It was just a cookie, she figured.

A small baked confectionary good that was left out by someone who'd turned their backs to it. Chocolate chip, baked to what seemed to be perfection, and the smell! It just solidified that whoever had left that cookie out clearly didn't want it. This cookie had many different things to do- like be digested in her belly- not sit there uneaten, looking so sad and lonely!

Well, that's all her four-year-old mind could come up with to justify what she did next. Reaching down, her face set with grim determination, Ruby's finger's clutched themselves around the cookie's base and dragged it to her red hoodie's left pocket. She'd been told my numerous people from all over- her parents included- that stealing, lying, cheating and fighting were all things little girls as sweet as herself did not commit.

She wasn't sweet- she'd lied and fought and cheated before, and she was only four, and in her young and naïve mind, yet not as innocent as one her age should be, she felt that completing that list would make her happy to have finally accomplished something. Every day she felt the growing feeling of uselessness, of having childhood snatched away from you because you were a little too smart for your age and could see things no other children could see, no other children could hear the things she heard, no other children could feel the things she felt.

Looking around cautiously her eyes trailed left and right, nervousness breaking through the determined façade she'd upheld not two seconds ago; stealing that cookie just then had left her with a feeling of…well, she didn't know what it was, but she liked the feeling and she wanted to feel it more often. Before stealing it she was simply a four-year-old girl that, unknown to her parents and older sister, was a fighter, liar, and cheater. Now that she could add thief to that list, she felt oddly satisfied, as though the missing link had been hollowing her out, and now that it wasn't so missing anymore she could finally be herself instead of hiding form her parents.

Her eyes found her sister, who was sitting in some sort of play area at the local park just a couple of steps away from her, and she determined that Yang didn't need to know just yet. That innocent little image she'd grown up with would stay that way for as long as she could hide it- her sister meant well, but Ruby knew that some people who meant well didn't always do well.

It made sense to her, anyway.

(^^^^^^)

Running with her face to the wind, her eyes wide in excitement, Ruby turned her head back and stuck her tongue out at her chaser.

A cop. An officer of the law sworn to uphold the rules at which a society lived by. A peacekeeper who followed each and every rule by the book, no exceptions made and no quarter given. A man or woman who should show no prejudice, no bias, no favouritism and certainly no racial resentment. They had to keep the law on their sides, and pass it over to everyone else; they had to make sure that while the law was upheld, others made sure that they upheld the law as well. Officers such as the one behind her, however, deserved to be stolen from- considering he'd stolen the two thousand Lien she was grasping in her hands from a Faunus child who was barely older than five or six, she felt justified. Not justified to give the child his money back- no, because Ruby operated on the strict policy of 'what's yours when I see it will be mine when I want it'.

"HALT! Stop!"

She had no intention of doing that, so she turned her way through the empty streets of Patch and dove into a cardboard box tidied away in a corner, the officer running past her not a second later. If she'd been a little bit slower she would have been caught.

Good job she was always fast.

Waiting until the cop's footsteps faded into the distance, him still trying in vain to find the girl that had the power now to get him fired and possibly locked up, she released a breath she hadn't noticed she was holding. She now had the money to help support her sister for a whole two months! This was amazing! Sure, her parents' deaths had been a setback in her thievery hobby for at least a year, and in that time they'd been through more foster homes than a born-and-bred orphan, but hey…they had survived this far.

Yang would never admit it, of course, but she knew Ruby was the one bringing in their money while Yang was the one spending it on food and clothing- for herself of course, because despite Ruby being heartless and a thief she'd always let her spoils be used by Yang as the blonde pleased. Ruby always only gave her a quarter of her 'hard-earned' money anyway, so there was nothing to truly be upset about.

