Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Torchwick

Ruby glanced over the last bit of the shop as she ensured it was locked up. The lights were out, her eyes had long since adjusted to the darkness, and she was still down here in her pajamas to make sure that everything was good.

Blake was still there, although Ruby had extracted a promise to call Yang and Pyrrha in the morning. It wasn't as if Ruby didn't enjoy having the girl there, it was nice having a friend around, but the reasons for it were driving Ruby up the wall. She understood better than most what kind of things would drive her to hide in the middle of nowhere and just never show her face for years, she also understood that it was better if others knew where she was. And not to skip class, based on what she knew of Beacon.

Ruby glanced down at her scroll. Yang still hadn't acknowledged that anything was wrong, even though she'd called in Uncle Qrow the other day. Was she worried that Ruby would take it personally? In Ruby's mind, she should take into account everyone who was in Vale at anytime, and that included her too!

But...she also knew Yang, and the young woman was prideful to a fault. She may have been worried about Blake, but not to the point of calling in all hands on deck.

She pulled up a few notes, walking through the aisles of the shop. A few weapons were misplaced from people putting them back wrong, which Ruby corrected while barely even thinking about it. This was a nightly ritual at this point. The cold floors barely even fazed her. Central heating wasn't yet a thing in the shop, although she should probably think about it. Winter was coming here fairly close in a few months.

Winters in Vale weren't actually that bad. Patch was actually colder, due to it being an island, and it regularly saw snow throughout it. Vale though seemingly rarely saw snow, even in the heart of winter when it was the coldest. It wasn't raining at the moment, but it might start soon. She was feeling like it wanted to, based on the grey skies overhead.

She moved back another rocket launcher, making sure that the safety was on, there was no rocket in the firing tube, and that even if it fell it wouldn't be hurt. It was one of the more popular weapons to look at, although the note that she'd written over it made it sit the longest, "Kickback warning!"

It may have been simple, and she wanted to talk about how strong someone needed to be to avoid it, but really, that was probably just a good thing. The kickback on this thing was strong. And it required special ammunition that was surprisingly expensive, not that she really let anyone know about that part. No one bought the thing, so she didn't need to worry.

Although maybe she did have to worry, if no one bought it then that meant she'd wasted money buying the ammunition...actually, no, she remember that Professor Port up in Beacon used the same type. She'd be able to sell to him, probably, if he didn't have a standing order with another seller. He probably did, but he'd come down once to make her acquaintance after seeing the experimental ammunition in action.

And what a blow that was! It had worked like a charm, but the problem was making it in large enough quantities. It took her almost two weeks to make that one bit. Effective? Yes. Dangerous? Also yes.

Replacing dust anytime soon? Nope. Not one bit. But already she was in the process of making it into boxes of ammunition for other Hunters on the rim of Vale, where the Grimm were most prevalent.

She gave a quick glance over at the door, making sure that it was still locked. It had a red light, showing that it was in fact locked up tight.

She moved over to her dust stores, making sure that the crystals were far apart from each other they wouldn't randomly activate. They usually needed aura before they burst, but she'd seen first hand that they didn't always need to. Uncle Qrow's Semblance, for example.

Ruby gave another quiet sigh before she pulled up her notes on the dust collection, making sure that nothing was near expiring. There was a purity forty three white that needed to be used sometime within the next six months, she'd have to keep an eye on that particular crystal.

When dust expired, which was very rare in a huntsman's lifetime, it essentially turned its purity into a game of whack-a-Grimm. Some days it would go higher, and some days would go lower, and no one could reasonably identify why. The SDC promised that all dust bought from them was good for a year, so she kept track of what time it arrived.

There was a click in the lock, and Ruby turned as the light turned green. She tilted her head in confusion, that shouldn't be happening. She looked at her scroll, seeing that the door lock was now 'open' rather than 'locked' as it should be. She hadn't accidentally pressed it, had she? No...the app wasn't the easiest to navigate and to do it by accident would have been rather...absurd.

The door opened, and the bell jingled. There was the sound of a cane hitting the floor gently. "Ah, sorry, shop's closed!" Ruby called out.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I thought the door was open," a sing-song voice said loudly. "I guess we'll just take what we need and go on our merry way!" he answered back.

