(Chapter 20)

Two weeks after the attempted shipyard heist, the gentleman thief was keeping a low profile while pondering over the decisions he'd made as of late.

There was zero doubt that what transpired at the docks had reached Cinder, though possibly fortunately for the cigar chain-smoker, she'd yet to make any attempt to contact him, not even so much as a short scroll text. Having only ever spoken to the black-haired femme fatale a handful of times, Roman hadn't been able to build a complete profile on the woman yet, but he didn't need to.

Roman let out a heavy breath of smoke as he rose from the soft sofa he'd been sitting on in the dark. He stood still for a moment as he was captured by his thoughts, staring unfocusedly at the smoke rising from the lit end of his cigar floating towards the ceiling, before moving the lit tobacco away from him and letting it rest in an ashtray on the cocktail table in front of the sofa.

He reached down as he began to slowly make his way towards the sole source of light in the room and procured the untouched glass of scotch he'd made for himself however earlier, carrying it with him as he approached the penthouse window.

Within seconds that passed like minutes, the self-made man stood as he looked down upon the city of Vale. Flashing lights of every color you could imagine filled the streets, lined buildings, and lit up the city so late at night that when you looked towards the sky, you couldn't see but only the biggest, brightest of stars if you were lucky.

And Roman hated it.

He took a slight draw from the glass of scotch, and welcomed the smooth, warm feeling it gave him on the way down. Soon enough, his signature hat found its way to his head, as he made his way out to the balcony. He was met with a gust of Vale's November air, and smiled as he could see his breath on the winter air while looked over the city, though this time with a certain fondness.

Truly his was a love-hate relationship with city life.

But he'd sat in the dark paranoid of an assailant or the authorities with his cane in hand long enough over these last couple weeks, and knew that what he needed was a chance to think, a chance to rest, and most importantly, a chance to come up with an exit-strategy for himself and his ice cream colored partner.

His scroll vibrated and he reached into his pocket to retrieve it, looking at the message sent to him by his partner with a small smile. He sent a short message back telling her to make her way to him, before storing the device back from where he'd retrieved, before taking out a pair of compact binoculars and a wireless earpiece that was synced with his scroll.

The view from the penthouse he'd gave him a perfect vantage point over where he wanted to observe, and with it being so dark, and him so high, there was little chance of him being seen by anyone. The reason this hotel was the perfect choice for him to wait and watch was that his balcony faced North-East, which gave him a perfect view of the shipyards and ports of Vale.

His scroll began to vibrate rhythmically, and he placed the earpiece into place before pressing a button that answered the call he was receiving, already knowing who was on the other end.

"Roman."

"Cinder, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

Despite the ease with which the flame-headed criminal slipped into his suave tone, the expression he wore didn't match the words he spoke as he adjusted the focus on the binoculars to have a clear visual on Cinder and her two followers.

"Let's not play games Roman: we've succeeded in infiltrating Haven and building our cover. I decided that we'd transfer over to Beacon a tad earlier than anticipated."

The classy criminal couldn't help the humming noise that left his mouth as he voiced a thought to his unwanted boss.

"I wonder, won't that look just a tad suspicious?" The question was intended to probe about the situation subtly, but Roman had little doubt that the woman on the other end of the line knew that.

"It would, if it wasn't for the other squads that we are arriving with. There's neither too many nor too few of us arriving this early that we'd draw excess attention towards ourselves."

Something had the intimidating woman impatient he realized. The man watched as the squad stood in a line that led to an official's booth so that they could have their identification papers verified. The squads they were arriving with didn't seem altogether special, save for maybe two teams.

"Now, onto more important matters; the dust. Are you on schedule to meet the amount of dust I requested?"

'Requested she says.' The thought was followed by a mental scoff as he focused back on the conversation at hand.

"We were scheduled to be at sixty percent of the quota by New Year's Eve." The man paused as he stopped speaking for a moment to take a drink from his glass of scotch, his eyes barely ever having left the group.

"And now?"