Standing from the box, brushing her shoulder mockingly of dust that wasn't there, she smirked; these cops were all fat, slow, lazy and complacent- upholding the law was the last thing they wanted to do, the first being rob the poor to feed their bloated, doughnut-filled stomachs. Turning on her heels, she strutted almost casually out of the alleyway and faded into the darkness of the street- not a single camera had caught sight of her, the cop hadn't seen her face…a perfect pickpocketing session.

(^^^^^^)

She was fifteen now.

Lean muscles built from running far and fast, practically created for the sole purpose of running and powering past, not through, obstacles. Her arms were as lean as her legs, but not quite as powerful- she was used to pickpocketing and incapacitation through pressure points, not holding swords as point to a throat and demanding money, or swinging around axes the size of a two story building. Her arms were littered with scars from when dogs had been sent after her, or when she'd stumbled into abandoned factories only to find hordes of Grimm. There was that one time she found a secret White Fang base, but hey, she walked away with a few scars but a hefty profit of fifty thousand Lien directly from the White Fang's safes. No matter your look on it she called that a 'win'.

Her hands were wrapped in blindingly white surgical bindings, a reminder of her last job that was successful but had too many hiccups for her liking- being a one-woman heist team had its benefits, but disadvantages. One of those being that you had no one to watch your back. Advantage to counter that? No one to stab your back either. Beneath the wrappings were burn scars, covering from the top of her wrist to mid-way down her middle finger on the left hand. The right hand was decidedly worse, though that was her personal assessment of the subject regarding aesthetics. Performance wise her hands were normal- the only issue she truly had was that they were now irreversibly scarred, no longer soft and instead hardened and calloused. No longer milky white and instead a shade of light red.

Covering her upper body was nothing more than what could be called a dark red, rather heavy looking, turtleneck, covering from just beneath her chin and extended down to just past her waist. Covering that piece of clothing was an unzipped, black hooded jacket- nothing too high end, no fancy leather or suede of any sort. It was simple cotton, and while not the best for heists, she refused to wear anything else. Besides, when sneaking into a place to case it at night, the jacket when zipped up proved reliable at keeping her hidden.

Wrapped around her legs in a way that screamed practicality and proved that her fashion sense was one-part looks, one-part usefulness, was a pair of dark grey jeans- she'd have worn something else for today, but she had something important to do and rushed out with what she had on hand- that just so happened to be her last night's heist clothing, but she wasn't complaining. With light-looking black and red trainers on her feet, black socks that reached her knees beneath the jeans and a black baseball cap on her head with the logo for Spruce Willis' latest film on the front, she left her shared house with Yang and practically sprinted out.

The reason she was in such a rush? She'd heard Roman Torchwick wanted to hold-up the small Dust shop down the road Dust 'til Dawn, and while she liked the old shopkeeper as much as anyone else, that shop had been on her list of 'places for easy Dust'. She would have let Roman have the place if she knew he'd share the spoils with her- she badly needed the Ice Dust- but Roman does nothing but take and never give. He's selfish even by thief standards, and if you worked with him on a heist at the first opportunity he got he'd turn you in to the police if it meant walking away scot-free.

Again, the reason she was in a rush? She was late- extremely late. She needed that Ice Dust to soothe her hands and Roman had reportedly, as her source claimed, wanted to go after the place tonight. The issue in that was…she'd just woken up.

At 7PM.

…this wasn't good. But she could improvise! The only thing she truly needed the place for anyway was a jar of refined Ice Dust; her weapon- singular, as in only one- relied on no Dust whatsoever, her household items running from the older, lesser used gasoline than the common Dust-run generators for electricity. She needed that Ice Dust, badly, and what better way than to…ugh, she hated it but it was needed…bargain.

Abusing her already broken semblance of speed to match a bullet train's, she made it just in time to see Roman and a gang of Junior's men- she briefly wandered why Junior would ever hire them out to Roman of all people- stalking their ways towards the shop.

If there was ever a chance at negotiation, this would be it.