It was the bowler hat more than anything that told Ruby who it was. She'd fought him herself not long ago. He still had the white jacket, the black pants, and the infuriating...was he smoking? Seriously. What kind of idiot would smoke around active dust!?

Ruby rushed to Crescent Rose, grabbing it instantly and unfurling it. She felt awkward holding it while in her pajamas, but she needed to defend her shop! "Roman Torchwick, I told you to leave!" she shouted, turning the lights on.

Roman barely gave her a glance as the lights turned on, but the two next to him covered their eyes despite the animal type masks. "Oh, if it isn't Little Red! I was wondering where you went off to. I see you've done quite well for yourself!"

Ruby pressed another button on her scroll, sending an alarm to the police station. It didn't just go to the police station though, but also to the various Hunters in the area. Roman seemed to sigh as soon as he realized it. "Oh Little Red, we were just having a bit of fun!" he smiled congenially. "You two, grab the dust and go. Red here beat Junior's men easy, she can do the same to you."

"I told you to leave!" Ruby shouted. If that didn't make Blake come running, Ruby didn't know what would. Was the huntress sleeping? No, last Ruby checked she was reading 'The Girl Who Fell Through the World'. Darn it Blake, hurry up!

The two men, or women it was near impossible to tell through their white overcoats, fled to the dust. Was she seriously being robbed right now? "Come on Red, you know my style! Don't put up a fight, I know it's all insured, and we all walk away from this happy."

"It's also a weapons shop," Ruby pointed out, darting forward and swinging Crescent Rose. Roman took barely a movement to block it with his cane, sending her scythe flying sky high. She followed up with a flip, using her momentum for a bigger strike. Roman took a sidestep, batting it away effortlessly.

"That is true. You've done well Red," Roman complimented. He wasn't taking any movements of hers seriously, dodging when he could and parrying when he needed to. "But, unfortunately, it's almost time to...oh what now," he murmured, glancing at his two compatriots.

Both of which had small bags of dust, and Blake's kusarigama and sheath next to their necks. "What are you all doing here! Ruby! These are White Fang! Why are you working with him!?" Blake shouted.

Roman gave a grunt as he slipped past Crescent Rose's blade again. "Oh oh course she had backup. I thought you said you guys checked this place out?" he asked. "Ugh. Poor help these days..." he muttered.

Ruby's ears perked up as she heard the sirens closer now. "Roman Torchwick! As a student of Signal Academy and huntress in training, you are under arrest!" she yelled.

Roman rolled his eyes, batting Crescent Rose away easily. "Yes, yes, I've heard that speech before. Did you two get anything?" he asked. Both of the White Fang members couldn't say anything or shake their heads, and the dust boxes they had were on the ground. "Useless, I swear, the lot of you," he muttered. He parried one last time, this time bringing it up and hitting Ruby on her hips and chin, sending her flying back into the counter. "Well, it's been fun Red!" he yelled.

"Ruby!" Blake shouted. She kept her weapons trained on the White Fang. "Tell me what you want!? Why are you doing this, this isn't your way!" she yelled.

"It is now!" One of the White Fang members grunted before he elbowed Blake backwards, grabbing one of the dust crystals and throwing it at the window. Her eyes glanced to it; the one that she had noted earlier for being close to expiring. It exploded into light.

Ruby grunted as she heard the window explode, her eyes burning from the white dust. Purity forty...four. Huh, it was already expired then. That was good to know, but unfortunately it wasn't like she could get her money back on it. SDC never gave out refunds.

When her eyes readjusted, Blake was still standing there guarding the two bags of dust. Her weapons had been put away, and the sirens were right outside now. The window was exploded, shards of glass on the outside.

"Are you alright Ruby?" Blake asked as she helped her up.

"Yeah, I'm fine. He didn't actually hit me until the end there," Ruby said. Her door was still open, and a few police came in.

"Police!" one of them shouted, only to be stared at by the others. He put his weapon down sheepishly a moment later. "Sorry, it's what we were trained to say..."

"He already got away," Ruby explained. "Thanks Blake," she muttered. It felt really strange to be standing down here in her pajamas with the lights on the window broken. Kind of drafty too, but she'd deal with that. Call the window place tomorrow...

