Work is super fun right now. Arghhhhh. Suffering.

Cover Art: Mystery White Flame

Chapter 15

Ruby Rose needed to die.

Is what Roman wished he could be plotting, if it wasn't for the fact that, as his nemesis, he'd be the first suspect to any mysterious death involving the girl. All eyes would instantly swivel his way, either to see if he was responsible or, thanks to her inability to keep her mouth shut, to see if he wasn't about to declare vengeance for the death of his... of his... of his lover.

Roman retched.

Stupid, bumbling, idiotic girl. She wouldn't know real flirting if it snuck up on her in a dark alley and strangled her to death. She was at "that age" and she was obviously sheltered as anything, because you had to be a certain kind of teenage idiot to think that someone was flirting with you when they were regularly kicking your ass. It was the same kind of idiocy that led people to bully those they liked, and which most people grew out of by the time they hit eighteen.

But, of course, Red was a little girl and was still childish in many ways.

Most importantly, physically. How the hell were people actually thinking a suave lady-killer like him would be into someone like that? He liked curves, damn it. Curves! Smoking hot women with confident smiles and dark, smoky eyes. Not pale midgets in petticoats wielding outdated weaponry. Worse still, his fan site was flooded with debates over it, and there was even fanart of them together.

The internet was a dark, dark place.

About the only good thing to come from this shitshow was that the relationship drama was taking centre stage, doing a fantastic job of obscuring any mention of Red having found all that evidence he'd inconveniently left around. Atlas and Ozpin had it now, and Cinder was none-the-wiser because all she knew was that he'd tried to steal a gem, failed, and ended up in an alleged relationship with an underage girl. Cinder was enjoying taking the piss out of him in their irregular chats, and while that was painful to deal with, it was a lot better than her realising he'd set her up to fail.

The only problem was waiting for the "good guys" to piece the information together. He hadn't been able to dump intel scribbling "CINDER FALL IS EVIL" all over the place. That would have been so obvious that the authorities would think it a ruse, and assume he was trying to frame someone innocent for his own crimes. They'd have to investigate, and Cinder wasn't going to be walking around with evidence on her, which meant she'd be acquitted, she'd find out where this all came from, then hunt him down and kill him.

Instead, it was records of their texts with the name removed, blurred photos, references to meetings that they might be able to dredge up CCTV footage from. Times and places, locations where the White Fang were hiding out, and some of his old safehouses and lairs. Along with it, he'd had to sacrifice a lot of his own assets and personal wealth, because he had to make it look like they were succeeding and nothing would have them cooling off to focus on the Vytal Festival like a wild goose chase.

So, Atlas was busting his old safehouses. He was losing money and places to run to. It was unfortunate, but Atlas would be riding the high of these victories and continue digging into what must have felt to them like a treasure-trove of information. They'd keep up the pressure and, with any luck, find some evidence pointing to Cinder.

And even if they didn't, they'd know he was being forced into this by someone else.

"It'd be so easy if I could just call them up and tell them," Roman groaned, "but they're not going to trust the word of a criminal. Not to mention they have to do everything by the book. Bloody red tape is going to be the death of me."

Innocent until proven guilty and all that.

Vale didn't have time to run Cinder through the damned court system! Ugh, where was the good old fashioned vigilante justice when you needed it? If only Red was a little less bumbling twit and more stone cold killer, though she might have ended his life in that event. Swings and roundabouts and all that.

Roman sighed and flipped out a cigar to puff on. The company behind them had even revoked his sponsorship given, in their words, the "concerning revelation about his relationship status with an underage girl". Seriously, come on. They were cigars for crying out loud! Leaving aside the fact they were literal drugs, cigars were a staple for fat, rich men marrying girls half their age. He'd have thought it'd be a big hit.

"Cost me my dignity, Red, shame on you. Cost me my sponsorship...? Bloody hell, if I didn't need you to deal with Cinder..."

But he did.

Regrettably.

Was there time to do something to correct the misconception over him and Red? Common sense said no, and that preventing Cinder's plans should be the ultimate goal, but egotism said yes. Fuck Vale. If stopping her meant living with that kind of reputation, he'd be better off letting Vale go down the toilet.

"No. No. Focus, Roman. Focus." He pinched his forehead and massaged it tiredly. He'd never had headaches like this when he was younger. "There has to be a way to inconvenience Cinder and clear up this nonsense at the same time. A two-for-one deal. Think. Think!" His scroll went off. Roman wasn't even surprised to see who was calling and answered with a groan. "Hey Cinder."