Blinking into existence in front of Roman caused the other men around to her simply nod- as though this was an everyday occurrence, what with her being a regular to Junior and all. Roman, however, had no idea who she was. But being the gentleman thief he is, let her spoke before blasting her sky high. The clothing and facial shape looked familiar, but because of the cap on her head and the darkness around them, she was nothing more than a pale silhouette.

"So Junior was right, you're here." Ruby mused to herself- it was always under the assumption that Junior was always right, because he'd never led her astray before and always benefitted from her perfected heists anyway, so giving her false information was detrimental to both their partnership and his share of the profits. "Before you case the place, I need to ask you something."

…well, she was straightforward, at least- Roman could hand her that. She seemed to be completely at ease though, completely surrounded by Junior's hired men doing nothing but showing that she was familiar with them in the very least. She was fast as well, able to completely fade in and out of his vision before he would even catch a glimpse of her.

She interested him, so he at least wanted to hear her out- besides, if she was a cop or a Huntress she'd have gone for the more forward method of 'shoot until dead', so that assuaged some of his fears.

"Junior told me you were going for this place- the issue with that is…well, I've been planning a heist on this place since- well that's hardly important." She'd cut herself off from telling him that she'd only just planned this yesterday after her bad, but not failed, heist. She needed that damn Ice Dust! "Look, I only need one thing from here anyway."

"Just one? You're a pro, aren't you?" He'd seen the way her head had looked him up and down- and he knew she'd done it on purpose too, to show that she knew what she was doing. He still doubted her though; she looked barely older than sixteen! At her nod he continued, tone snarky and sarcastic. "Then why, oh why, would you need to ask me, when you could just steal what you want later?"

Ruby blinked at that, before softly chuckling- this man was supposedly a pro, but knew nothing on how pros operated. She was just fifteen and she knew more than he did! Well, she supposed being the lapdog of Cinder Fall really makes one put their morality behind them, so she could hardly fault him. He obviously didn't find it amusing, flicking the cigar in his mouth away with a short spit to remove the tobacco from his breath; he was getting tired of this.

"Look, I only need one thing; that's not really worth the trouble of breaking numerous unsaid codes just to get, but while it would make my life easier I figured diplomacy would do just as well." Her explanation wasn't too far from the truth; but she needed that Dust, her hands were chafing badly and the skin was practically on fire at this point. She could have used some sort of balm to soothe it like in the days where Dust wasn't all that known for its cooling properties, but felt this to be the easier and quicker route- what a joke. Oh well, she still needed to pay Junior for his info. She hoped he'd let her have a discount this time though.

Lifting an orange eyebrow, Roman looked…intrigued. Was this man bipolar or something? He looked ready to beat her to death, then looked bored, and now intrigued? Shaking her head, Ruby forged onwards. "I need Ice Dust." A pause, then "Badly need it."

"Whatever could you need the Dust for? And how much?"

Wordlessly she lifted her bandage-covered hands to eye-level, the street lights surrounding them allowing Roman to just make out that her hands were, in fact, wrapped. He knew what that meant, too- most thieves out on the streets didn't have access to aura but her little trick of appearing out of nowhere said otherwise. He briefly questioned why her aura wasn't healing it for her, but then shrugged it off- wasn't his business anyway.

"Burns…?"

"Yeah; so bad that my aura's taking its sweet ass time to heal it, too." She muttered some curse words that would have made a sailor proud before looking more directly at Roman. "Look, I need the Dust; you need someone that's fast to get in and out to take stock of the place- cameras, security measures, panic buttons."

"I think I know where you're going with this…"

"And we both know what the answer's gonna be."