"Really? Darn. We were close too, we saw the flash as we rounded the corner," one of the other officers said. "But it really was Roman Torchwick?" he asked Ruby.

She nodded. "It sounded like he did last time, he knew who I was, and you all identified him as Roman Torchwick, pretty sure that was him. Cane, white jacket, bowler hat."

"Sounds like him alright. What was he trying to steal?"

"Dust, mostly. I think he wanted an easy break in. The door was locked, but it seemingly opened for him anyways," Ruby explained.

"Huh. Alright. Sure she didn't have anything to do with it?" the officer said, pointing at Blake.

"Of course she didn't!" Ruby shouted. "That's just...why would you even think that!?" she asked. Sure, Blake was also down here in her pajamas, but that didn't mean much! Just...the lack...of the bow...oh right.

"Sorry, I don't mean any offense. We just have to cover all our angles?" the officer tried. "How much did he get away with?"

"None, thanks to her," Ruby said, motioning towards Blake, who was steadily trying to go back upstairs. "A single white dust crystal was lost, that created the flash and broke the window. Other than that, I don't think they ran off with anything."

The officer nodded. "Alright. I'll put it in my report. When you file the insurance claim, be sure to put it under P. Nym, alright?" he asked, grabbing one of the bags of dust. He gave it a quick look through, before handing it to Ruby.

She took it and gave it another quick look through. She didn't find any thing missing at a quick look, but by then the officers had already left.

"They tried to steal a few more dust crystals," Blake answered, holding a few in her hands. "But I was quicker this time."

"You alright? You seem distracted."

"Just wondering what the White Fang was doing working with someone like Roman Torchwick...Ruby, I'm sorry to leave so suddenly but I think I need to go. Something about this is screaming that I need to figure it out."

"Can't it wait until morning? It's like ten at night."

"No, it really can't."

Ruby scowled at her. "I can't stop you, but don't make any silly moves, alright?" she asked. Blake nodded, and bolted out the door.

Ruby pulled out her scroll only a moment later, calling up her sister. She needed to know that Blake was probably going to be in trouble soon. This had gone on for long enough.

Penny

Ruby stared at the emergency bulletin posted onto her scroll first thing in the morning. Her phone was loaded with texts, most of them not important, but the bulletin scared her the most.

Apparently during the night the White Fang had attacked the docks for a large dust shipment. Hers wasn't in that particular one, she had another week to wait for that, but it was nearly four or five containers worth of nothing but dust of various purities.

The amount of damage that anyone could do with that much dust was simply put, in Ruby's mind, insane. That would be enough to blow up an entire block! And worse part was, guess who was seen there? Roman Torchwick himself, who apparently didn't like getting his butt whooped by a little girl.

Although Ruby would be the first to say that she hadn't really 'whooped his butt'. She had been on the offensive the entire time, and yet she hadn't even touched him. He had just been...strong. And quick. It was like fighting Uncle Qrow again, someone who knew where every strike was going to land long before it would.

It hadn't helped that she couldn't fire Crescent Rose while inside. The chance it would blow some other ammunition was far too high, and Torchwick must have known that as well. He'd had a dust flare in his cane from their last battle, and he'd refused to use it this time too. Probably a good idea that he had too. Otherwise Ruby would probably not have a shop anymore.

Oh, and they'd all be dead too. That was another possibility. What she wanted to know though...

"Where were you last night!?" she looked over at Zwei, who had been absent the previous night after taking himself for a walkie. He'd come back some point in the night, curling into a ball, and acting like nothing was wrong. "Fine, don't answer me, Zwei! But you can't blame me if I'm just a little late with your food this morning..." she threatened.

He gave her a heartful, sad, soulful cry, as he looked up at her. He looked so hurt, so broken, so defenseless, it melted her heart at even thinking she was mad at him. She bent down and hugged him tight. "Oh I could never be mad at you Zwei!" she murmured into his ear. "But I'm still delaying breakfast because I got robbed last night!" she shouted.

She fell back onto her bed. The docks had been robbed, she'd been robbed...although she supposed she'd been robbed, the docks had been merely 'burgled'. Except for those five.

