech piloted by a White Fang member comes and gets me out of there." He flicked a finger her way. "I assumed that was your decision since, you know, you're the one calling the shots here. Not that I could have stopped him anyway."

Cinder gnashed her teeth together. "Did the White Fang member say anything to you?"

"Something about how they weren't cut out for this and how they were leaving the organisation forever." Roman chuckled. There might also have been mention of a repaid debt, but Cinder didn't need to know that. "You did tell the White Fang that the whole plan was to get me captured, right? You filled them in on that?"

Of course she hadn't. Telling them that would mean admitting that the attack was little more than a means to a greater end, and these were civilians. They didn't want to know they were going to die just to masquerade him being picked up by Atlas. They'd have jumped ship the second they heard that. Like she did with him, Cinder would have kept them in the dark.

"I will speak with Adam," she hissed.

"Who?"

"You do not need to know."

"Ah, as you wish then." He smiled sarcastically. "What now? Are you going to deliver me to Atlas and say you captured me as the team of goodies you are? It might work, though I reckon they'd pay an awful lot of attention to you."

"No. We don't need that attention. This..." Cinder took a deep breath. "This is salvageable. Hiccups happen. Not every plan will go as intended. I am fully capable of adapting to unforeseen circumstances."

Heh. How cute.

"I know you are, boss. And hey, it's the White Fang's fault this all went wrong, right? They're the ones who got caught, they're the ones who exposed themselves, they're the ones who couldn't defend the bombs, and they're the ones who ruined the plan by getting me out of there. If I were you, I'd be having words with them about their performance. They've been slacking ever since the dust robberies."

"Indeed." Cinder's eyes burned with fire. "They have let me down one time too many. This is what I get for relying on a group that hasn't achieved anything since their inception. The fools struggled to even steal dust from defenceless shops without causing a scene."

"Good help is so hard to find," he commiserated. "But at least you have me."

"How lucky I am."

"Hey." He leaned forward. "I know I may be a cocky piece of shit, and smarmy to boot, but you have to admit I get the job done. The White Fang did their best to screw you seven ways by Sunday, but I still delivered to Vale a train, cracked open a hole, and nearly got myself captured. I did my best to scrape something out of this, Cinder. I really did."

"You... did..." There was an amusing amount of reluctance in the way she said that, as if she had to scrape together the words. "For all your many flaws – and they are many – you have at least managed to retain some degree of competence." Cinder huffed. "Await further orders. Stay out of trouble for now and carry on as you have. Don't act unusual. I'll be borrowing Neo as planned. That much hasn't changed."

"I'm at your disposal," Roman lied. "Call me when you need me."

Cinder nodded and departed, taking with her Emerald, Mercury and Neo. On the way out, Neo turned and flashed him a pleased smirk and a nod. He returned it with a wink, and then the door was closed and they were gone. Roman still counted to one hundred before throwing his head back and laughing at the top of his voice. He'd stolen victory from the jaws of defeat.

And he'd be damned if it didn't feel good to get one in over Cinder as well.

You're not as infallible as you think, Cinder. It makes me wonder how much more I can take from you before all this is said and done. He kicked his feet up onto the table and leaned his head back. Yes, I rather think I like that idea.

"Make Roman Torchwick your peon, shall you? Perhaps it's time I showed you and Vale who is the true king is."

Uh-oh. Roman is getting serious.

Next Chapter: 23rd April

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