Last Huntress - Chapter 5

-Devil's Deal-

Ruby's senses had been kicked into overdrive by the appearance of the gangsters, making her keenly aware of the pieces of shredded metal that dug painfully into her knees like a dozen little pinpricks as she knelt near the prone and unconscious form of Russel Thrush. Also of the shuffling of feet that came from behind her. One pair of boots, then two. Wolf ears swiveled towards the sounds as she kept a careful gaze on the man who was crouched in front of her, watching her through the slits of a bone white mask. There were at least six of the Fang, making it very clear she was surrounded.

It had been a while since she had actually felt the cold chill of fear enter her heart and begin to seep out from her chest, but being trapped by the White Fang was more than enough reason for the return of this sensation. Sure, there had been times when she'd found herself surrounded by humans and had been worried of an impending beating, but the simple fact was that she usually ended up on top of those fights. Knowing that prevented the onset of full blown fear.

But now her heart beat faster as the razor edge of the sword tip at her throat grazed against sensitive flesh, and her thoughts raced with stories of Faunus who had crossed the gang. Whispers of men and women who stumbled out of alleys with only bleeding holes left where ears or tails once sat, a brand burned into the back of their right shoulder of a howling beowulf head with three claw marks gashed through it.

There were many reasons why she had never gone to the White Fang to look for jobs or information, as either could come at much too high a cost.

It was a nervous silence that her gulp broke, the wolf ears atop her head flattening as the man in the mask leaned forward. "A bounty hunter, interesting." His voice was deep, its cadence smooth, complementing the few handsome features she could see. It seemed his attention switched to over her shoulder, to the one who held the sword that now kept her in place, and returned to her after a moment. "I pride myself on knowing Faunus of exceptional skill, especially those who save me from assassins. Normally, they're by my side.."

His gaze drifted down to Russel, and the pool of lubricant that continued to leak out from the hole in the cybernetic arm. "But I don't know you. Admittedly that is my fault, I do not usually frequent this area, so close to the line. My name is Adam Taurus. From the look on your face, I can see you already knew that. What's your name, little wolf?"

The pet name made her eyes narrow into a glare, and she growled out the answer with all the caution she could muster. "Ruby Rose."

Again, there was that glance over her shoulder, as if the one holding the sword was reacting to what was being said. "Ruby, you look like a clever little wolf. I need eyes and ears in the places I can't go, where the White Fang cannot go. I want you to look into who hired this.. Human. The White Fang will pay double the bounty for that information."

The turnabout from terror to confusion was enough to give her a sense of emotional whiplash, but it certainly did not change that she knew that they could afford a heftier price. She spoke carefully, not wanting to agitate or upset the gangster. The bull horns hammered home the implication of a terrible temper lurking beneath the calm exterior, and the idea of being in danger whenever he looked at her made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. "If I start poking around on whoever put a hit out on you, I could end up upsetting The Gentlemen. Double your offer, and we've got a deal."

Ruby braced herself for a reprisal, for a backhand or a press of that edge that the pulsing veins of her neck brushed with each thundering beat of her heart. What came was a laugh, one that echoed off the walls of the ruined alley. "Bargaining with a blade to your throat? I love wolves.." The way he looked at her now was even more disconcerting, the study of her body no longer intentioned to size up her skill. As his gaze rose to stare down into her eyes, the smile on his lips told her that he was satisfied with what he saw. She looked away quickly after that. "I agree to those terms. Bring us a name, we'll pay four times the bounty."

A hand extended in the space between them, taking her chin in a surprisingly tender grip as a thumb traced along her jawline before roughly forcing her gaze upwards. "Fail us, and there'll be nowhere on Remnant for you to hide."

Glaring up at him as she was, Ruby didn't feel like she was in a position to respond well to threats, even after he pulled his hand away. But her distaste for this whole situation was growing by the second, and she reined in the anger that was steadily growing. "I'll get you that name."

"Good, I'd hate to have to take those cute ears." A finger and a thumb closed about the edge of one of her wolf ears, pinching it lightly. Reflex dictated that she jerked away, nicking the edge of her neck on the blade and drawing a thin line of blood in the absence of an active Aura. Adam flashed her a broad smile before releasing her sensitive ear and stepping past her, a wicked laugh sounding out as he left.