The article in the news didn't have much on them besides that they were Beacon huntresses, and were now facing detention for a good month because of it. Or rather, four of them were huntresses in training, one was a huntsman.

The messages that Ruby had received painted a similar picture. Team PABY had, for reasons unknown, taken her warnings that Blake was in Vale now as her permission to do whatever it is they wanted. And if that happened to be 'cause a dust explosion that could be seen for miles around and woke Ruby out of her worried rest' then that's exactly what it is that they had done.

Apparently Blake had found Roman Torchwick, got in contact with Sun, who hadn't been mentioned in the news article, and followed him to the docks to confront the White Fang. Yang had somehow met up with another girl, she hadn't said her name, who could locate Blake entirely on 'black haired faunus with cat ears'.

Ruby wasn't sure if that was discriminatory or not, because it was a fair description of Blake. Only thing left out was that Blake had been living in Ruby's shop for the last three days.

But Blake had been found fighting Torchwick...and losing. And then Yang came in, and also lost. Jaune never fought, instead making sure that at least someone contacted the police quickly, and Pyrrha took out most of the White Fang members.

Oh, and the new girl apparently shot laser beams out of swords and cleaved a helicopter in two, which is what caused the explosion.

Ruby blinked. How had she missed that part, and why wasn't she freaking out about that yet? Oh right, early in the morning, no coffee, worried about Blake and Zwei, and the fact that she shot laser beams out of swords and cleaved a helicopter in two oh there's the freakout.

How powerful must that weapon had been! What Ruby wouldn't have given it to see it in action, what kind of weapon would have that kind of power!? Shooting lasers out of swords, probably something with a lot of enhancement, so probably Atlas or Vale then, as those two were the most 'function over form'.

Lasers were almost entirely Atlas, because they had the resources to pour into the dust research to get the beams to work in the first place, which meant that Atlas was now in Vale. And she'd just gotten robbed from her dust stores...although she'd only gotten robbed of a single white dust crystal.

Oh, and windows. Right, she needed to do that.

She placed in a call with the window glass pane repair guys, and they promised they'd come out soon to take estimates and to get at least something there. She was going to have to go back to paper signs for a while, wasn't she?

She looked at the time, seeing that it was only four minutes to opening. "Shoot! I need to clean up and...Zwei, start my coffee!" she said, turning into petals immediately as she ran downstairs.

She had set up an automatic timing lock on her door, so she'd always be open or closed at the right times. She made sure it was locked anyways before actually leaving for the day, but it was better to check than to forget and accidentally leave it unlocked. Or rather, leave it to chance that it had unlocked.

The downstairs was in a pitiful state. Some places were sliced clean off thanks to her reckless swinging of Crescent Rose, there was still some glass on the inside when it had shattered, the window thankfully covered by a tarp, and she'd put away all of the dust or other items that could possibly explode...and so she needed that out.

She was thankful her Semblance was speedy, as within only three minutes she'd had the shop mostly cleaned up and ready to go. The dust was out, sitting away from the sunlight despite the fact that sunlight wouldn't actually make it explode, and most of the ammunition was far away from the wall to prevent any ne'er do wells.

She heard the lock click over to green, just in time for her to be seated at the counter looking as if she hadn't just ran a practical marathon. She wasn't even breathing hard, although she'd have to get some water here soon.

Almost as soon as she was thinking that, Zwei hopped up onto the counter, a small plastic cup in his mouth full of coffee. It was a new thing, for her, back when she'd first opened up the shop, but she'd grown to absolutely adore the liquid caffeine. Much easier than drinking soda for end on end.

The door chimed, and Ruby looked up to see a girl in a green dress and orange hair that trailed down to her neck come in. "Salutations!" she said instantly as she saw Ruby. "Are the owner of this establishment?" she asked. She walked with a strange gait, as if trying too hard to blend in and seem normal.

"Yes! Welcome to Summer's Weapon Shop. I'm Ruby."

"I would have figured you would be Summer!"

Ruby laughed. It was a common enough mistake. "No, that was my mom. She was a huntress, and passed away when I was little. The shop's named after her," Ruby explained. The girl nodded, almost violently so. "What can I help you with?"

