Weiss was waiting outside when the rest of her team exited the store. She was leaning against the side of the building, her gaze fixed down the street where the brunette had slithered off. Weiss had taken her eyes off the older woman for only a moment, and before she knew it the svelte woman was disappearing out the door. She'd tried to make chase to give her a piece of her mind (and ask many questions), but as she drew close to the exit the security rails near the door chirped. Unwilling to run outside with unpaid merchandise she returned to the checkout to pay, but by the time she got outside… All that was there for her was the warm sun and a busy sidewalk. Nowhere to be found was the brunette wearing what Weiss would have reasonably called a skanky outfit. Not because it was immodest or anything like that, but because she was convinced the dreadful woman wearing it must be some sort of vagrant.

"You could've said something if you were outside." Ruby grumbled good-naturedly as the door to The Next Chapter opened and she walked out, followed by the rest of the team. Blake was hugging her bag close to her chest, her expression reddened as a grinning Yang kept elbowing her in the chest for some quite literal ribbing. Ruby herself was sipping on an iced tea, some newly purchased sunglasses tilted up and sitting on her brow.

"Do you know some random rude woman in red?" Weiss asked, brows furrowed.

Ruby blinked, then glanced down at her red shawl. "What the fuck did I do this time?" She sounded quite befuddled as she continued. "I mean, I didn't even buy the mugs, they're still on a shelf-"

Weiss rolled her eyes, deciding that it wasn't worth the time while there were others. She'd bother Ruby about it later, that much she was certain.

"You know, we are close to a little shindig I've been to once or twice." Yang said with a drawl, grinning up a storm. "A club nearby is run by a good friend of mine."

Weiss raises a brow, suspicious, but before she can voice any of her many concerns Ruby cut in. "What, exactly, is my seventeen year-old sister doing in a bar?"

"It's a club." Yang corrected. "Completely different."

"I don't give a fuck! Have you been drinking alcohol?" Ruby asked, her brows furrowed as she raised a finger and pointed it at Yang's chest. "Do you go dressed like that? Oh my god of course you do you dress like that all the time. Do you wear less?"

"Don't slut shame me!" Yang cried, turning beet red as she raised her hands defensively. "Look, we're teens! We can go have some fun if we want to, it's not illegal."

"For the sake of the peace, and only for that, I'm not going to think too hard about what you're saying." Ruby shook her head, pinching her brow as if to ward off an elephant-sized migraine. "Just… Just take us there. I want to see this for myself."

"Do we have to?" Blake sighed, casting her gaze up and down the street. "I'm hungry, and we've been walking all day, and I don't know how I feel about anything loud."

"I'm sure it'll be fine!" Yang assured, not sounding sure herself. "Besides, it's off-hours and they have food there. Well, bar food." Ruby's hackles raised noticeably at the word choice, but Weiss and the rest of the team pretended not to notice.

"Boss said you're not allowed in anymore."

The bouncer in front of the club was a bruiser. The man looked like he was seven feet tall, and half as wide. The ox-faunus has his arms crossed over his chest as he loomed over Yang with a grimace. For her part Yang looked cool as a cool cucumber, unconcerned. "But he and I are longtime friends. I mean, we've done so much together!" Her mirthful tone suddenly got serious as she rocked up onto her tiptoes to get a couple inches closer. "You better let me in Verty, I'd kill for a drink right now."

The rest of team RWBY shared a look while 'Verty' rolled his eyes. "Not gonna work on me blondie. Take a hike. Ever since you fondled Junior's jewels he's put the kibosh on anyone letting you sneak in."

There was a pregnant pause. Quintuplets pregnant in fact as Ruby blinked slowly, glancing from Blake to Weiss, finally to the bouncer. With a flicker of red light the full extent of her axe was summoned from nothing, hanging fractions of an inch away from the man's neck. He paled, but not quite as much as Yang did.

"If you would be so kind," Ruby began, her tone dripping in malice, sending shivers up her sister's spine, "take me to Junior, now."

The man nodded frantically, keeping his mouth shut as the labrys disappeared into a pair of petals that floated up the side of Ruby's shawl. The faunus turned and quickly opened the door, taking a brisk pace that looked a whole lot like running as he descended the stairs inside. Ruby followed closely behind, never letting him get too far away. As the rest of the team followed they watched as the older girl rolled her shoulders and stretched her arms, her back muscles flexing under the light strain.