"We are at…roughly eighty-five percent, if you round down that is." There was a brief silence that followed due to Neo, Cinder, and her followers offering their papers to the official at the booth, and once they were far enough out of earshot, the half-maiden returned her attention to the man on the other end of the scroll call.

"Oh Roman~ I do hope you're not embellishing your efforts to save face, especially after your failure of a heist two weeks ago." The woman's attempt to either get a predictable reaction from him failed, and he couldn't help the bit of cheek that entered him when he corrected the information she had.

"Why would I embellish anything? What the news makes public, and what actually happens are two separate things entirely." Cinder could practically hear the smug face that the thief wore and wanted nothing more than to strangle the life out of him at the moment, but instead chose to keep her composure.

"For your sake, I hope what you're promising won't disappoint. Since I'm in Vale, I'll have plenty of time to check on your labor." The man simply hummed in response to her threat as he glowered at the sadistic woman through the lens of his binoculars.

"Keep me updated on your progress towards reaching my goal, and next time, ask permission before you attempt to do something so public. I'll be in tou-"

"Actually Cinder, we have more business to discuss." The ill-tempered woman frowned, which brought Roman a smile as he had the pleasure of seeing it from a safe distance away.

She was clearly not pleased at being interrupted mid-sentence, but the classy criminal couldn't care less, he had something he had to do.

"Oh~ and what would that be?" There was a tinge of curiosity in her tone, and after the briefest of sips from his liquid courage, he answered.

"I believe we need to renegotiate our…arrangement."

The woman stopped walking causing her followers to mimic the action, and the thief watched as a near unnoticeable glow began to emit from the clenched hand at her side. Her bangs covered her eyes from his sight as her head tilted forward a bit.

"Then, would you happen to have somewhere in mind to meet. I'd love to explain terms in person."

"No no no, that won't be necessary. You see its quite simple; come December, Neo and I are going to be taking a bit of time off. We'll be leaving Vale for a few weeks to attend to some…personal affairs of mine. In exchange, I'll get you an extra half as much dust for whatever it is that you have planned. Sounds quite fair to me."

There was a brief silence before he was met with a lowered voice devoid of any form of patience.

"It seems I didn't make myself quite clear when we first met. Allow me to make it easy for you to understand. I don't make deals. If I tell you do something, you will do it. If you don't…well, what happened to your leg will seem like a slap on the wrist. You will stay in Vale and obey my commands. Do you understand?"

"Unfortunately Cinder, that isn't going to work for me. You threatened to kill me and my partner if we didn't work for you, and you made it all to clear that you weren't going to pay us. Then, you made Neo stand by and watch while I was,"

A slight shiver went through the man as he recalled what happened to him, before he gripped the binoculars a tad too tight, shattering the glass within as he continued to speak.

"well, you remember. And as of late, I've been working on and off the clock to bring in the dust."

"And you're point? You're beneath me Roman."

In response the man grit his teeth, before taking a deep breath to calm himself and letting the destroyed binoculars fall next to his feet on the balcony.

"If you're going to be unreasonable…then I suppose you don't need any of the dust I've worked so hard to collect up till now. I wonder how you'll manage…"

"Are you threatening me Roman."

"No, I'm negotiating with you. I have something you need, and what I want costs you nothing. I'm even offering to procure extra of the goods just so that I can take the holidays off. If anyone's threatening anyone, it's you."

There was a moment of silence, and the thief could hear bits and pieces of the ill-tempered woman explaining what was happening to her followers. He waited patiently as he downed the rest of his glass until he was met with his answer.

"Fine, you two can have your little…vacation. But, you will deliver double the amount of dust we agreed upon, just an additional half won't suffice."

The man smiled devilishly on his side of the call, satisfied that he'd gotten the deal he'd been aiming for. Knowing the woman's parasitic nature from the few interactions they'd had, Roman knew that she'd want more than whatever was being offered in exchange to let him off the leash for even a few days. So, he purposefully low-balled his offer to an extra half, predicting that she'd demand double, which was exactly what he was aiming for.

Roman had been in the game of crime for more than just a few years, and the one thing he always did was trust his gut. And his gut was telling him that if him and Neo finished this job, they weren't likely to walk away from it scot-free, if at all.

