Roman closed the door behind him as he stumbled back into his warehouse. A few seconds later, he heard the door open again as Neo walked in. Checking his watch, he saw that it was just past noon. Regardless, he needed a nap. Climbing to his office, he shucked off his clothes and fell into bed. He dreamed of cat women and blood.

Later

"…When members of the White Fang attacked. The once peaceful organization had become more and more violent in the past five years. Police reports say that the attack resulted in twenty-three dead and eighty-seven injured. Authorities apprehended three members of the organization, all of whom were seriously injured by unknown means. We will continue to-"

Roman shut off the image of the purple-haired news anchor and tossed the remote aside. It must be a slow news day if they were still talking about his foiled robbery and the Faunus Rights rally. He always hated that mug shot of him they used on the news. It made him look like some sort of ugly troll. There was a time, before he started working for Cinder, that he had considered letting the police catch him again, just so they could get a better picture. Roman got up from his position on the couch and stretched. He needed to find something better to do to pass the time than watch TV.

Later

"Plate of eggs and potatoes for you, hon." Roman nodded up at the waitress and took his food. As she walked away, he surreptitiously reached beneath his wig and scratched his head. The damn thing was always so itchy. As he started to eat, Roman felt the back of his neck start to itch as well, but this time in a different manner. Twisting around in his seat, Roman saw Neo, dressed in some frilly black and white outfit, sitting a few booths back, her eyes boring into the back of his head. Scowling at her, he turned back to his food. The girl had insisted on keeping an eye on him, even as he went out for breakfast. There was no way Roman was going to let her share a table with him, so she had settled for staring at him from a distance. Roman did his best to ignore her as he poured ketchup over his potatoes. Damn nuisance.

Later

Roman looked over the cards laid out on the table before him. A red nine, a black seven, a black queen. A red six, that was what he needed! He moved a black seven over to the six. Roman spent more time than he would like to admit playing solitaire. There wasn't much to do in between jobs, especially with Cinder and her excessively complicated schemes. He couldn't stand spending any time more than necessary with the thugs he usually worked with, so he spent most of his time alone in his office. Of course, he couldn't get any alone time now, not with Neo dogging his every move. The mute girl was currently sitting in a chair and gazing off into space. It was what she seemed to spend most of her time doing while she was at the base. At least it kept her out of his way. Roman looked back down at his cards. A red nine, what could he do with that?

Later

Roman awoke. Finally it was the day of the meeting. It had been one of the longest weeks of his life, with nothing to do or plan besides what he was going to say when he got there. What was worse was that Cinder had ordered him to keep his head down, so he couldn't even break into some poor chump's house to pass the time. But with the White Fang on their side, he would actually have something to do. Neo was still sleeping in the corner of his office, as he expected. The girl still consistently slept late into the day. Poking at her with his foot, Roman tried to get her to rise.

"Get up kid. I've got a busy day ahead of me, and you and Cinder will both be mad if I don't drag you along." Neo jerked suddenly into an upright position and looked up at Roman. He nudged her a few more times for good measure. "Get going," he said, before going back in for a shower.

That Evening

His watch read 11:30 PM. The meeting would be in full swing by now. Perfect time to crash the party. Roman shielded his eyes as his cane blasted the door off his hinges. Walking forward through the smoke, Roman stepped into the auditorium of the theatre and spread his arms dramatically. "Good evening, faunus of the White Fang. Allow me to introduce myself." Fifty pairs of eyes turned to him. Up on the stage, a large man in an ornate chair laughed.

"Humans? Interrupting a White Fang meeting? Nice try." He laughed again. "Kill the intruders," he ordered, and suddenly, all manner of guns and blades were pointed at Roman.

"Ah, ah, ah." Roman fished in his pocket and withdrew an oblong cylinder with a button on the top. "This," he said, waving the device in the air, "is a remote detonator. Attack me, and I'll set off the charges I've set around the theatre. The walls, the ceiling, under the stage. As old as this place is, it won't take much to send the whole building crashing down. So I suggest that you take a moment to listen to what I have to say."

There was a long pause as Roman and the White Fang stared each other down. "Alright, put your weapons away. Let him talk." Roman grinned. Not putting the detonator away, he walked through the crowd towards the stage.

"Good. I'm glad we can be reasonable about this." He hopped up onto the stage. Up close, the man in the chair wasn't just large, he was fat. His eyes seemed too big for his head and placed too far apart. His mouth was grossly over-sized, and there were gill-like flaps hanging for his neck, and they moved in rhythm as he breathed. All in all, he cut a rather unpleasant figure. "So you're Gray, huh? I've heard quite a bit about you."