The other gangsters followed him almost immediately, stepping through the wreckage of the bridge to follow their leader. But the blade remained, holding close to her neck as if warning her not to turn around and watch them depart. As if she needed a warning. After a long moment where she held her breath and hoped that the gangster wielding the sword was not in a particularly cruel mood, the black metal disappeared and the sound of boots plodding over the uneven ground replaced the silence.

Ruby counted to ten in her head, slowly enough to ensure that she was left completely alone with her bounty. Raising a hand to rub at her throat, she let out a quiet hiss as her fingers ran along the thin cut. "You're welcome." She turned to spit the words in the direction the White Fang had left, grimacing as the soreness in her ribs sent a shock of pain through her chest. Even as she moved, Ruby could feel the sticky sensation of blood as her shirt pulled away from the cut she had received in the fall.

The would be assassin still lay at her feet, groaning softly as the sheen of ice continued to war with the flames of the drug coursing through his system. She had felt the effects of the two conflicting types of Dust before; it was nothing short of agonizing. Though that had been on the back of her hand, and not inside of her veins. Gritting her teeth as she hauled the semi-conscious Thrush to his feet, the notion of getting him to a doctor crossed her mind for the briefest of moments.

It was gone as soon as it had arrived, shuffled along its way by the first step that sent another wave of pain through her bruised and battered body. Ruby shoved her former schoolmate forward, drawing a small sense of satisfaction from the cry that resulted from his movements. With a hand on the link joining together his cuffs, she was able to pull him back before he toppled over completely as she thought of the best way to get him back to the Precinct.

Then she heard the sirens, the wailing announcement that signaled the arrival of Vale's Finest. Drawn either by the gunshots and a collapsing bridge, or the crazed gun-toting gangster who had shoved her way through a crowd of innocent humans, it didn't really matter to her. A ride back to the precinct was preferable to lugging the dazed, screaming, and heavy bounty through the city streets. Ruby let out a groan as she dropped the man on the curb, taking her time to lower herself down into a sitting position. The patrol officers would find them soon enough.

The pain caught up with her as the adrenaline of the fight wore away, leaving her nerves raw as she worked to take a short inventory of the wounds she had sustained. There was an ache that spread through her entire chest with each breath, accompanied by the sensation of sweat stinging the gashes present on her arm and side. The cut across the length of her ribs was jagged and uneven, as if the skin had split from the impact of falling rather than the culprit being a piece of metal, as she had originally thought. A hand confirmed her shirt remained whole, no evidence of the wound aside from a darkened patch growing over the cloth.

The gash through the lower part of her right shoulder was still bleeding, sending rivulets of fresh blood down past canyons of dried sanguine. Ruby stared at the cut with a frown, knowing that she had to find a way to stem the flow before it became a more dire problem. She reached over to the quivering form of Russel Thrush, sparing a moment of sympathy as she watched him go through a painfully accelerated method of detox from the mixture of Dust types.

Taking a hold of the cloak that was still wrapped about the man's shoulders, she tore a large strip from the frayed cloth. Taking one end of the makeshift bandage in her teeth, she began wrapping her wound with the other, a slow process due to the inherent difficulties of the procedure. She had barely finished tucking the loose ends of the bandage into the now-bloody mess of ruined cloth when the harsh lights of a patrol car came around the corner, its siren filling the space between the cramped buildings and stinging her ears with its volume.

With a sigh, Ruby raised her hands from where she sat on the curb.

The atmosphere in the Precinct had changed quite a bit since Ruby had left that morning. There was a great deal more excitement set into the air, as a dozen or so people in cuffs were being shuffled through the office, the result of a fight that had broke out near the line that divided the two halves of the Residential District. All throughout the office, security mechs stood guard, flanking each criminal. Though to call them criminals would be a bit too much, seeing as none of them bore the distinctive tattoos of the White Fang, nor the fanciful suits of The Gentlemen.

