55

"Neeeeeeooooooooooo." Xayah whined as she hugged her from behind, rubbing her cheek affectionately against her cheek like a stray cat. "You've been gone all weekend, wassup girl?"

Trivia just rolled her eyes as she typed in her Scroll.

Busy sorting out some family matters. That really was sort of true, wasn't it. Might be busy with it for a while.

"Your family causing any issues for ya, princess?" Rakan leaned over to the side to read the Scroll as well, butting his nose into the conversation. "Need a pair of pranking hands?"

As if. Neo snorted. We have it completely under control.

Still, Trivia found herself pausing to contemplate.

What do you mean, Triv? Neo scoffed. We can pull this off just fine without them.

That was true, but maybe, just maybe, Jaune might need a distraction or two. Maybe even some know-nothing extra muscle. As long as she didn't get her teammates to break any laws outright, she'd have another tool in his pocket.

Jaune had also always said he'd wanted to meet her teammates at some point, hadn't he?

Maybe. Her Scroll typed out. If I feel like I need a hand. Might get messy.

"Awwww!" Xaya squealed, squeezing her tightly. Too tight. Need air. "Rakan, she does like us!"

"Amour." Rakan chuckled, "Give our team's secret weapon some air, darling."

"Whoops!"

Sweet, sweet air.

Trivia coughed, though it didn't make any real audible sound.

Gorilla. Her Scroll accused.

"Isn't that your pet name for Team Mom?"

"I am NOT Team Mom!" Cinder's voice darkly shouted from their bathroom shower. "Don't MAKE me go out there! This is my day to be allowed to soak in the tub and if you make me get out of this, it's your ass!"

You're both gorillas. Trivia's Scroll accused.

"Pssshh." Xayah faked a swoon, falling back into her boyfriend's arms. "Ah. I am slain, Ray. Our murder princess has slain me!"

"Not my love! Ah, but I know the cure. Something something, true love's kiss!"

Trivia just ignored the Faunus couple's heated make out session as she did the bare minimum for her Grimm Studies homework.

"Fuck me, Cap." Roman sighed. "This is insane. Lil Miss is fucking serious about this. She's not trying to just muscle in, she's planning a full take over."

"Same as us, then." His captain shrugged, arranging a second binder of condensed and pertinent intel. Fucking crazy kid did good work. "We'll just use her own intel against her. Lucky it's easier for us to get everyone to turn on her, rather than her make one smooth push into Vale."

"This could cause blood to run in the streets if we're not careful about it." Roman pointed out, only to get piercing green eyes glaring at him.

"That is why we will not let that happen, Roman."

He hated how scary this, what, fourteen year old girl, was.

Huntresses-in-training were getting fucking terrifying. Seriously, just what the fuck were they feeding these kids?!

If and when he ever retired, he was going to find a nice civilian man or woman to settle down with. Someone hot and young (not too young) that would be happy to stick around him for his fabulous wealth and his refined, debonair charm.

Fuck getting things stuck with the Huntmsen/Huntresses lot.

"Gonna be hard, seeing as they have Honey Wine. I knew she wouldn't get out of the game as easily as she'd made it out to be." Roman kept his cool, keeping anything from showing, even though he had the sinking feeling that the little captain could read his mind sometimes. "She's got a Hypnotic Type Semblance. All she's gotta do is sing at you. If she gets the drop on you, it's over."

"...She'll have to meet with a little accident soon. I've already tagged her after seeing her Semblance and I've got a simple solution. Even have some modified footage edited to slip into her CCTV harddrive to convince any investigators."

"...I'm not going to like it, am I?"

"You don't need to be involved at all." Captain explained, as if she wasn't casually talking about whacking someone, "Every Tuesday evening at 9PM Valean Standard Time, she takes some time off to enjoy a rice wine on the balcony of her penthouse. Hot sake. Some strong stuff, too. I hacked and checked her CCTV, she does it like clockwork. Made a of habit of doing it ever since she moved in, it seems. Perfect time for a bit of an accident. It would be tragic, even, if she wasn't a mind-controlling criminal trying to help sink spider fangs into Vale."