"Good day, Roman. I'm not interrupting, am I?"

"No. No. I always have time for you."

"Really? Good. I was worried you might be busy with your young girlfriend for a moment..."

Roman choked. Cinder brought this up every time and yet each utterance still hit him where it hurt – right in the ego. "Not funny," he growled, knowing Cinder very much disagreed on that front. "That brat is a pain in my ass."

And, with any luck, she'd be a pain in Cinder's too.

"I'm sure. Well, Roman, the reason I'm calling is that I actually have a job for you."

"A job, huh?"

That was telling. Cinder's original plans for him had been scuppered when he evaded capture, then scuppered a second time with the theft of Amity. Since then, she'd been making things up on the fly and, for the most part, keeping him out of it.

What did it mean that she wanted to bring him in now? Did she have an important task for him, or was this just to get him out the way? Maybe she planned something big on her end and wanted him literally on the other side of the city where he couldn't "accidentally" ruin her schemes.

"Well," he said, rolling the cigar in his mouth. "I'm all for helping out, of course. What is it you want me to do?"

"It seems our dust stores with the White Fang are being raided by Atlas..."

"Useless animals." Roman's poker face was exceptional. "What did those idiots do to draw attention? All they had to do was not put their masks on and not look suspicious."

"I'm not sure. Perhaps Atlas' information gathering is better than expected, or maybe they got lucky."

"They might have got hold of one of them and got the information out of them. That's the problem with civilian contractors like this, Cinder. They don't have the discipline to stand up to even the barest of police threats."

"Indeed. Regardless, the dust isn't entirely important now that... now that the plan has changed." Cinder didn't want to admit that he'd caused her plans to change, so went with pretending she'd done it on her own. How very amusing. "Instead, I need you to create for me a distraction. You're awfully good at that."

"What can I say? When I speak, people pay attention."

He could almost hear the roll of her eyes. "Yes, well, this will be a chance for you to do just that. I need you to do something that will draw all eyes in Vale your way. Something ridiculous, theatrical, and downright ridiculous."

It sounded like she wanted the distraction of all distractions.

"Fair enough. What will you be doing?"

"That isn't important for you to know."

"Are you sure? It's just that when I didn't know the plan last time, I accidentally went and ruined it. I don't want to give you any more reason to be angry with me. It's the first day of the Vytal Festival as well, isn't it? It's going to be difficult to drag all eyes away from there if that's where you're planning something."

"Are you digging, Roman?"

"More like I'm pointing out the limits of my ability. You know as well as I that everyone is going to be focused on the tournament. I'm good, but to draw attention I'd need to interrupt that, and I'm not sure if that's going to have you wanting to murder me."

Cinder was silent for a long while.

Considering.

"It isn't necessary for you know what I'm doing," she eventually said. "But I will warn you not to be anywhere near the stadium. Is that clear enough for you?"

So, she had something planned about the fights. Something that meant she didn't want them stopped or postponed past today. There wasn't enough dust left for her to cause an explosion there, but that didn't mean she couldn't cause some chaos.

"To be clear, you're fine with me doing just about anything so long as it draws attention and I'm not in the sports stadium?"

"And as long as it doesn't somehow cancel the tournament that day."

Clever. Cinder was pushing back.

"I'd never do that but, to make sure, you still want me to do this during the same time, right? To draw attention – and probably law enforcement – away from the stadium."

"Correct."

"Okay, I can do that. Just keep in mind there's no way I can draw all of them away. They're obviously not going to abandon all those people with the White Fang known to be around."

"That won't be a problem, Roman. As long as the attention of the likes of General Ironwood and Ozpin are on you, I will consider this a job well done. All you need to is draw their gaze away from the stadium."

"Sure thing, boss. Is your team fighting today?"

"We may be. It shall be luck of the draw."

"Well, good luck if you are."

Cinder chuckled. "Thank you, Roman. Good luck with your new girlfriend."

He hung up on the bitch.

"Well, well, well," he said, addressing the empty room but pretending Neo was still there to listen in. "Cinder wants me to draw attention away from the stadium while she and her little minions get up to something. Hmmm. It's going to be hard to convince anyone to look away when the fights are ongoing. People have been looking forward to this for months. It's all that anyone talks about on the television..."