"A pleasure doing business with you."

With that, the flame-haired man ended the scroll call and sent Cinder the location of the warehouse he would have the dust collected to so far sent to, before taking out his earpiece before walking back into the living room of his penthouse. As he pulled the curtains, he heard the telltale sound that accompanied his partner's semblance, and let a rare fond smile cross his features as he turned to regard her.

"Good to see ya Neo."

The girl made a few motions with her hands, and the taller man just scoffed as he brought a hand to his forehead.

"Yes, your ice cream is in the freezer; and no, I didn't have any." The girl gave him a smug grin in return and skipped over to the kitchen to fix herself a snack.

A few minutes later, the two sat next to each other on the sofa in the now lamp lit room, both glad to have each other's presence nearby again. Neo was engrossed in watching a favorite show of hers and eating her frozen treat, while Roman was rereading his favorite book and taking occasional appreciative glances at his partner.

'Just another day in the city.'

(Atlas)

Meanwhile, Jaune and the rest of the joint squad between teams JCKP and WICK were assembled in team JCKP's room. Jaune had decided that Whitley made a good point a few weeks back, and that he should go ahead and share his reason for being in Atlas with the rest of the squad. It helped his confidence approaching the issue when his three teammates and Whitley told him that he'd have their full support.

After unveiling his secret to his friends, there was a brief silence as Ivori, Ciel, and Kobalt seemed to be in thought over what they'd just been told. After a few more minutes of tense silence, it was Ivori who spoke up first.

"I don't see the problem."

The comment got a look of relief from Jaune and his team, as well as Whitley, but Ciel and Kobalt gave him a look that wanted an explanation of his reasoning.

"Besides you, no one got hurt. You accepted the risks the moment you decided you wanted to be one of us. Granted, you technically broke the law to get a chance, but it shows you have resolve."

The tan teen gave a smile and looked over to the other two who hadn't decided yet, and unsurprisingly, it was Kobalt who made his decision next.

"On one hand, you put your teammates at extra risk by having a non-trained combatant with them, making you a liability," This got a wince from the blonde as he nodded in response to the blue-haired teen's words.

"but on the other hand, I've known you for a few months. And the Jaune I know would've risked his life to protect any of theirs. So, there's no reason for me to be upset with you as far as I can see." With that the blonde perked up and met his squad mate in a fist bump, before waiting on Ciel's verdict.

A few more minutes passed before Jaune was about to call her name, but she stood up and began to address him.

"I don't like how you got enrolled."

This made the mood take a turn, as everyone's faces were either apprehensive or straight worried at Ciel's impression of the blonde would be.

"I don't like that you broke the law to do it. And I hate that you waited this long to tell us." For a good minute, nothing else was said as the dark-skinned girl sat there with her legs crossed, and it felt as if no one breathed since it was so devoid of sound, before finally, the beret wearing girl sighed and continued.

"But. You had your reasons, and it sounds like you're a victim of circumstance rather than someone without a spine." As she said this, more than a few sighs of relief went through the group before the girl continued.

"If you had come here after everything you told us happened and put zero effort into improving after being named a leader, then there wouldn't be any hope of us ever working together. But you train longer than any of us, you study just as hard as us, and you still find time to be a friend. So, I suppose I can still accept you as one of my leaders."

The girl stood from where she sat and reached a hand towards the blonde, who shook it earnestly, before a grin came over him as he took the center of the room to get his team's attention.

"Alright guys, so you know how I told you about my former friends back at Beacon? And you know how we're supposed to basically be a PR squad?" This got a round of nods from Jaune's friends as he began to let them in on his plan that had been cooking for months.

"Well, a few good people over there were nice enough to, oh I don't know, record my former friends during their joint training sessions for me." This caught the knightly teen's friends by surprise, and it was Whitley who recovered first and decided to question his friend.

"Just how long have you been planning this…" The blonde met his friend with a smirk.

"Since the moment I withdrew from Beacon. I've been planning on showing up and beating them in the Vytal. But that was before I met you guys." The blonde looked up to the ceiling, thinking about how far he'd come so far, and the bonds he made to this point before he smiled and continued speaking.