"And you're telling me this, why?"

"Treat it as a litmus test."

"A what?"

"...doesn't matter." Captain shrugged, handing him a second binder. "This is the plan in detail. Mint has a copy and she is not happy with me about it."

Roman leafed through it, feeling slightly conflicted, but he made a deal with a devil. He'd have everything he wanted if all went well. Yeah, Cap was a Devil alright.

"...fucking hell, Cap. You sure this is the way you want to do it?"

"It has to be believable. And I don't want anything to spill over. I want a Clean Slate. Plus as long as we do it this way, our deal won't be an issue."

"I feel like I'm going to spontaneously combust if I do this. That shit hurt, Cap."

"Don't be such a baby, Roman. You won't. Probably."

"Can I get any definite answers? Good gods, Cap. Like thanks for listening to my input and shit, but I'd like a bit more of an input to the decision making as well."

"Only definite things on Remnant are that the Grimm exist and that life sucks, Roman. That's why you and I are going to try to make that second part just a little bit less ass." Captain grinned, as if her plan wasn't the most suicidal fucking thing Roman had ever seen. "I have full faith in this plan. Besides, if it goes wrong, you have a free leash, don't you? What're you so scared of?"

"I think the problem is I'm getting the scary feeling that this is going to work." Roman sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I wanted infamy, not the world to think I'm a lunatic! I don't even know who my fucking old man was, nobody's going to buy this ending of yours!"

"Ah. Speaking of family authority figures; I need to clear this with Auntie Rae beforehand. Otherwise the moment Operation: Clean Slate is over she'll hunt you down and kill you. And she's got a private army."

"Ah yes? God it's me. I'D LIKE A REFUND FOR MY DEVIL PLEASE!"

"No." Raven spat. "Holy fuck, Jaune no."

"I promise it'll all work out exactly as I planned it! It's literally so simple! It's not even convoluted when it needs to be a spectacle for both sides of this equation to work!"

"Jaune, I will tell your parents about your Friday nights if you do this! Dammit, Juniper, you fucking moron. Help me convince the brat!" She glared through a shroud of bubbling foam at the ghostly apparition of the one armed Juniper Arc, the Ancestor Spirit looking sheepishly at her from the sight granted by her magic right eye as he shrugged.

Raven pulled at her hair angrily.

"I'm the one that promised to keep an eye on the dumb fuck for his dumb vigilante bullshit! Summer and Taiyang will kill me when they see this! And with this garbage plan of his, all it would take is a stray shot! And then the last thing I ever expected you, BRAT, to do was take a criminal under your wing!"

"He's going to be a figurehead! And he literally can't betray me! Well, it means I can't either as long as he follows the rules I've set of the G-"

Raven growled at Juniper again, seeing him wince as her fingers twitched, floating back away from her as her magic right eye flashed from her normal red to an azure blue.

Her Incomplete Mystic Eye of Transience was powerful. It had made it so that every swing of Omen became a trap to trigger later, letting her retrigger a sword swing that had already happened. That every swing of a sword became two. It additionally let her see the effects and bounds of things that had happened in the past, even showing what shouldn't be seen through bubbling shrouds of what Jaune called 'quantum' foam.

It also meant that she could smack Juniper a good one for not keeping the brat in line better. For fucks sake!

It even showed anything abstract that existed within her line of sight, such as Juniper Arc, though she couldn't hear him speak. It had additionally confirmed more about the parasite than she'd ever cared to know, forcing her to keep her right eye closed whenever she had to endure his presence.

It was weird how she couldn't get any flashes of Juniper's past though. Almost as if it didn't exist. Fucking guy was weird.

It even let her see when people were somehow put under the influence of another person's Semblance, an invisible trail of Aura trailing into the void. Hell, she'd seen Qrow come back from Vacuo with a strange mind control effect mere days after she received her eye, from some organization known as The Crown, apparently.

