Eventually, day turned to eve as the sun has set on the shores of Vale. Many went to head out for dinner to enjoy more of the festivities but Ruby and Weiss decided to head home. 

Hand in hand, they rode the car back to the Schnee mansion, Weiss eventually falling asleep on Ruby's shoulders but not too long later, they have arrived in front of the door. 

It was a shame that Ruby had to wake up the sleeping beauty next to her. Weiss must be exhausted from all the fights and walking and running around. 

"Weiss, we're home." Ruby whispered into her ears which easily stirred up the sleeping heiress. Quickly she got off Ruby's shoulder, all flustered as she tried to fix herself up. 

"I'm sorry for falling asleep on you. I-I wasn't really planning to--" Ruby placed a hand on top of Weiss' head with an amused smile.

"It's alright, Weiss~ It's not much of a big deal. Come on, time for you to head to bed....or take a bath." Ruby suggested making Weiss pout producing a laughter out of the cookie lover's lips. 

"Excuse me!" Weiss kept her pout and headed out of the car, taking her belongings and stomping up on to her bedroom. Ruby followed behind her, chuckling at Weiss' flustered face but had the heiress slam her door on her face. "Go to your room! You take a bath on your own!"

"Oh? Are you hinting you want to take a bath with me?" Ruby asked to tease the heiress on the other side of the door. 

"Wha--Zip it!" Weiss neither agreed or denied Ruby's assumptions and marched in to her bathroom, fuming.

Ruby chuckled and freshened up as well, changing to more comfortable clothes to lounge in around the house. A simple pastel pink turtleneck dress and a pair of slip-ons seemed perfect for the night. 

After a while, Ruby heard her sister's bike arrive out front. the maids opened the door for her of course and together with Yang, Blake's with her.

"Hey! I was hoping to see you--" Yang breathed a heavy sigh and looked back at Blake who seem to be itching to say something.  "What happened with your trip in town?"

Yang and Blake let themselves in and had the maids close the door. Ruby led them to the parlor and started the fire, requesting for tea and snacks from the maids and closed the parlor door. 

"Ruby, we found something out. Remember Emerald and Mercury? Those two cheats in the competition? they work for a syndicate here in Vale." Yang sat down on the couch with a heavy sigh. 

Blake sat next to Yang, her brows furrowed. "They have Adam with them." Her voice sounded quite odd for Ruby then realized she had fear in it. She held herself together, looking nervous next to the blonde. Yang noticed this as well and started petting Blake's head to help.

"Adam? The mad man that hurt you? What is he doing here? Why didn't you let me kill him the last time, Blake?" Ruby asked, her voice stern. "Let a mouse live and it'll cause a plague."

"But if you did, you'd be trapped and imprisoned somewhere worse, am I right? If someone found out who killed him that is."  Weiss joined them and took one of the chairs, sitting and looking at the brunette. "Ruby, be careful since Ozpin have his eyes on you."

"She's right. But what's more alarming is that together with Adam...He's grouped up with a woman named Cinder." Yang added, pouring tea for the group. 

Ruby looked at Yang, quite alarmed to hear that certain name. A million thoughts came racing in her head. "Cinder...you say?" She asked, frowning.

"Cinder Fall. I watched the fight with her in it during the festival. Her ways are crude but she's no doubt strong." Weiss noted. "Is there something else more concerning about her?"

"I mean aside from running a Dust syndicate in Vale, remember the robberies of dust shops around the city and the Kingdom?" Blake spoke up, "She's never good news."

"You mean you have encountered her before?" Weiss asked them all, starting to feel out of the loop. "Ruby?"

"Ask your Father. He knows her very well." Ruby hissed, taking a cookie from the array of snacks presented on the coffee table. "No matter, we have to keep an eye on them. Did any of her goons see you?" She inquired turning to Yang and Blake. 

"Emerald and Mercury saw us lurking close by but they didn't have time to ask what we were doing there. They probably know." Yang replied, picking up the agitation in her sister's voice. "Ruby..."

"Lay low and avoid them. If Adam finds out you both are here, it will ensue a fight. Stay in Beacon and stay alert. We have to find out what they want to do." Ruby stood p and left the group in the parlor, heading to who knows where.

Weiss frowned and decided to let Ruby calm down and clear her head before she asks her questions.

===========================

Emerald and Mercury returned to the base limping and injured, their auras drained to the core. This didn't go unnoticed with Cinder and Adam who were in the middle of discussing something important. 

Cinder and Adam came to help the two and assisted them to rest somewhere. Infuriated from this, Cinder's eyes was slowly starting to glow. 

"What happened?" She asked in a stern and mad voice. 

Emerald took a minute to catch her breath before replying to Cinder's question. "Yang Xiao Long and Blake Belladonna happened." She replied. 

 "How could you suffer from those two like this. You might not be as strong as we thought you were." Adom scoffed, leaving them. Mercury found this very rude from someone who's just as much of a pawn as they were.  

"Try fighting them. We'll see how you'll stay standing after going against them!" Mercury proposed, mad at the way they were being treated. Little to no compassion, hidden in the dark for who these bunch of these kids are, why do they bother these two masterminds? 