Roman looked at her as if just looking at her now- he truly looked, and he saw something he liked. She was a pro through and through, and she was obviously not new to negotiating to get her way. He'd give her that, she was smart and, the way she held herself, dangerous. A girl after his own heart…if only she didn't look so young. Neo looked young, don't get him wrong, but she was…well…actually an adult- and this girl didn't even sound like one yet; which further proved to him that she'd been refining the art of stealing to the point she was at now. She was right anyway- these men he hired were for muscle, not thieving. He hadn't the forethought to scope the place as thoroughly as possible simply because, well…this was an old man manning the Dust shop. One old man- and clearly the girl in front of him felt the need to look before leaping. A true pro, he had to admit, and Roman had been doing this close to twenty years so he knew a veteran in the field when he saw one. You didn't need to be old to be wise in the game of thievery and robbery- you needed wits, sure, and you needed experience; something the girl in front of him seemingly had in spades.

Plus, he'd been feeling something wrong with tonight- as though the girl in front of him was the deciding factor towards perfection or failure.

And Cinder didn't like failure, so he'd take what he could get.

"Only Ice Dust huh…? You got a deal…uh…"

"Names aren't important; but if you must call me something, do it fast." She turned on her heels, zipping towards the shop in the blink of an eye and disappearing through the doors before he even had a chance to reply. She was definitely a pro- no novice he'd met had never denied him their names, and him giving a nickname meant they'd probably never see each other again.

Turning to his men, he nodded towards the shop wordlessly- those that had worked with Ruby before had the faintest idea of what the nod meant, and so they all shuffled towards the shop quietly.

The girl was true to her word; in and out in less than a minute, no alarms tripped, no one alerted to her presence, not even a wisp of wind as she sped to and from the shop.

Roman whistled in appreciation for a thief that actually knew how to keep words; he could do that of course, but preferred muscling his way through than stealth and negotiation; a whisper in his head told him that the girl could easily be silenced here and now to protect the fact that he was ever here in the first place, but for some reason he held off. This girl was acquainted with Junior, and it wouldn't do to have the big bear of a man angry at him- bad for business. Besides, he'd made a promise, and while a thief and a liar he was, he didn't break promises. Emerald, Cinder's little pet- he preferred to call her that to reassure himself that she wasn't better than him- couldn't have even done this job as silently as the girl in front of him had.

She'd done a bang up job of scoping the place out, had performed perfectly even by his high as shit standards, and had even managed to grab some of the Ice Dust included in their deal so he didn't have to go out of his way. The girl was perfect. He also knew, somehow, that she'd never work for Cinder like he did just to be partnered to him- she was right to be that way too. Cinder Fall was, in a word…evil.

She'd wordlessly blinked besides him, left hand gently holding three vials of ice Dust with the right gripping a jar of Dust the size of his head beneath her armpit. He didn't bother turning to see her properly regardless of his curiosity towards her appearance; he could respect someone that worked as well as she did enough to value their privacy. He stared at the shop in front of him, waiting for her to catch her breath and report her findings to him.

After a minute, she spoke, and he was given more than he could have asked for. "Two security cameras, both taken down now. An alarm system, but I deactivated it. No panic buttons but he did have a safe in the back if you wanted that, but I'd be careful with that- it's got Schnee Dust Co's handprints all over it, so it's bound to have some weird ass security measures." Then before he could turn to her, congratulate her because, honestly- he wasn't expecting all of that.

She'd vanished.

(^^^^^^)

She only had the time to slather some Ice Dust onto her scarred hands and re-wrap the bandages before shit went south; fast. Thankfully she'd stowed the rest of the Dust, jar included, away on her person- she had pockets in that jacket and those jeans, after all. Thankfully the jar could be emptied into the now-empty vials of Dust, and whatever was left over she threw to the side. It wasn't of any use to her anymore anyway.

A Huntress.

Why, oh why, was a Huntress in front of her? No, better question; where the fuck did she come from!? Ruby was the most observant person she knew, and yet her eagle-like eyes coloured silver couldn't even spot this woman? She'd been slipping, and mentally she slapped herself. But now she knew better- she wasn't going to make the same mistake again.

She never had repeated the past before after all, she wasn't going to start now.