All it had required of Raven was a single swing of her weapon to sever that connection with the assistance of her Incomplete Mystic Eye.

Gods… imagine how powerful it would be if she had the other eye to make it Complete. Even now she found herself salivating at the thought. But having it would flood her vision with bubbles, additionally making them clearer honestly would get in the way of a fight if she wasn't careful. Sadly, it might tactically be better to accept only the one either way.

If her vision became fully shrouded mid-battle, that would be awful.

Qrow taking that lazy ride to Almurawij to blow through a casino or two had turned into an information disaster, as a budding terrorist organization had gained a mole into Ozpin's inner circle for all of three days before Raven had seen and resolved the issue by cutting the link.

Luckily, Qrow wasn't missing any memories of what he'd done, so he could confirm exactly what had passed to The Crown. Nothing about the Maidens or Relics, though he'd passed a list of people that had failed the most recent Beacon entrance examinations. Lucky, thanks to his Semblance, perhaps, but still something awful to fall under the hands of someone that could effectively brainwash people.

But the issues with The Crown didn't matter right now.

"Raven, I can't let the Spiders muscle into Vale. You're Mistralian too! You know the shithole the Crime Families make of everything. I won't let them."

"I don't want them to either. They killed Summer's parents a long time ago. She grieved them even though they weren't good people."

"Then let me get them the hell away from Va-"

"Just take that data you have and give it to the parasite. Let him handle-"

"I don't trust Headmaster Ozpin, I trust you! Besides, you owe me."

Fucking brat, pushing her fucking buttons. Raven choked down the sensation of pride she felt over the brat from that sentence.

Then felt bitterness at the fact that she did owe the brat more than she'd ever admit. Fuck. Fucking shit, the brat had been planning something big for such a damn long time, hadn't he? Fucking little genius fuck.

"I just need you to not fall for Step: Kingmaker, because you know who I am! I can't have you killing Roman the moment he becomes really useful. You've seen me fight. If they come at me with a melee weapon, even if I was out of Aura I won't be hit. You know I'll be fine!"

"Even you can't dodge bullets brat. Read trajectory and jerk out of the path? Fin-"

The brat was grinning like he… no. This fucking rat.

"Alright. Show me whatever magic bullshit you've figured out now."

Jaune Arc, the fucking little shit, dumped a pile of guns at her, even including a grenade launcher.

"You're going to need these."

"...I fucking swear, you shitty brat, what the fuck! SHARE!" Raven ground the sides of Jaune's head between her knuckles, shaking his skull from side to side. "I swear to the GODS if this is what I think it's going to be-"

"I don't wanna hear about sharing from you, Auntie Rae. You're the most selfish person I know." Jaune complained as he hung limply by his head from between her hands, his feet floating slightly off the ground. "This huuuuuurts!"

"Hey, hey. If you gut me here, you'll never get the Lil Miss to back off."

"And how the fuck am I supposed to take you at your word, Roman. I need more than this. I want the whole harddrive." Hei Xiong spat, his handgun pressed against Roman's forehead. "Not this flash drive full of easily faked bullshit!"

It was a modified 9mm. Ivory grips from elephants hunted in southern Sanus, the body of the gun damascened by ivy and floral details, a polished nickel finish made the decorated hold-out pistol gleam alongside the gold plated trigger and trigger guard.

"Bitch tried to wack me when I swung by The Honeybee. You know everything that happens in Vale, King. I know you know I only barely got away then. Once you agree to work with me, I'll give it to you. A copy, at least. I have every intention of leaking this to the news to force her to back the fuck off. I mean, that's honestly the way you're going to use it anyways, as it's the best way to make that whale back off."

Roman grinned as Hei's face darkened, though his gun didn't leave its position.

"That could be a ploy."

"As much of a ploy as how Honey Wine is going to have a little accident to pay for selling me out?"

Hei's eyes narrowed.

"The fuck you mean, Roman."