"Beating them in the Vytal isn't good enough. I want to win and show everyone what we can do." The teens around the room looked at Jaune with a bit more respect before they grew smiles of their own. The blonde turned to Whitley and pulled out his scroll while he addressed him.

"I have her and her team's recordings on here too." The white-haired teen took a moment to think about what his friend was implying before his eyes widened. The youngest of the Schnee siblings stood still for a moment before he began to chuckle with a smirk on his face.

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's start analyzing what our future opponents are capable of." Everyone began to shift around the room while Jaune moved the data from his scroll to his computer so that him and his friends could watch the recordings on a slightly larger screen, and once everyone was comfortable, he sat down on the chair next to the desk and hit play.

"So first up, team RWBY, they like to use team attacks and…"

From where Penny sat, she looked on fondly at her partner and with a bit of what she could only assume was pride. He'd found the courage to tell his deepest secrets to their friends, and now, she felt somewhat conscious of her own.

As she listened to her precious partner and her squad mates ask and answer questions to each other, she let herself remember the conversation she'd had in private with her father once she returned from Vale.

(Flashback, Two Weeks Ago, Atlas)

The normally excitable android walked calmly towards her father's private laboratory and office within Atlas, her mind clouded with questions that arose after the brief moment her and her partner shared at Junior's club. When she attempted to enjoy the atmosphere like Jaune, the world stopped being the way she normally perceived it.

Sounds, no, the music made…something stir within her. The lights and the colors swirled around in her vision as she moved on the dancefloor, but made her feel…grounded? And then when her and her partner danced together?

Her cheeks reddened at the memory, and before long she sat in her father's laboratory as he prepared to run a full diagnostic test on her.

"Darling, you're not scheduled for another full diagnostic for two weeks; is something the matter?"

Truth be told?

"…I…don't know." She wanted to say more but kept staring down at her hands where they rested in her lap. Soon, one of Pietro's own larger hands laid itself upon her own, and she looked up to see her creator looking mildly concerned.

"Why don't you try telling me what going on then, I might be able to help." The girl gave the dark-skinned man a brief smile, before she let out a sigh and looked down again.

"Recently, I've been subject to strange feelings." The man's eyebrows rose before he leaned back in his chair as he stroked his beard.

"You don't say…and when did these feelings start?" The girl seemed to think for a moment before she'd managed to secure herself an answer.

"When Jaune and I went on our trip to Vale, the first night we were there, we ended up watching movies together in our room..." The girl blushed a bit, while her father began to hypothesize about what could have made her experience, what he prayed to the brothers, were emotions.

'Could something in the movies have triggered some sort of emotional response from Penny? But that's-' Before he could continue, the man's android daughter finally managed to finish her sentence.

"…while I sat in his lap as he ran his fingers through my hair…"

The man blinked in response.

Oh.

Oh.

The man let a wide smile erupt on his face as he placed the scroll tablet down on the desk that his legged chair was resting beside.

"I see, tell me Darling, what else did you and that nice young man do?" The girl in response began to poke her index fingers together as she touched upon what the two of them did together in Vale, from him trying all sorts of foods for her to the night they went dancing. She also spoke of how Jaune's former group of friends from Beacon made an appearance and how vulnerable he looked, a rarely seen look of displeasure marring the girl's features as she did.

When she was done, her father wore a look that she couldn't quite place, but she knew he was positively ecstatic about something. The man made his chair take him to the center of the room as he held Penny's hand, guiding her gently beside him until they reached where the elderly man wished for them to be, and turned the chair so that he could face his daughter.

The chair powered down as he leaned forward and put both of his hands on the girl's shoulders before he began to speak.

"Darling, it sounds like you have the perfect partner in that young man." The girl responded with a small smile as she thought of the blonde before nodding her head to her creator.

"And judging from your time together in Vale, I daresay the two of you had a date." The girl paused at the word, but before she could defend the time between her and her blonde partner, she thought about the definition of a date in this context, and what that could have meant between her and her partner. And then her face turned a deeper red than her hair as she covered her face with her hands.

