First Move

A white fang member stood outside an unmarked building. Lacking the normal attire of those associated with the terrorist organization. He posed an intimidating figure, one look, and any normal civilian would be deterred from crossing his path.

Another person enters the scene accompanied by her entourage and flanked by each side with the addition of a new member to create a team of four.

Cinder had returned from Haven. She finalized her conversation with Leonardo Lionheart, the headmaster of Haven Academy. It would only need to wait for a while for their place in Beacon to be ratified.

The grunt took one glance at the group, he paled at the sight before stepping aside for Cinder to pass. She smiles at the grunt, satisfied with the new conduct the white fang were holding themselves to.

They pass through the deceivingly old and unused front entrance and reach their base of operations filled with movement. Dust crates were being transported as white fang were overlooked by men in black suits.

A man, Hei Xiong, oversees the constant flow of men in and out of the massive building. He looks up from his table, dismisses the goons he had been conversing with, and presently stands up to greet his superior.

"Junior, what is your progress in fulfilling the quota?" She asked in a sly tone.

Hei freezes up. He knows he already reached the limit of his influence in the underworld. Unlike Torchwick, he wasn't at the same level of criminal genius. He was going to have to break the news that he was stagnating in stealing dust.

He gulps down his fears and answers directly.

Hei starts to explain "Ma'am it is progressing slowly but-"

Cinder raises her hand and as soon as she does, Hei stops speaking his words.

"I need you to do more than slowly, Junior. What is limiting your progress? I have given you the men, the resources, and the means. What more do you need to do what you are asked to?"

Hei bit his lip, his work was slow and Cinder was right in her complaints.

Cinder frowns at her subordinate "Tell me, Junior. When the dust flows through the city, do you target the faucet, or do you take the pipe?" she asks.

Hei was perplexed he didn't understand what Cinder meant. He tried to answer by opening his mouth but nothing came to mind. His mind reflexively backed down in fear.

Dust robberies were taken in a literal sense for Hei to target the stores strictly. Fear of disobeying orders made him intensify his efforts towards robbing only those sources of dust for Cinder.

Hei lacked the organizational skills to manage such a large operation as taking an entire freighter's worth of dust. He tried many times but a large number of failures early on made him stop in favor of the more successful and easy robberies of stores.

Cinder noticed his hesitation to answer and realized the error her subordinate had been making the entire time. It was frustrating her even more. It was supposed to be done today and she could proceed to the next plan.

"I will give you a chance, I expect you to take the "pipe" in this city. I need all hands on deck for what is to come."

Emerald from behind approaches her side. Hearing the steps, Cinder looks behind to acknowledge Emerald.

"What about the next phase ma'am?"

"It will have to partially continue. Our friend's unfortunate lack of imagination has forced us to delay once more."

Emerald, satisfied by the answer, returns to her previous position of standing next to Militia and Mercury. Cinder turns her attention back to Hei.

"You will carry out more bold robberies, Junior. You and your enforcers will have to pick up the slack. We will check on your progress soon after you have made your initial attempts. Do not disappoint me again."

A loud crash suddenly sounded on the other side, Hei steps aside to prepare for his next chain of robberies while Cinder follows the disturbance. Mercury and Emerald look at each other before following their master.

Cinder reached an adjacent room and saw Adam painstakingly trying to fight off goons and white fang members.

Four people faced off against one. Ready to fight after Adam had taken another beating.

One of the goons swings wide aiming for the midsection of Adam's body. Adam reacts and knocks it aside with a parry before rushing forward and slamming the hilt of his sword into the goon.

More swings came one for his head and the other aiming for his legs. Adam focuses and barely blocks both of them by using his sheath and blade. He reflexively shoots but misses entirely while his blade nicks the skin of the other goon.

Adam soon feels a strike impact his rib, another goon unnoticed by Adam slips in during his attacks. Adam gets knocked back and staggers into a metal shelf. He groans in pain before attempting to block an attack.

He raises his sword up to meet the overhead attack but he felt nothing at the blade, he feels another strike aimed at his gut and he gets knocked to the ground.