"Exactly as I said." Roman grinned pleasantly. "This upcoming Tuesday she'll have a small… well. Accident. Real shame."

"The Siren of the Mountain? Ha. I'll believe that when I-"

"So wait. It's Sunday. Just two days to wait, isn't it? What do you have to lose? Hell, I'll stay with you right here if you want me to. As long as you don't have any moles, she'll be gone before midnight. In addition, I have another peace offering. A little niggling, prickly pin in your side that's been so uncomfortably dragging down your rep for these past five or so years."

The hammer pulled back as Hei's thumb clicked it back, grinding his handgun into Roman's head.

"Altsus." Roman sighed, adding a Mistrali accent, pretending that the keyword for his special little hat was an old, esoteric Mistralian swear, "Good gracious me, Hei. You really hate the little bitch that much?"

"She's worth more to me alive than dead."

"But you'd be happy to see her die, right? I assume it was one of your men that killed one of her sisters at some point." Roman goaded, smiling confidently. He knew that Hei would be more than happy to take responsibility for something he hadn't done to bolster his reputation. "I mean, no matter what I can figure out, who else could have done it?"

"That's none of your concern." Hei spat, though he tilted his head back, looking down at Roman, clearly trying to pretend he really was the one responsible. Posturing.

It'd be hilarious if Roman didn't know the truth. That the second sister had always just been a copy that Mint used to make for some reason that didn't matter anymore now.

He had no intention of pretending he knew how the little terror operated in her fucked up head.

"Look, I just want to be free to fuck about. I'll keep off your toes, you get those Spiders to scurry back into the shitty Mistral holes they've crawled out from, and I'll even get you The Green Hornet. Ain't that a sweet deal for my freedom?"

"And how do you propose you'd even pull that off?"

"Oh that's the easy part, King." Roman chortled, "She's got it in her head that she can use me to get to you. Handed the whole harddrive with everything of her own volition. For some reason, she trusts me, well no, that's a lie. She more thinks I can be reformed for some reason. Must be my handsome good looks and charm-"

"Even less of a reason to trust you."

"Oh that hurts, milord." Roman shrugged mockingly, closing his eyes in absolute confidence, "You think I want someone breathing down my neck, turning me into a hero or whatever nonsense the girl's got in her head? You'd have to offer me something insane to make me accept that. Plus… well, let's say I'm pretty confident in this plan."

Roman sat there, the muzzle of the handgun still pressed against his forehead, just a bit under the clear band that was the actual Greater Hat of Disguise, rather than the bowler hat utop his head.

"Your plan to betray The Hornet? By what I've gathered, she's the reason you managed to live when the Spiders came to grab you."

"Well… to betray her or whatnot, all that matters is that I'm confident enough in this plan to put my life on the line." Roman opened his eyes, pressing his forehead against Hei's handgun, pressing forwards so that his Aura flickered with a dull orange light. "If you don't think that I have that kind of conviction… then just pull the fucking trigger."

Hei Xiong smiled, oily and sneering.

The funny scream that Honey Wine made as she plummeted to the ground wasn't enough to cheer up Trivia.

Jaune doesn't fail. He doesn't know how to mess up. Neo assured, even as she also flashed with discontent. He even proved that his big finale is completely possible.

That didn't mean that either of them were happy with his plan.

It was awful. Trivia and Neo both only agreed to this plan with the understanding that in return, Jaune had to swear to never form a plan that sacrificed his own safety to this extent ever again.

He'd honestly appeared confused at that, thinking that he'd be perfectly safe, even if everything hinged on… ugh. She didn't even want to think about it. Why were boys so stupid?

Either way any plans that risked Jaune himself in the future had to be cleared past Trivia in the future, whether she was involved or not! She'd bear with his idiocy for that. Somebody had to keep Jaune in check.

Ugh.

Why was she suddenly the one that had to be responsible? This felt awful, it was why usually this was Jaune's job. Yeah, she enjoyed being the follower more, but there was also a strange sense of contentment here. This really felt like confirming that she'd truly be his equal in everything.