Eventually they came to a pair of sliding doors guarded by two men in black suits. They seemed a bit wary as Verty approached, but he waved for them to open the door and they did so reluctantly. Their concern turned to panic as they saw Ruby's scowl, and just behind her the impossible-to-forget face of the club's single persona non-grata. Verty came to a stop, turning and pointing towards the dance floor where Junior could be seen directing a small horde of henchmen getting ready to set up for their night.

"That's the…" He trailed off as Ruby disappeared, a stiff breeze signaling her departure as she reappeared a few short strides from the club's manager. Verty scratched his head as she stalked forward. "That lady's gonna get herself killed."

"I somehow doubt that." Weiss scoffed, shaking her head as she watched carefully.

"Are you Junior?" Ruby asked when she was just entering striking distance. Junior looked up at her, but before he could think to respond she raised a fist, took a step, and delivered a haymaker directly to the man's abdomen.

"So…" Pyrrha hummed, taking the moment to take a sip from her water bottle. "What happened next?"

"Well," Ruby grumbled as she leaned back on her bed and stared at the ceiling, "I was forced to apologize for sucker punching him when he explained that my sister molested him when looking for information about her mother. And me. And Blake went hungry. And he did kind of deserve it, but knowing Yang she forced the situation in the first place."

"That sounds incredibly awkward." Pyrrha mused. And incredibly sweet that your sister still believed you were out there.

"Yeah I sort of wanted to crawl into a hole and die if I'm being honest. Nothing like finding out you just committed assault with a deadly weapon against a creepy yet still more or less innocent man to make the asocial lizard in me want to find a cave to die in." Ruby agreed, grumbling as she rolled onto her side to face Pyrrha.

The pair were alone, opposite one another in Ruby's room, Pyrrha on Yang's bed, Ruby on her own. The rest of their teams was currently hanging out outside, and it was clear that Yang and Ruby hadn't exactly had a civilized discussion when they'd been walking home. That much was clear from the fact that Yang arrived a full fifteen minutes before the rest, and had brushed off any attempts from Jaune or Nora to drag her into conversation. Then when the rest of RWBY arrived there was quite the awkward atmosphere.

"What do you mean by a deadly weapon?" Pyrrha asked after a pause, curious. "I thought you punched him."

Ruby nodded sagely before lifting one of her arms and flexing, showing off the bulge of her muscle. "It's called a gun show for a reason, Pyrrha."

Pyrrha blurted out a single note of laughter before she choked down the response to such a silly joke. "That's… rather corny."

"You're partnered with Jaune Arc." Ruby countered. "That man is a corn machine. I like the guy but his attempts at seduction are kinda cringe-worthy."

"He's just enthusiastic." Pyrrha argued, motioning to how Ruby was laying on her side on her bed, abdominal muscles very clearly flexed. "It's not like you aren't un-subtle yourself."

"I'm just like this." Ruby replied smugly, though she reached to the head of her bed and grabbed a pillow that she carefully placed over her exposed midriff. "It's part of my charm."

"That's a Jaune line." Pyrrha chuckled.

"Yeah, well." Ruby trailed off before sighing. "I just hope that Yang's cooled off by the time dinner starts. She was not happy that I was reading her the riot act."

"You only did that because you love her."

Ruby hummed, but didn't reply. "She's my responsibility now. I don't want her thinking she should go out to a warehouse full of mooks and try to take down an entire gang on her own."

Pyrrha considered the pause, but said nothing.

"Anyways, we should head to the caf." Ruby eventually said, rocking herself onto her feet. "Hopefully dinner isn't too awkward."

Teams RWBY and PNRJ were both piled around a single table in the dining hall as the day was drawing near its end. As the amber light of the evening sky filtered through the rising windows, tinging the room a light orange, they verbally sparred over this and that. Ruby was sandwiched between Yang and Weiss, facing Pyrrha. Jaune was doing his best to flirt with the Heiress, and getting nowhere fast. Yang, being supremely excited at the opportunity to egg that particular slow-motion multi-car-pileup on was throwing advice (both real and dramatically unhelpful) Jaune's way across the table. Nora, who was seated opposite Yang was doing the same, though it might very well be because she was feeling very out. At the end of the table Ren and Blake were chatting amicably about something or other. Knowing the two, probably how much they wished it was quieter.