"Only good things, I hope."

"Not really. But I don't actually care about you."

"What? Then what are you-"

"Oh sure, you've got control of your little territory around here, your little band of terrorists that will jump when you say jump, but really, you're just a little fish." Roman looked down pointedly at the faunus's gut. "Well, one out of two isn't bad. No, who I actually need to speak to is your boss."

"What!" Gray was on his feet in an instant, pointing his gun at Roman's head.

"Careful there, merman. You wouldn't want my finger to slip, now would you?" Gray grumbled as he put away his gun.

"Alright, clam down. Don't do anything hasty. But the boss? Nobody sees the boss. As soon as we're out of this building you've got no leverage. And there's no way in hell I'm going to do something as stupid as taking a human to see the boss."

"No, you don't understand. Trust me, your boss is going to want to hear what I have to say." Roman made sure to enhance his voice with his semblance. The sooner he could get this conversation over with, the better. Gray blinked his large, pale eyes several times as he considered what Roman said.

"The boss wants to hear what you have to say…well then… No, you're a human. What could scum like you have to say to one of the leaders of the White Fang?" Roman sighed. He hadn't really expected it to work. From what he had heard about the White Fang commander, he was too shrewd for Roman's semblance to work effectively on him. Why couldn't things just go smoothly for once?

"Fine." Roman leaned in towards Gray and stared into his eyes. "Then I guess I'm going to have to do this the hard way." Gray swallowed nervously. Roman grabbed him by the collar. "We're going to go backstage and discuss this like gentlemen."

"W-What?"

"As long as we're in this building, you're in my power. But I need you to get me in legitimately, so I can't kill or torture you. My only recourse is actually convince you that this is a good idea. So, we're going to go backstage, sit down at a table, and neither of us is going to get up until you agree to let me meet with your leader. Capisce, merman?" Gray knocked Roman's hands off his collar.

"Alright human. I'll accept your terms. Convince me."

Roman dropped his head to the table with a thunk. It had been over an hour and Gray had stubbornly refused to listen to anything he said. Bribes, threats, pleading. All had failed against the impassive Gray. "You've yet to make me believe that anything you say is worth my boss's time. No matter how interesting your plot is, I assure you, he hates humans more than anything you could give him in return."

"Look Gray, if he likes this idea, and you are the one to bring it to him, think of how handsomely he would reward you. Why, you could be rich enough to command the respect of humans even without being a terrorist. Faunus or not, everyone listens to money."

"Boss doesn't work like that. Best I'd get is a pat on the back and command of a couple more men."

"Yes but my boss does work like that. I've already told you, you would be greatly rewarded if you did this for us."

"And I've already told you, I don't care about the respect of humans anymore. Only their fear."

"Fine.' Roman massaged his temples, trying to think of a tactic he hadn't tried already. "Think of it this way. You're not the only White Fang commander in Vale. There are five more of you I could give this proposal to." This was a bluff, as Roman was only was only able to know where Gray held his meetings because of Kerry's willingness to sell out. "If one of them agrees with me and takes the proposal to your boss, what then? If he finds out that you had this information sooner and didn't bring it to him, ahhhhh! That would be the end of trusting Gray to do anything. You'll always be remembered as the guy who withheld the best deal of his life from him. Do you really want to take that risk?"

For the first time, Gray seemed to hesitate. Roman didn't waste any time capitalizing on his uncertainly. "Judging by what I've heard about your boss, he's not the kind of guy to let lapses like that go unpunished, is he? Listen to me, and your worst case scenario is you're reprimanded and I'm killed. Don't, and you could be facing expulsion, or even torture. You don't want that do you?" Gray lowered his head for a few moments, staring down at his lap. Roman knew enough to remain silent and let him think it over.

"Alright," he said, after a pregnant pause. "I'll arrange a meeting with him and take you along. But it's going to be your head on the line, not mine." Roman stifled the urge to let out a sigh of relief.

"Glad you've come around. When can we expect this meeting to take place?"

"Meet me here, this time tomorrow night."

"Alright then." Roman stood up and left the room. Neo, who had been standing in the corner the entire time, followed behind him. As soon as he was in the backstage hallway, out of sight of Gray and the White Fang, Roman let his shoulders sag in exhaustion. "Finally," he said to himself. 'Thank Oum that that's over. Now all that's left is the easy part."

AN: As always, praise/criticism is appreciated. It's been four days since I last updated. Still too slow. I need to write faster.

Fun Fact: Yes, the OC in this chapter is a reference to exactly what you think he is .