Jaune had told her after Operation: Clean Slate he would trust her with his life in everything going forwards with that big dumb puppy smile of his.

AHhHHHHHHH! Neo squealed happily. It's so unfaiiiiir! He can't just make our heart skip beats like that!

Trivia let Whisper carry her off to another building across the street as she looked down to the screaming people and the ambulance that had arrived to pick up Honey Wine's broken body.

It didn't matter. No amount of Aura could let someone survive a fourteen floor drop without a proper landing method. Especially not after Trivia had struck her with a bolt of electricity from her palm to her spine as she'd shoved the woman off the balcony of her penthouse, paralyzing her for however many meters she'd dropped before the woman had finally started screaming in terror.

It was about maybe three or four floors away from the pavement before she'd been able to scream? Hmmm. She'd focused it on her spine with a lighter output of magic, so she probably wouldn't have any burns to make it seem like she'd been murdered and not just slipped off the edge of the balcony.

Jaune had already prepared 'VI edited footage' to replace what had happened with some kind of nerd virus to make it look natural.

And even if he hadn't, the way Trivia had handled the situation wouldn't have looked very far from that either.

The woman was someone that liked to live on the edge, even wearing Dust based cosmetics. Hell, Trivia was sure a flick of a cigarette would have been enough as well. A bit of a shame she didn't smoke. Lighting her on fire as she was pushed off would have been funnier.

You literally could get the same appearance with gem glitter if you wanted to be posh about it. Neo agreed mockingly at the splattered remains of the dead woman below. Literally so fucking dumb. It's like SHE was the edgy teen, not us kya ha ha~

It really was pretty silly.

She'd even go as far as to sit on the edge of the balcony on the regular, letting a single leg dangle off the ledge, dressed in her black silk evening kimono.

Perhaps her love of the thrill of danger in a controlled environment truly left her unable to feel actual danger coming.

The girl that cried Beowulf. Neo cackled at the irony. Really, what a moron. Even WE take precautions. Dust makeup is LITERALLY the dumbest fucking thing I've ever heard of.

Not as bad as the morons that think of refined Dust powder as edible. Trivia giggled silently. If Dust can react from a bit of fire, it's obviously going to react to gastric juices. Like, think about it.

Gather a bit of refined, powdered Dust of different kinds and you could cause an explosion with a sneeze in the right conditions.

People are dumb. Neo laughed as police arrived below and began to cordon off the area.

So dumb. Trivia agreed, twirling her parasol absentmindedly. That was why she'd have to be in charge of final say for any of Jaune's plans after this, or he'd become one of the dumb ones. He was so dumb sometimes, despite being the smartest person Trivia knew.

They were going to have a happily ever after, after all.

Jaune, dressed in his Vigilante outfit and weapon in hand, dropped into the warehouse from the skylight in the ceiling.

"Heya there, cap." Roman lazily saluted from a slightly dusty couch faced towards a TV. "Ready for your Friday shenanigans?"

"Won't have to. Mint's away with some friends from school. Volunteering for something." He stretched, using a green painted steel spear as a pole to straighten his back, speaking in his 'female' voice. "So everything's in place?"

All of the paperwork for Operation: Clean Slate was put away into Jaune's inventory, only an early version of the map of Vale used for their planning pinned to the portable pinboard.

He'd done a little cleaning of his own.

"Well, watch the news, Cap. Everything's live."

Jaune shrugged, sitting down next to Roman, hugging his spear to his chest, legs crossed around it as, ugh, Lisa Lavender appeared on the television.

"Breaking news!" The famous news anchor smiled with an excited look, "We have here a full set of proof, a copy having been sent to the VPD, of UNDENIABLE PROOF of a Mistralian Crime Family, known insidiously as 'The Spiders', making an attempt to make a play at extending their criminal empire into our fair Kingdom! And you wouldn't believe it, but this information was willingly given up by a former Spider! A man that has come to Vale and made a splash, establishing himself as a 'gentleman thief'! Roman Torchwick!"