Ruby wasn't going to describe the woman in front of her in any other word than stern. She had some form of permanent scowl on her face; something like that, someone like that, obviously hadn't got laid yet. Had Ruby? Oh yes, many, many times, all women and all of them, compared to her, inexperienced. But had this woman? By the scowl and stiff back, she'd say no.

In her hand was a…riding crop? An odd choice of weaponry for a Huntress but interesting- did she use it as a conductor's baton or something? If so, then that was kind of cool, but if she had an inkling to a thought of what the woman conducted…Ruby might be in for a bad time here. Overall from her outfit she'd guess she was a teacher, professor, and the glasses were a dead giveaway to the fact that the woman looked to be the 'stern teacher than many fantasize about but never had the chance of ever getting'. And the only Hunting schools she knew of around here were Signal and Beacon- with Signal being nothing but a novice's crash-course of Hunting while Beacon was a step up. If her assumption was correct then this woman worked at Beacon.

Yeah, Ruby was in for a very bad time.

"Ruby Rose, by order of Headmaster Ozpin you are to be detained immediately!"

…and she knew her name…great. Yeah, Ruby could have just used her semblance and zipped away before she could get caught- as she had so many other times before whenever a Hunter of Huntress got involved- but thing is she was tired. Her muscles were screaming at her in protest due to lack of sufficient sleep, her eyes had been droopy and tired the entire day, and she just finished a semi-perfect job.

For lack of better wording; she was tired as fuck and needed to get home before Yang got suspicious. So, building her energy and aura and throwing her torpidity to the wind, Ruby pushed her semblance to its limit and vanished from sight. She could practically feel the frustration coming from the Huntress, but of course Ruby cared less.

By the time she made it home she was barely through the door before collapsing on their shared couch and sleeping like the dead.

(^^^^^^)

Looking at the damp ceiling of the interrogation room she'd found herself in, Ruby groaned. She'd found herself in here when she woke up, hands chained to a metal table with her feet chained to the ground- well, at least they'd learned her semblance. Can't use speed if you can't use your feet now can you? Smart, she figured, but there were other ways out of here- seduction, shooting her way out, a whole string of possible escape options that she was neither above doing nor unwilling to do.

Those ways out vanished immediately when she realised that she was being stared at. The man staring was middle-aged and grey-haired, his silver eyebrows raised slightly in question- to what she didn't know, and quite honestly didn't care either. She knew who he was; the ugly green jacket that he wore and the cane he held onto as if his life depended on it told her his identity as much as a news report could. This man was Headmaster Ozpin; Ruby's gut dropped. She knows why he's here, and she'll fight him all the way- no way is she ever going somewhere as prissy and pathetic as Beacon. While it was her sister's dream to be a Huntress, Ruby's was just to survive, to live in the harsh world she'd allowed herself to be a part of. Survival for her meant scraping by and toughening up to the world around her lest she become numb to it all and only see what she wanted to see- that was not survival, that was acquiescence. That was someone agreeing that the world was a terrible place and locking themselves away in a fantasy world that promised a false hope of freedom and integrity- the real world was something only Ruby could see it seems; well, Ruby and a select few that she couldn't think of because she'd done everything possible to avoid getting close to people. Except for one, of course, but she was half way across the globe by now, living it up in a city surrounded by four walls and security tighter than a nun's crack.

"Ruby Rose." His voice was plaintive, as though he wasn't speaking to a wanted criminal- granted not many even knew her name, and only had vague descriptions, but that heist that went wrong but right at the same time, resulting in her burnt hands, was probably what got people onto her. She'd gone unnoticed until two days ago after all; so she assumed that it was said heist. Speaking of, she forgot to give Junior his cut for the info- she hoped he'd be up for talking instead of demanding, her head hurts.