Roman paused. A slow smile spread across his face and he brought up his hand to rub his chin.

"Now there's an idea..."

/-/

As the first day of the Vytal tournament arrived, now hosted in a sports stadium on the ground instead of the floating (sunken now) Amity Colosseum, one would have been forgiven for thinking literally everyone in the city was converging toward it.

That simply wasn't the case.

While it was a national holiday and almost every business aside from bars and restaurants hosting viewing parties were closed, there were a few other businesses that really had to stay open. One was the VNN – Vale News Network – who were all hard at work running the day's television coverage of the tournament, to which they had exclusive rights as the chosen broadcaster of the kingdom hosting the tournament.

Their footage and correspondence was being broadcast all over Remnant, including analysis from experts, commentary from sports commentators, and plenty of expensive advertisements in the segments between the matches. It was a busy day for them, and possibly the biggest responsibility they'd been handed in the last four years.

Of course they'd hired security as a result of that.

But, with the White Fang about and the very real and known threat of an attack on the tournament by said group, all the good security was already busy at the stadium. That left second-rate agency security hired locally, which didn't slow him down much as he sauntered out the elevator, leaving the unconscious bodies inside as he adjusted his cap and coat.

The studio beyond was busy beyond belief, with screens all over one wall and people working on the most complicated workstations he'd ever seen. Hundreds of little buttons and dials, and everyone wearing big headsets to block out external noise. They were chatting rapidly, while each screen showed a different angle of a fight just wrapping up. Another showed a group of people behind a desk, analysts, and a third showed Lisa Lavender sitting behind a white desk with her colleague, a guy that Roman didn't recall the name of.

Someone turned in their seat, saw him, and stared with an open mouth. Roman casually waved back, sauntering on by swinging his new cane and puffing on a cigar. People pointed, but they were right to.

He was fabulous, after all.

Walking past all the people and onto the set, he relished the look of shock from Lisa and her companion, before Lisa groaned and let her head fall onto her table.

"Worry not," said Roman, stepping up onto the well-lit set. "Today's broadcast will continue as usual. Stay where you are, Lisa. You look ravishing today, by the way. New haircut?"

"Yes, Roman," she replied. "Because it's the Vytal Festival and I have to look my best."

"Well, mission accomplished."

Roman gestured for the presenter in the other chair to get out his way, and the man wisely vacated the seat. Roman took it and waved for the presenter to move away. Behind the desk, they had screens below, out of sight, with teleprompters and also displays of the fights.

"Is this a hostage situation?" asked Lisa. "Should I be afraid for my life?"

"No, my dear, you should be delighted to know your ratings will be through the roof. And this?" He chuckled. "This is just showbusiness as usual. And it looks like the fight is wrapping up. I'll trust the professional in the room to read us in."

Lisa Lavender sighed.

/-/

Cinder watched the first fight go by without any issue and gently touched Emerald's arm, reminding her of her job today to influence the next fight. Specifically, her job was to make sure that her team was selected in the next match, both to control who their opponents were but also to free them up for the following day.

If this were Amity, she'd have control over the roulette wheel selecting the teams. Alas, that trojan was buried underwater with the stadium itself, and now Vale had been forced to draw names on pieces of paper out of a fishbowl bought from a local pet store. That was the only solace for Cinder, that even if it was embarrassing Roman had ruined her plans, it was ten times as humiliating for Vale to have to resort to such budget methods.

Obviously, she could no longer make the person draw their name, but Emerald could take hold of the person's perception for a moment and make them believe the paper had their team's name on it. That would mean someone later would draw it a second time, but that would just be another embarrassment for Vale and they'd realise their error and default to using the missing team, writing it off as a mistake made by the person reading it.

Simple enough. The person might even believe they'd made the mistake, that they'd somehow read it wrong in a moment of nerves as they stood before tens of thousands of people. Worse things had happened.

It didn't much matter who they were against. Ideally, it wouldn't be Nikos' team because beating her would require them to show more than what Cinder was comfortable with, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. The important part was that it could not be Penny Polendina's team. Cinder had plans for her and needed her team to make it through, the better to humiliate Atlas later when their little toy was revealed.

"I wonder what Roman is doing," Mercury whispered.