"Ugh. I hate Miss Lavender." Jaune shivered. "She gave me that dumb moniker and is too ready to work with anyone for a scoop."

"Hey, hey. You're the one that wanted the Spiders off of Vale." Roman laughed, flicking a finger to tip his bowler hat back. "Altsus. Nothing better for scaring away the shadows by shining a light on them. Rather it was pretty mean of you to get me to be the one to dump everything. Now I look like a turncoat and a rat. Nobody likes a snitch. Think of my reputation."

"As if your reputation even mattered compared to how much attention you're getting now. That's what you wanted, more than even money." Jaune rolled his eyes. "Don't whine when I gave you exactly what you wanted. And there's more to be had. Once Clean Slate is over, everything changes, after all."

Jaune hopped to his feet, ignoring Lisa babble about the data he'd arranged conveniently for her to present to the world, knowing fully well that this information would be spreading to Mistral in almost real time with the way that the information hungry Crime Families operated.

Now the Spiders would have every crime family bearing down on them as they were the first to break the unspoken law that criminal organizations should stick to their own Kingdoms. On top of that they'd lost a huge investment in Vale with all the time and effort they'd put into everything, getting nothing in return as every location in Vale they owned would be heavily investigated.

And they couldn't even fight back, as they'd need every last bit of manpower back on home soil to protect their primary assets. And they might not even make it back in time. The Spiders might even be over.

He stretched again, spear held aloft in his right hand, a smile on his lips.

Now.

A pair of prongs embedded themselves into his back, sending electricity running through his body.

He grit his teeth as the shock of a high voltage Dust tazer seized up his muscles, making him convulse as he collapsed to his knees.

"Kahk. Roman!" His constitution was too high after both his training and various gacha items for a single charge to be enough to take him out. Shit. It still hurt though.

"Improvising is key I guess!" Roman tore Jaune's spear out of his grip as he swung it across Jaune's temple like it was a baseball bat, making his skull ring as his Aura flashed in a dark gold. "God, you're way too tough for your own good, Cap!"

Jaune spun around as he landed on his back, seeing crimson ties against black suits beginning to appear from behind various boxes and objects inside the warehouse.

"Luckily for me, Cap. I like to carry spares." Roman pulled a second taser from his coat. "This'll hurt, but, you know. This was the plan."

Jaune grit his teeth, twin prongs sticking to the front of his body, sending a second current into his body. It hurt. Not as badly as he'd been able to handle, but pain tolerance and having electricity cause strain to his bodily systems were two different things as he slipped into unconsciousness.

"Fuck, Cap's tough as nails." Roman could feel himself sweat, still somewhat surprised that he didn't just spontaneously combust. "Alright boys, remember what your boss said. He wants her alive and unmolested! No funny business."

"Fuck you, Torchwick." One of the King's Men snatched the spear he tossed in his direction out of the air. "Yeah. Yeah I recognize this fucking thing. She's the real deal. Fuck, I remember when she first appeared and she used an expensive looking thing she must have stolen from someone. Green and gold. Started using these simpler fucking things less than a month later."

"Probably a hell of a lot cheaper to replace once she bent it over your thick skulls." Roman grinned as a pair of thugs slapped a double set of handcuffs around both her ankles and wrists. "Wow, that scared of her? She's probably maybe fourteen at best."

"Well unlike us, you've never had to fight her up front. Not to mention we need to move fast to avoid her fucking bitch sis-"

"You heard her yourself, you dumbass. Her sister's busy. We take care of this tonight and everything's fine, yeah? So stop dallying and get moving. King wants her in Junior's tonight. He's pulling out all the stops, inviting pretty much every major gang leader to witness his big event. Hard to say that it's even his big event when really, it's her's." Roman laughed, shaking his head.

Holy hell. It was working. Actually happening.

"So let's get on with it, gentlemen! Tonight, The Green Hornet dies… or you all will."