Needless to say, everyone's food was going to be cold long before they finished talking.

On almost any other day, Pyrrha would have been pleased as a peach. Things seemed nice and relaxed, people were up to their normal banter. But she knew that it wasn't really fine. Ruby and Yang had a certain awkwardness that the younger sibling normally never allowed. Their distance would have been polite if Yang gave Ruby any semblance of personal space normally… So Ruby's fears from their discussion earlier were founded. Ruby had, instead, opted to keep her gaze firmly on Pyrrha, ignoring her surroundings and chatting about the ins and outs of the riveting topic of weapon maintenance. The gladiator was willing to help by talking about nonsense, but even she was tiring of the one-note very-not-about-what's-going-on conversation. Thankfully a distraction was about to present itself.

"Come on Weiss, doubles training is the best way to improve." Jaune argued, waving his fork about as if was somehow explaining something. "Pyrrha and I have been going at it for a few weeks now and I've gotten hella good."

"Hella." Yang repeated, grinning.

"He has improved quite dramatically from before." Pyrrha agreed, deciding to finally enter the conversation, offering Jaune a smile. "He shows promise."

Hearing Pyrrha speak Weiss finally tuned back in to the conversation, her gaze lifting from her food with some confusion as she tried to recollect what all had been said.

"No." Weiss replied as she very clearly tried to vaporise Jaune's skull with her glare. "Besides, we should be practicing with our teams, right?" She looked to Ruby, who blinked. The heiress repeated herself, "We should be training as a team."

The rest of team RWBY fell silent as Ruby's face scrunched up in confusion. "But you never want to train with us. You always just watch and scowl."

"I've had an admittedly rare change of heart." Weiss explained, now wearing the selfsame scowl Ruby had just described.

"OK, weird, but it still makes sense for us all to to train with others." Ruby argued, glancing to Pyrrha. "Sometimes you run into weird semblances. It's better if you can adapt to different situations."

Weiss' scowl got incrementally deeper, and Pyrrha thought she could see some of that ire being thrown her way. "Perhaps, as training for the Vytal festival, but right now you don't exactly train either Ruby. You just give us exercises to practice on you. You aren't getting any better either."

"I have a feeling that my sort of training is a little more intense than you three would like." Ruby said slowly, shrugging, and turning a slight shade of red as all present regarded her. "Don't look at me like that."

"Now that I think about it," Nora pondered, tapping her chin pensively, "in all the times we've seen you out in the field, you've never sparred with another person. I've only seen you killing Grimm and the like. Or being a punching bag for Yang and Blake."

"She doesn't take it seriously." Blake mused. "I sparred with her for the entrance exam and she didn't really fight then either. Mostly played at being flashy."

"I enjoyed our bout." Ruby pouted, crossing her arms, though the redness in her cheeks made it clear she was starting to feel a bit of heat. "We don't need to be fighting for our lives all the time."

"And yet when we train you go on about being ready for anything." Yang mused with narrowed eyes.

Ruby withered under everyone's scrutiny, offering a shrug in response.

"I'd like to see you spar, Ruby." Pyrrha said gently, which apparently broke Ruby's will. The older girl groaned and stood, rolling her shoulders.

"Alright, fine, since you're all so curious." Ruby grumbled. "So who wants a piece of me? I promise I will not joke around and the rest of you will have a dandy time watching me get into a little tussle with whoever."

Nora was the first to raise her hand, excited at the thought, though Pyrrha could see Weiss also getting ready to throw her hat into the ring, as well as Blake surprisingly. As a din of voices began to overwhelm their local airspace Yang spoke up;

"I'll fight you Sis." Yang said, with surprising sincerity in her voice. Pyrrha wasn't so sure that was a great idea, and by the frown that settled on Ruby's face for a mere moment, neither did she.