Maybe she'd go visit the Twins for their shared hospitality of bringing in different opinions to the same conversation- she'd get to watch them duke it out over who was right and who was wrong, they'd share a drink to make up for the noise they usually would make, and then they'd all go to sleep with little smiles on their faces. Oh how she longed to be at The Club, but alas, here she was in jail. Ah, the quips Melanie would make while Militia sat back and shot down her every opportunity to refute the claims of her losing her touch; oh well, she'd get to do that once she got out of here. But first things first…

"Ozpin." Her voice had always been that rough, but today she had attempted to soften it as to not seen standoffish. She'd clasped her hands in front of her and donned her most serious face as well; this was time for her professional side to shine- the thief side of her could show later. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

In response Ozpin lifted an eyebrow. "Pleasure?"

Ruby nodded, her short hair bobbing slightly but otherwise doing nothing else. "Yes; professionalism when dealing with new factors is key."

He sipped from a coffee cup he'd gotten from…somewhere, and looked Ruby in the eye for a full half-minute. He seemed to spot something, because he grinned slightly- and whatever that something his eye had been caught by, Ruby just knew it wasn't going to go in her favour. "True; but in this case I just want to talk."

Ruby's professional mask slipped for a mere second as she stared at him, before her gaze hardened to a point it made Ozpin wince inside; no child should have that look. The look of knowing exactly what you talk about; experience was one hell of a mentor after all. "As do all people who steal me away from my bed in the dead of night and chain me to surfaces."

Glynda coughed awkwardly to the side of her while Ozpin sipped his coffee slow and long, clearly thinking about something. Ruby was sitting there, however, with a grin on her face- sarcastic quips were her forte after all, but she had to admit that Yang was better at the whole 'making sarcastic comments and shitty puns is my life goal'. Yeah, sure, Ruby could pull off two or three good ones before they became admittedly cringe-worthy and stale, and puns weren't her favourite things to do, but when the situation arose she could challenge her sister to a sarcastic standoff and possibly-maybe-hopefully-doubtfully win it. Okay, against Yang she hadn't a snowball's chance in hell of winning, but the point was that she grew up around the rather big-chested blonde- she knew her stuff.

"I wish to offer you something, Miss Rose. A gesture of goodwill, a favour, whatever you seem well-adjusted to calling such things."

Ruby, in response to Ozpin's rather sudden answer to the unanswered question of what it was beyond a talk that he wanted, lifted a rather immaculate left eyebrow. The man was no wordsmith when confronted directly, she noted, but he was also enigmatic and that could be a real issue- while, yes, she had the ability to read between blurred lines so to speak, she was not capable of discovering hidden meanings within those lines. She leaned back from her assessment of his sentence, and sighed heavily. Arms crossed just below her average-sized bust, her serious gaze shifting into a frown. "You want something in return." No question, a statement, and a correct one if the stiffening of Glynda's shoulders was any indication.

Yet Ozpin remained stoic with that small, hardly-noticeable yet extremely obvious smirk; the man was an oxymoron of being able to smirk with it meaning nothing, with showing happiness or glee in a situation where it warranted no such feelings and he didn't truly feel them anyway, merely showing them as one would wear a mask. An enigma, one that made Ruby's head spin trying to figure out- so she left well enough alone. This cell was suffocating anyway, might as well wrap this up. "Of course." After that he sipped his coffee, as though he hadn't just admitted to potentially blackmailing her with what she suspected to be a bum deal that went more in his favour than hers.

"Your deal?"

"Beacon."

"And I get what from it…?"

At that he seemed to stare at her, as though just remembering that she was a thief first and person second- she'd raised herself as such and in such a way so that her morals didn't get in the way of her 'much needed' thieving. But thankfully he'd prepared such an instance.

He looked at Glynda out of the corner of his eye, and while she walked up to Ruby and offered her the scroll in her hands after swiping her fingers across the surface and finding the right file, he explained what it was.