If Ruby had to hazard a guess, she would certainly put the blame on the shoulders of the two gangs. She had seen them incite far too many riots to believe differently at this point. Yes, fights did break out in the District without their intervention, she had seen one earlier. But never in the size and intensity that drew enough police attention that over twelve people were arrested. No, not criminals, simply people manipulated into maintaining the perpetual state of fear and hate that hung over the city these last few years.

As it was, she was left standing there, a couple of steps behind a pair of officers that had quite literally dragged her bounty from the patrol car to here. They were waiting for the Captain to notice, as the redheaded woman was directing the booking of their latest catch from the center of the room. Fingers tapped across the screen of a datapad as bright green eyes slid over in her direction, her current employer's actions freezing for a brief second as surprise crossed over the older woman's gorgeous features.

A hand waved them over as a call was put out for one of the medical personnel, and Ruby sidled past the pair of officers that had been kind enough to give her a lift in order to speak to Pyrrha. "I didn't expect you back this soon. Sorry that it is a bit of a madhouse in here. What's wrong with him?" Captain Nikos' voice was filled with a sense of apprehension as she stood next to Ruby, watching Russel being wheeled away on a gurney. The man was still squirming about and groaning, his hands reaching up to tear at his chest every couple of seconds as if he were trying to rip something out of his skin. "Do I want to know what you did?"

Smirking at the way the Captain looked over at her, Ruby let out a groan as her silent laugh caused a lance of pain to shoot through her as it passed by her ribs. Before she started to speak, she reached inside a vest pocket and produced the small syringe that Junior had given her. The movement agitated the ingredients of the drug, and the vial encased in the needle flared up into a vicious red color for a moment. "Our friend there took a massive dose of this. It's a new drug that just hit the streets, called Huo Zai Mai. Some sort of stimulant mixture paired with Burn Dust, maybe amphetamines as well."

"Burn Dust?" The concern in Pyrrha's voice was warranted as the older woman took the syringe and examined it closer, the good Captain more than aware of what a substance like that could do inside the veins of a person. "Hm, follow me."

Taking one last glance towards the gurney that held the man she had hunted and fought, Ruby moved a few steps behind the older woman in the direction of the Captain's office, following her through the door and closing it quietly behind them. When she turned to face her friend, she found Pyrrha staring down at the vial containing the drug that she had brought back.

The needle had been placed on the interface of the desk, and as Ruby took a seat to let her weary muscles rest, a chime sounded. An analysis of the vial's contents appeared in holographic form, spinning around while listing the chemicals present. Her hunch had been correct, as it was a mix of various stimulants with almost half of the chemical makeup directly linked to a diluted form of liquid red Dust. "Just as I feared."

Ruby tilted her head to the side, watching the redhead with a confused expression as one wolf ear twitched in response to her movements. "Have you seen this before?"

"Not this specifically, no." Pyrrha tapped across the desk screen, and several more holographic images appeared. Each of them was similar to the analysis of Huo Zai Mai, in that they contained the same mixture of illicit substances designed to provide a pleasurable high, but the majority of each was made up of a different kind of Dust. "This is the fifth Dust drug that's appeared on the streets in the last few months. Either the gangs are getting creative with their resources, or.."

"Or someone has found a way to smuggle in a lot of Dust." Finishing the sentence earned a nod from the concerned Captain, lines of worry that had not been present four years ago cutting into the beautiful features of her friend's face. The Hunters being disbanded had not been kind to the Dust industry, the loss of their most profitable group had caused several century-old companies to collapse. Only those that could adapt to the changing markets had survived, largely emerging reborn and rebranded as weapons manufacturers. "Good to see someone is finding an inventive way to use all the excess Dust, I guess. I would check the legitimate docks, instead of the black markets. If someone is bringing in enough to provide for both the experimentation and distribution of so many new products, it has to be arriving legally."

The green of narrowed eyes slowly raised from the desk to regard her with a raised eyebrow, filled with a sense of disbelief. "What?" Ruby's ears twitched as she glanced to the side, uneasy under the studious gaze of the Police Captain.

"Nothing." Pyrrha spoke slowly, as if the words carried a risk of offending her. "It's just strange.. You would make a very good detective, with thinking like that." The scoff that escaped her lips caused the redhead to raise a hand almost instantaneously. "I know, I know. I won't ask again. It just surprises me to find that girl that I used to know. Many of us thought she was gone."