Meanwhile;

Torchwick had his feet up on his desk, his chair leaned way back as he snoozed, his bowler hat tipped down over his eyes to keep the light of the warehouse office from interrupting his shut-eye. It would, of course, be unprofessional to be caught sleeping on the job. That's why everyone, including Neo, was off doing their own thing. No witnesses. It had taken a good long while to convince the mute to give him some time to get some shut-eye, but she'd relented when he'd insisted that he was going to squeeze some extra planning in. He didn't have the heart to tell her that his dashing countenance might be too hot with the Vale PD for the two of them to stay in the same safe house. Regardless, that was fifteen minutes ago now and the local conman was just confident enough in his precarious perch that he thought it might not be a terrible idea to get some of that elusive shuteye everyone talks about.

His plan was cut mighty short, however, when he heard the telltale click of heels against the metal walkway outside. He knew for a fact who that was, and that she didn't exactly enjoy goofing off, but he took solace in the fact that him ignoring her for a moment would annoy her to no end.

"Roman." Said an unseen figure, the voice polite and warm.

Well fuck, that wasn't who he thought it was. He gently eased his chair forward enough that he was back on all four legs and adjusted his hat, squinting a bit in the somewhat bright light of the room. Standing in front of him was, indeed Cinder Fall, whose expression bore an arched brow. Standing behind her and to the side, slightly within the shadows of the room outside, a second woman could be seen just barely. Suddenly the lamp in the room felt quite a bit more harsh, and he could barely make out the white of her cape.

"Ah, Cinder and her minder." Roman huffed, leaning forward and resting his elbows on the desk. "To what do I owe this unscheduled visit in the dead of night."

"Merely making sure that you were moving in to your new hideout on time." Cinder replied airily. She motioned to the surrounds. "After that brazen little heist downtown we didn't have much time to move this humble operation before the local huntsmen knocked on your front door. We just wanted to make sure a valuable asset didn't get swept up in the rush."

Torchwick scoffed, holding his arms out incredulously. "The great Torchwick? Of course not! Besides, Vale's huntsmen are almost all stationed in the academy. They're all tied up with their little preschool operation. They don't have time to come look for a few dozen cases of misappropriated dust."

"And yet if any one of them had seen you, you'd be jailed or dead." Said the woman behind Cinder. "It's in our best interest to keep you safe and operating."

Torchwick rolled his eye but felt a bit awkward throwing a barb back at the woman. "Yes, well, as you can see I'm perfectly fine. So what's the real reason you're skulking around?"

"There's a target we need you to hit, preferably sooner than later." Cinder replied, pulling from seemingly nowhere a piece of paper. "The White Fang are ready to start moving assets into Vale, small arms, that sort of thing. It's all Adam can get his hands on with his current level of… influence within the organization. What they have stockpiled is worth moving but we don't have a place to keep it. Our joint dust venture has the poor VPD keeping an eye on all activity at the ports. We need a diversion, and the local Schnee depot is heavily armed with mechs."

Torchwick rolled the thought around in his head for a moment. He hummed out loud, then shook his head. "No thanks. Those animals are barely any better than Junior's guys. I'm not putting a noose on my neck to upgrade them from D-tier to C-tier. Not worth the heat."

"The raw materials alone will be worth it." Cinder waved his concern off. "And if we can prove ourselves as effective allies to the Fang our selection of talent will greatly widen. Sienna Khan will be convinced if we prove we can be valuable allies."

"You do realize this would be the most dangerous take in the history of the kingdom, right?" Torchwick asked, incredulous. "The S-D-C doesn't exactly leave piles of dust in boxes marked 'do not steal'. And if we were successful they'd dedicate more resources than we could hope to steal trying to track us down."

"You're going to just have to learn how to work under pressure." Cinder said, again dismissing him. "Before the pieces are all in place things are going to get more and more complicated. Besides, it's not like you have anything to worry about."

"And why's that?"

The woman in the shadows took a step forward into the light. Her red-tinged hair pulled back in a bun, her silver eyes glimmering in the dim light of the room. "You'll have me."

It was enough of a promise for Roman to yield, and the ginger-haired man sighed in acquiescence. If Cinder herself could contend with Goodwitch, he imagined that any friend of hers was just as useful. "Fine."

WIthout further comment the two walked away, their footsteps echoing in the quiet of midnight. Roman shook his head, a migraine coming on just from the thought of it. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw a flash of green, but when he looked over he saw nothing. Figuring that was just further evidence he needed to get some sleep he stood and stretched his arms over his head. Time to find out if the desk itself was comfortable enough to sleep on…