Cinder shushed him, even if she wondered the same. It was entirely possible they wouldn't know until after, however, as no one in the stadium was going to take their eyes off the fight. As long as Ironwood and Ozpin were distracted, that was good enough. He'd probably be off robbing a bank or stealing some other expensive item to gloat over.

Pathetic.

The man had no vision, no ambition, and only lived for the attention and fame, to sate his ridiculous ego. He was probably off preening and imagining how everyone would react to whatever silly heist he was conducting. Cinder scoffed as the fight ended and everyone prepared for the next draw, and as all the big screens around the stadium lit up to give the typical analysis and commentary. Cinder closed her eyes and sipped on her oversized soda.

"This is Lisa Lavender bringing you your post-fight analysis where we appear to have been hijacked by notorious criminal, Roman Torchwick."

Cinder sprayed soda over Emerald's chest.

Up there, on one of many huge screens across the arena, sat the bloody idiot, a mere foot away from Lisa Lavender tapping some papers down against the desk like he absolutely belonged on the news.

"Thank you, Lisa. That's right." Roman's smirk set her teeth on edge. "We've just witnessed a wonderful fight between some exceptional little brats representing their nations. But I know what you're all really thinking. Why is Roman there? How does he always look so good? Is he single?"The man leaned into the camera. "And the answer to that is yes! Yes, he is single, and any suggestions as to the contrary by a young girl with a crush are categorically false." He leaned back. "Really, the poor girl is just infatuated with yours truly."

Several rows back, Ruby Rose screamed furiously while waving her fist.

"And who can blame her, eh Lisa?"

It was a testament to Lisa Lavender's professionalism – or Roman's threat level – that she stayed calm and responded. "Indeed. Other questions running through the minds of our viewers today might be what Roman Torchwick thinks he can achieve here, and what his plans are."

"Why, Lisa, I'm a thief. You know that. And here today I felt that I would show that off by `stealing the show` as it were."

"You've already stolen Amity. Was that not enough?"

Cinder palmed her face at the stupid back and forth, while the audience around the stadium watched in confusion and, in some small cases, amusement. Roman wasn't threatening doom and death and the back-and-forth could be considered comical to some. The event organisers in the centre, who wanted to draw the next competitors, looked a little put off, but their efforts to draw attention by waving their arms was roundly ignored.

Everyone was much too interested in what Roman was doing.

This is fine, thought Cinder. He's being his usual annoying self and I want to wipe the smirk off his face, but he's technically doing everything I've asked of him. Ironwood must be on his way to the news network right now. At least the moron isn't sabotaging my plans this time.

He'd have to break off this little show and escape before Ironwood arrived, and then the tournament would continue. At most, she'd be delayed ten minutes, but it would be even more understandable for the organisers to make a mistake on the next name while under Emerald's Semblance, so it wasn't a huge problem.

"—but let's not leave everyone hanging when they're so excited for the tournament," Roman continued. "The show must go on, after all. That last fight was a doozy – not as good as the one between me and Red the other night, but what can you expect from amateurs? Who will be next, I wonder? Let's have a look."

Cinder tensed as the camera suddenly shifted to show her face. No, not her, but the stand she was in with the competitors. She was but one face among many, but she stared into her own eyes almost instantly, panicking for a brief moment.

"We have lots of teams here, don't we? Hmmm. Not bad, not bad. Everyone seems to think the Nikos girl will win it according to these odds."

"You're not supposed to share those," Lisa said, sighing. "But you disagree, then?"

"Oh, she might win. Of course, she's an amateur as well to look at her."

"That girl has won multiple tournaments, Roman."

"Kiddy events. It's not the same as a real fight. None of this is. This is all just a funny little bit of entertainment for the entitled masses. Nothing like a bit of gladiatorial combat between children, eh?"

"You disapprove? You're a criminal yourself."

"Ah, but I have standards. I don't kill. I don't harm. Not unlike what goes on here. Look at these little psychopaths itching to spill one another's blood."

"I've heard it said all teenagers are psychopaths."

"Lisa!" Roman sounded delighted with the unexpected snark. "I didn't know you had it in you! But I heartily agree. I mean, when I was stealing dust at the docks a few weeks ago, we were there to avoid casualties, and yet that lovely little orange-haired girl over there casually went and slaughtered a bunch of faunus."

The camera, under Roman's control, zoomed in on Penny Polendina. Cinder cursed, ignoring the "oh, I thought he meant me. Phew" from Nora Valkyrie, and the "When have you killed anyone?" from Lie Ren.