"Four years at Beacon Academy, and in return…" He gestured to the tablet in her hands, of which she eyed speculatively. Then, urging her to scroll down, she'd evidently found her 'part of the deal' so to speak, along with incentive. "…We wipe your record- this arrest never happened. And you get-"

He didn't even finish when she gave a clipped "deal" and abruptly left the cell in a shower of petals with scroll in hand, amazing Glynda in how she'd picked the locks without her hands visibly moving.

Ozpin sipped his coffee; that incentive must have been something really enticing for Ruby to leave like that. He understood that she valued professionalism over anything else. Even he didn't know what it was- only Glynda and Ironwood.

Oh well, he mused, sipping his coffee once more; he'd find out later.

(^^^^^^)

A pace set between hurried and professional, Ruby practically prowled through the dark streets of Vale, eyes glued to the scroll she'd been reading for an hour straight- how did they get so much info on her? How? She'd made sure to hide the footsteps, the bodies, the operations she joined on and the gifts she left. She'd made sure to help her as well. Definitely her White Fang roots- those were buried beneath red tape, black tape, bodies, blood and other assortments of things no one should go digging through.

So how in the fuck-mothering dick-tarding hell did they find her? They shouldn't have, Ruby had made sure to help her cover her tracks the best they both could with limited resources and funding- the girl had left the goddamn country and vowed to never return for fuck's sake! Atlas, while militaristic, was a place you could easily get lost in- streets that wound on and on, numerous places that hired without I.D and multiple other things that made Atlas both the safest and most dangerous place to hide. With over fifty million people, five hundred thousand conscripted soldiers- including the Atlesian Knights they'd created- and merchants coming in and out every day, she should have remained hidden forever- would have. She was sneaky like that; always knew where to hide and how, where to steal and when, how to steal and why. Knew everything. Ruby knew what she was like- she was a damn shadow when she didn't want to be seen, when her very instincts told her to blend in and take cover.

And now, away from her relative safety in Atlas that Ruby had helped her get to after the train job, she was here, of all places.

"Why, Blake; how did Beacon get you?" Her mutterings continued as she made her way to her apartment through muscle memory alone- she'd need sleep if she was to reach the airship tomorrow for Beacon. "You know how and where to hide; I've shown you how to steal effectively…how?"

Then, her eyes found a particular statement from Atlesian Military Police that caught her attention, and regret came to her- the info she had on Atlas when she had sent Blake away was three, maybe four years older than it should have been. The newest models of the A.K were unknown to her, the military standpoint that many had was vaguely known, the political debates and goings-on within the country unknown to both of them. She'd sent Blake in and told her to rely on stealth and subterfuge.

Ruby winced in shame and guilt- Blake had been caught the second she stepped through the gates, so to speak. Well, it was more a literal term, actually; Blake had been on CCTV cameras since her arrival in Atlas borders, never mind Atlas itself. She was scanned, x-rayed, cleared and re-cleared five times in total, and had five hundred thousand sets of eyes pinned on her the moment it all began. As soon as she set foot within the city itself…well, the rest spoke for itself- she wouldn't be surprised if Blake thought it was a set-up, felt betrayed even.

Tracing the mug-shot they'd gotten of the black haired amber eyed girl with her thumb, Ruby winced in shame and guilt once more, both emotions hitting her hard today. Absently she traced the ebony-haired girl's bow, then her nose, lips, cheeks, before reaching her forehead. Ruby sighed once more, regret tinging her whispered voice. "I'm so sorry- I should have done more for you." Her information skills were never the best, but she'd really tried that day- obviously not hard enough it seems. "I should have tried harder."

She reached her apartment, dingy and damp with cobwebs forming above the front door and rubbish littering the hallways leading up to it- she noted that someone had drawn some neat looking graffiti of a two headed King Taijutu swallowing a beowolf next to her door. Sighing, she opened her door, wincing at the creak and groan of dying wood and rusted hinges that she'd been meaning to oil but never truly got around to.

She slept that night dreaming of amber, tuna, a cat and the moon.