"Penny…look at me Darling." The girl kept her hands in place for a few extra seconds before letting them fall away as she looked into her father's eyes.

"There's nothing wrong with you at all. In fact, from what your telling me, we shouldn't be worried, we should happy." The man let his hands leave the girl's shoulders as he took one of her hands between both of his own and explained why.

"Those strange feelings are true, human emotions." The girl almost seemed alarmed at the revelation and didn't hesitate to question what the genius man meant.

"But you said that I might never develop such things since I'm an artificial human."

The man let her hand go before he walked over to the large white board on the wall and began drawing diagrams as he took a bit of a lecturer's tone.

"True. But I also said that whether you did or didn't would ultimately depend on you. It seems that your plethora of newfound friends, especially that partner of yours, helped you feel beyond what you were programmed." The man brought the girl closer so that she could see what he'd drew as she stood in silence.

"Emotions are what humans feel, and sure, you could let a stuffy old textbook tell you that they're just changes in your brain, we scientist still argue as to what emotions really are. Some believe that our emotions are feelings created by the mind, while others believe that they come from the soul."

"And which do you believe Father?" The question was driven by a desire to know more about herself, and the spectacled man answered in a way only he could.

"Personally, I believe that you need both. That's why when I created your intelligence, I didn't program you to feel certain things and not others, I made it so that you'd be capable of feeling any emotion that a person could. Once you had your mind, all I needed to do was give you a soul. Now the only things separating you from a human are all the inconsequential things like organs and blood and such."

The girl stood in thought over her father's words looking over the various quickly drawn diagrams that he'd displayed for her, before his words stole her from her thoughts.

"Let me ask you this Penny; what happens when you think of your partner?"

"I've been told that I tend to blush a lot whenever I'm around Jaune. And then the strangest thing happens. I get this…floaty feeling near my navel. It flutters, I think? It happens especially whenever we're alone together, and it makes me want to be around him more." The man gave a soft smile as he took off his glasses to clean them as he asked the girl a question.

"Would you like to know what that emotion is commonly called?" The girl nodded her head rapidly, ready to put a name to the emotion she was unfamiliar with. In no rush, Pietro put his glasses back on as he answered the girl.

"Love."

(Present)

The joint squad between teams JCKP and WICK had finished their first official strategy meeting, having discussed making shared training sessions a more frequent occurrence, as well as the steps both teams would take to be at or surpass their future foes' levels come the Vytal Festival.

The blonde was on the rooftop again, stuck in his thoughts remembering his last night in Vale. He'd accepted the apology of the ginger berserker he'd once called a friend, but he'd made it clear to the girl that he wasn't ready to forgive her, not yet.

Of course, when he told her this, she looked as if she'd begin bawling again at any moment, before a sudden realization passed in her head.

Jaune had said 'yet'.

When she asked him about what that meant, the knightly teen explained that he was still deeply hurt by their actions, but at the same time, he wanted to let the past be just that, the past. And before he knew it, he did something he still wasn't sure he regretted or not. He made a promise.

A promise that he'd try and find whatever it was that kept him from letting go of that day and move past it, and that once he'd managed to do that, then he'd be able to forgive her. The hammer wielder stood across from him with tear tracks staining her cheeks, before she wrote down her scroll I.D. before walking back towards Junior's bar unlike her usual self.

As the blonde looked down at the piece of paper he'd kept from his former teammate, he wondered when that day would come.

Yes; when.

After all, Arc or not, Jaune always made good on his promises.

(A/N)

Last chapter of the year.

Gotta say, I'm ready for this year to be over, and for us to never speak of it again.

But besides that, I hope you all had a Happy Holiday season, and that you continue on to have a fantastic New Year!

Link to the discord, as usual, is below!

/dSbQbK7FTy

Besides that, thanks for all the support Y'all have given me over this year.

I began writing this story as something only for me to read, then a friend got to read it, then told me I should put it out, and now, here we are. It really is a nice way to relax, writing such a long story.

I love reading your comments, and I'll see you in the new year!

B.J.H.