"I have, boy. You don't want to know how it ended." Adam hissed at him and pointed his sword down the boy's neck. "You have no idea what you were up against, weren't you?" Adam asked, sheathing his sword and walking away before he can slice off Mercury's head off his shoulder. 

Emerald hung her head. Just what were they hiding. from the sounds of it...

"You fought with them before." She guessed and looked up at Cinder who had a trace of something less than her usual menacing and loathing look. She looked...afraid. 

Mercury turned to the ladies and listened in their conversation. "You...knew them before we joined you?" 

Cinder sighed. "It's none of your business, Mercury. I suggest you stop going after them. If Vale is under their protection, it's only a matter of time before they find out what we're doing here.  Go to your rooms. Rest and recover. We'll be leaving Vale in a matter of days."

"Wait, didn't you mention that we have to take over Beacon? For our goal? Why are you backing out now? What changed?" Mercury asked, pissed at the mere fact that a bunch of younger kids made their fearless leaders change their minds with the invasion of Vale.

Cinder frowned and raised her hand and hit Mercury without thinking twice. "Your insolence and much questions will leave you in the streets again. Do you want that? I suggest you stop sticking your head where it does not belong or I will personally have you mutilated awake."

Emerald flinched from seeing that and kept in mind not to anger Cinder or speak out of line. "We'll be going ahead. It's better if we regain our strength for now." She suggested, tugging on Mercury's sleeve. 

He kept his head low and left ahead to head to his room, leaving Emerald and Cinder alone. Emerald stood up and started heading to her room as well, trying to think of how those two could be strong enough to defeat both of them in such a short fight. 

"Emerald, come with me." She heard Cinder call to her in the middle of her thoughts running in her mind. She turned around and started following Cinder who led them to her room. 

Their current base may not be much but they do have their own rooms and a proper space to live in around the towers of dust cases in the warehouse. Despite it being dimly lit, they can see clearly where they were heading and on the side of each crate, stickers of SDC were plastered, some scratched out but still, they were all from Alas and this was a plan that they took a long time to do. 

Once inside Cinder's room, Cinder turned to Emerald, arms crossed with a frown. "I meant what I said. Avoid Blake and Yang. Especially Red." 

"Why are they such a problem to us?" Emerald asked. "I could easily fight them again! What's the problem--"

"They are not someone you should not try to cross any further. Listen to me Emerald...They have every reason to hurt anyone and everyone related to me and Adam. I caused the death of Red's mother and Adam imprisoned Blake. Yang was a friend to me a long time ago. A very long time ago..." Cinder tried to think of ways to explain it without her sounding like such a bad person but she did ruin a family, relationships and lives. there was no way around it. All because she needed to do her Boss' bidding.

"Why did you hurt them?" Emerald asked softly as she sat down, trying to put things together. 

Cinder took a while to think of a way to answer this. "Salem made specific orders to eliminate whoever is to go through her plan's way, you know that right?" 

"Did they.."

"They found out about what we were going to do to the Kingdoms. We knew so little about them back then. Need less to say, we lost things on both sides and I...helped kill Summer Rose." Cinder admitted, her eyes steeling as she relived her memories in her mind.

The fight, the killing, the war, many had to leave the war zone and many died within it because they helped or was simply trying to leave. Cinder could care less about them but she remembered the eyes of Summer when she saw all the bloodshed. Her weakness was kindness and sympathy. That's what got her killed. 

"No need to dwell in the past. Just listen to what I said and do not try to cross them without us ever again, do you understand?" She repeated one last time. 

Emerald had to drop her concerns now that she knew more than before. All she could do now are follow orders as she was taught to do since she started staying by Cinder's side. "I..I do. I won't do it again."

"Good. Because I don't want to lose you." 

=============================

HOES HOES HOESSSSS! MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! ( I hope you're all reading this...TUT)

I am back, babies~!! Took a while to do so because I was trying to fix things in my school and personal life because guess what? YOUR GIRL'S GRADUATING ! \*U*/

I'm just in training currently (Desk work. Easy.) and a few classes here and there but other than that, I have all the time in the world to write again and I did do some thinking to improve the story! I'll be editing a few things from the early chapters and I'll be updating once a week!

(Cue: Sentimental Message)

I know it's already 2019 and 2018 was just a pure...disaster. 2019 will be better, babies I promise!

Through the years, I thank you all for supporting me and all of my works, all of you who became my friends, thank you so much. I hope you keep supporting me because I will be releasing original works soon. SOOOON. 

I have been hoping to write this earlier but haha...I'm really sorry. _ _;;;

Anyway, I'll keep it short! 

Thank you all so much! Stay your beautiful and awesome selves! 

Also, do you want to have a Q&A and a face reveal? OoO Just tell me what you think I should do for a special chapter! (I still update a chapter even with the special don't worry eUeb)

Thank you again~!! Leave a vote, a comment and recommend it to your friends! I'll see you soon! >w< 

With love and gratitude,
Sapphy~