"Well you know how I feel about working with mechs." A part of Ruby yearned to ask who the 'us' truly was in that scenario, but another knew that it was better left unknown. She did not truly want to know the words spoken behind her back by those who considered her a hassle these days. Instead she settled on a small smile, and her usual smartass comment. "And what can I say? All it takes is getting the shit beat out of me to really bring out the law abiding citizen."

"Now, that I don't doubt for a second." The laugh that came from Pyrrha sounded a bit strained, as if the topic had suddenly turned uncomfortable. "Reports are still coming out of the markets that a White Fang member with red wolf ears was brandishing a weapon in the middle of the street, and I heard about the destruction you wrought on that poor neighborhood." A hand reached out and took the small vial of the drug that Ruby had supplied. "And do I even want to ask how you got your hands on this?"

Ruby said nothing, donning a mysterious smirk and rocking back on her heels in order to enjoy the conniption fit that silence caused her old friend. Instead of providing a show, Pyrrha merely breathed out a laugh and gave a nod. "Fair enough, I suppose. I wouldn't want to dismantle the network you use for sources anyway. Could be of use when you finally decide to take a legitimate job in law enforcement." A few taps on the desk and the holographic display shifted to show the rotating image of Russel Thrush once again. "As for our friend here, you said he was.."

"He was hired as a hitman, I'm sure of it." Cutting off the older woman in her excitement, Ruby shifted her weight as she thought back. "He had a high grade sniper rifle, the type you'd be more likely find in a military armory than a street gang, and his target was a ranking White Fang. The tricky part is; Russel here has been with The Gentlemen for years. It doesn't make sense that Torchwick would risk the treaty to kill just one gangster, and it doesn't seem like his style.."

Trailing off, she chewed on her lower lip as she thought back to the days when she had been a Huntress in training, when she and her team had hunted the notorious thief across the face of Vale. Years had been wasted on false leads, friends had been lost in traps. Assassination was nowhere near the style of Roman Torchwick. No, he wanted his enemies to know who killed them. "White Fang and The Gentlemen.." Ruby's focus was drawn upwards as Pyrrha spoke, the other woman's emerald colored eyes watching her carefully. "I'm sorry to get you mixed up in all this."

The concern was touching, but it truly brought a laugh to Ruby's lips as she gave a dramatic shrug of her shoulders. "So long as I get paid."

A nod, more serious than she would have preferred, came in response to her words. "I must admit, you did a good job on this one." The praise was unexpected, causing her eyes to widen as she watched the redhead. "Listen, Ruby. You're a good bounty hunter when you put your mind to it, one of the best I have access to. I know I've been hard on you the last couple of jobs, but keep yourself sober during the daylight hours and show some restraint, I'll make sure to pass you any bounty I can. I even have a few easy ones right now, if you're interested?"

Ruby took a moment to collect her thoughts, unsure of how to respond to a compliment like that. It had been too long, and she was far too used to dismissing complaints instead of handling praise. "Thank you, Pyrrha.. But not right now. I've got to get back to Yang's and have her check out these cuts." She gave a nod toward the makeshift bandage around her shoulder that was now completely bled through.

"Of course." The older woman moved around the desk and opened the door to the office for her. "Go on, I'll have the bounty deposited to your account right away. Please tell your sister that Jaune and I say hello."

Striding forward with a wide grin, Ruby glanced over at her friend as she walked past. "Will do, Pyrrha."

Author's Note: Oh my god I am so sorry. At first it was being sick, then it was family wanting to do things every other day, and then I bought Division. This chapter was definitely planned to be longer, but I felt as though I should just post what I had before everyone started asking if I was dead or something. Sorry about that guys. Gonna take a minute to just say thank you. First and foremost, for my Beta, Unjax. If you haven't gone back and read chapters three and four again, I highly suggest you do so. I owe it to him that both of those are like a million times better! Then to all you lovely readers who follow, favorite, and review my stories, you guys rock! As always, let me know what you think of this chapter by dropping a review below, and enjoy! -Fox