A normal girl in Penny's spot would freak out at being highlighted like this.

But Penny was not a normal girl. Faced with the very real accusation of murder – or at least manslaughter, since her self-defence certainly would not have been classified as reasonable given the circumstances – the girl simply smiled and waved to the camera. Cinder could just imagine Atlas groaning in horror at her response.

"Not even a shred of sympathy in that one, eh? You almost got killed by her yourself, didn't you?"

"I'll admit it was close," Lisa said. "The explosions were caused by a Bullhead crashing into dust containers from what I recall. Are you saying that was caused by one of Atlas' candidates here in Vale? That's a bold accusation."

"It's the truth, though. You can look into it yourself. In fact, why don't we ask her? Hey Penny, you're on camera. Nod if you opened fire and brought down the White Fang Bullhead."

A dark-skinned huntress in a blue beret did her best to lunge and tackle Penny out her seat, but a second before she could, Penny smiled and closed her eyes, bobbing her head with an affirmative sound.

Ciel tackled her a second later.

Too late.

The crowd began to murmur in shock.

"There you have it," said Roman. "Scary, isn't it? And to think all that happened because she didn't want to let us make off with some dust that was already insured. The amount of damage caused had a far greater impact."

"That's true but you're hardly blameless, Roman."

"Oh, I know. I'd never think to be. In fact, I relish the blame. I am a criminal after all. But the difference is that even a criminal can have conscience enough to know killing people isn't the right answer." Roman glanced down below the screen. "Oops. It looks like the teleprompter is warning me that General Ironwood has entered the building and is looking to catch me. I don't think I was supposed to see that message."

"No,"Lisa groaned. "You weren't."

"Well, I'd best be off, hadn't I?" Roman stood and edged past Lisa, off the screen, then hopped back for one moment. "Oh, and one last thing!"

"Ye—mphhh!?"

The audience hooted and whistled as Roman leaned down and covered Lisa's face with his own, making out with her on live television. The woman's arms wrapped around his neck, probably more to keep herself from falling over than in a fit of lust, but Cinder was sure that wasn't how most people would remember it.

When he pulled away, Lisa looked frazzled and red in the face.

"This is the kind of woman I prefer!" Roman told the cameras. "Sorry, Red, but you're a little too young for me. And flat, and stick-thin, and you have no curves and you're too short and—"

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIST MY FAULTS!" Ruby Rose screamed.

"—and it just wouldn't work out. Anyway, I'd best make my daring escape—"

There was the sound of a door slamming open. "ROMAN TORCHWICK, YOU ARE UNDER ARREST IN THE NAME OF ATLAS!"

The camera was knocked over the and the action became sideways, replaced by various shouts and screams and explosions, followed by curses and Roman's raucous laughter as he no doubt made his eccentric escape.

A second later, the screen flickered over to another desk and a set of three analysts, who had been given the impossible task of following that up and trying to bring things back under control. They didn't look confident in their abilities.

"S—So, onto analysing the last fight, eh?"

"Ma'am. Should I still...?"

"No." Cinder shook her head and hunkered down. "It'd be too suspicious to do anything now."

"Then what—"

"We'll play it by ear," she growled. "If there's even another fight today. It'll be a miracle if Atlas doesn't recall Penny given the fallout of this." They certainly weren't going to let her compete today after these allegations. "Things are still under control," she told them. For once, not even Emerald looked convinced of that. "This is a minor setback."

"Yes ma'am. I believe you."

"It is! This is fine, Emerald. Mercury, this is under control."

"Of course, ma'am."

Several rows behind them, Ruby Rose howled in mortified embarrassment as her team tried to comfort her over what they saw as a very public and very messy rejection.

"It's okay," said Yang. "Honestly, Ruby, he was too old for you."

"I never liked him!"

"I know, Rubaby. I know." Yang drew her into a warm hug. "It's okay if you want to cry."

"Who's even sad!? Not me!"

"We can't help who we fall in love with."

"ARGHHHH! I'LL KILL HIM!"

"We'll kill him," said Weiss, touching her shoulder with the utmost sympathy. "We'll do it together, as a team. It'll be okay, Ruby."

Blake offered her own comfort. "Plenty more fish in the sea."

Ruby Rose wanted to die.

Next Chapter: 18th June

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