"I was hoping that you could do some maintenance on some weapons that I have. I would have others do it but they have yet to arrive from Atlas, and they are in desperate need of maintenance!" she said.

Ruby nodded. "Sure, put them here, and I'll take a look," she said. Green swords came out of the girl's...backpack, which Ruby hadn't realized she was wearing until then, and floated on gently over to Ruby's counter.

"They are called the 'Floating Array'!" The girl announced. "May I watch as you do the maintaining, to hopefully learn how to do it myself?"

Ruby nodded. "Sure, never a bad idea to learn how to maintain you're own weapons. These are Atlesian, you said?" she asked, her eyes already taking them in.

Holy fish, they were both beautiful, shocking, and quite possibly extremely damaging. There was almost as much on the weapon side as there was on the programming side, which she had no idea how to touch or create. "Uh...these are programmed weapons, right? I've never been good with coding," Ruby said.

"That is all right, Ruby! I will handle the programming side, or wait until my keep-friends arrive from Atlas!" She changed words halfway through that word. Odd.

Ruby wasn't one to judge though. Most of the edges on the...six? Seven? It looked closer to ten of these swords, were only slightly blunted. They weren't made out of metal, but rather almost like dust crystal. Only Atlas could come up with ways to waste dust even faster. In order to sharpen it though, she had to use a special cloth that would ensure her aura wouldn't interfere. Ruby grabbed the main one she used to polish dust, making sure it was clear of residue before she took it to the first sword.

It was near purity ninety nine. Even the highest dust purities available for her to buy were nowhere near that. To have a sword made of that kind of crystal, entrenched with circuitry and electronics...just how advanced was Atlas!? The theory was the same though, and Ruby took to polishing it and making sure it maintained a cutting edge. "What happened to these? It seems as if a large energy burst went through them, almost like a conduit, but that's not how dust works without a focusing point?"

"That is exactly what happened!" the girl grinned brightly. "It was quite an effort, and the Floating Array is showing the wear and tear on it now!"

"I can see that..." Ruby muttered as she put one off to the side. It wasn't sparking at least, which was good. She wouldn't even know where to begin with the circuitry portion. She could connect her scroll up to see most of the code, but her specialty was in forging and engineering. Coding on the other hand? Not as much.

The second and third sword were pushed aside as she finished with them. "What's your name, anyways? We forgot to talk payment," Ruby said after a moment. She'd completely forgotten, again. Being a shopkeeper was hard sometimes!

"I am Penny Polendina, Ruby! We have not discussed rates, however the going rate for weapon maintenance of your skill level in Atlas is roughly three thousand and thirty lien for each hour of work."

"Three thousand and thirty!?" Ruby cried out. No way she was charging Penny that much. Wait, that was per hour. Okay, she felt better now. "Never mind, I get it that was per hour. I'll probably finish up in half that, so...how about one thousand for the lot?" she asked.

"That is quite the ripoff for you!"

"Consider it the saving my sister tax," Ruby muttered. A large energy burst, 'quite an effort', and the fact Yang had described her as an orange-haired girl not named Nora but with a green dress. She had been at the docks last night, and the fact that the Floating Array showed some of the damages...but where had the energy come from? Dust didn't work well with dust. The energy had to come from somewhere. A Semblance, maybe?

"A tax is an increase of price! I believe you are referring to a discount!"

"You know what, sure. The saving my sister discount."

"I do not recall ever saving your sister, Ruby. Do you know who she was, so that I may try to save her in the future? I do not wish to make the discount name a lie!"

Ruby finished on the fifth sword, pushing it off to the side. "Penny, I'm not stupid. You were at the docks last night, weren't you?"

She froze. "Whatever makes you think that?" she answered, trying desperately to not be caught.

"The swords have had a large charge run through them, and my sister was at the docks too. That's what I meant. A large charge like this would be capable of things like, I don't know...cutting a helicopter in half?"

"I am afraid I know nothing of what you speak!"

"Right...just take the discount then," Ruby sighed as she finished the seventh. It wasn't going to take her a long time at all...

Penny is surprisingly hard to write.

Until Next Time!