His aura was waning, Adam has been trying desperately to train up his remaining senses but it was hard. The sight amuses Cinder who giggles at the man's suffering.

He raised himself up using his blade as a brace "Are you here to take more from me Cinder?" Adam says.

Cinder let out a more arrogant chuckle as she closes in on the exhausted Adam.

"Hei is going to require assistance from his fellow workers, it may be time to prove your worth to the cause of the organization you fought so hard for."

Adam was angry, very angry. Cinder was taunting him on the white fang. After Cinder's display of power, everyone loyal to Adam lost faith in his ability to continue fighting. He was worthless to those who followed him, slowly turning their respect to pity.

Adam hoped in his mind.

'I'll kill her, I'll kill her, I'll kill her…" He repeated in his head, a mantra of commitment.

He promised and wished but he couldn't act. Not when he was at his weakest, so he trained hard to many difficulties.

His loyalty to the fang was still undimmed, his hatred for Cinder overwhelming his hatred for humans but if he ever wanted Faunuses to take the next step in claiming their righteous place over the humans then the white fang had no choice but to take a knee.

Leaderless and scared, the white fang's Vale branch would only hope that what they were doing was furthering their goals. If they rebelled who would promise them the superiority they sought?

The loss of Adam as a frontline fighter only made it easier for Cinder to rein them in with her guarantee of toppling those in the hierarchy that put their race down.

Still, many in the white fang had justified doubts. Those doubts were silenced when the others were unwilling to take a chance to leave Cinder's machinations. For now, they were tied to Cinder. Adam hoped to change that as soon as he could fight again.

Cinder left him alone, and Adam heard the clack of glass heels sounding further away. He breathes heavily and prepares another stance.

"Again."

Meanwhile…

Roman Torchwick was currently thinking. He considered ways he could steal dust but it was not for the express reason of obtaining said dust. Torchwick was thinking of where he would steal dust if it mattered to him.

He crosses off another location on his map of Vale. Dozens of other crosses were present while Neo sat nearby eating another tub of ice cream. Torchwick sighed again.

"No, that's not it."

He rechecks the morning newspaper. The date issued was weeks ago, other remnants of newspapers were scattered and torn. Its pages were ripped out and pinned to the wall with other markings dotting out the board Torchwick used.

Torchwick was closely looking at the increments of dust prices raising by a decent price each day. The deadlines set by Cinder before he defected gave him an idea of how large the operation would be.

Another puff of smoke exits his mouth.

"Too little for this. Although-"

He takes another different set of papers, this time documenting the auctions and behaviors of the upper-class citizens in the richer districts. He smiles at the discovery he made. He fitted pieces in his head before nodding.

"Bingo, that's one."

Neo recognizing the call out stood up from her seat and from the side hands over a card for Torchwick to write on.

Using a red marker, he pops open the cap with his mouth and beings to circle an area on the map. He takes out a pin and writes on the card before sticking it to the board he has.

He looks at another sheet where he printed out the earnings published by the SDC. Its profits in Vale were decreasing despite the prices being raised higher. Torchwick looks at the commercial district and another map of the train rails crossing it.

"Should be one here."

Torchwick takes another card and places it on the map after writing on it. He steps back to take a look at the entire map. He looks at the industrial district but rejects the idea because the newspaper shows multiple search results pinned to it.

The map showed another set of new paper clippings, this time showing the dust prices increasing less compared to the rest.

He cross-references the differing rates of dust prices. The prices increased gradually towards the outer rim parts of Vale. He looked at the river and smirked as he figured it out.

'Looks like the person meant to replace me has not been doing a great job. They work from a further distance towards the source instead of doing the opposite.'

When shipments came, the closer distributors deliver faster to the stores closest to them while those further away from where the shipments arrived would be supplied later. The differing dust prices meant that whoever Torchwick was dealing with made the mistake of robbing late throughout the shipments which made it easy to track how they operated.

"Finally, here should be the last."

He closes in once more to the map, taking a third card and pinning it to the board. He smiles contently and snuffs out his cigar on the ashtray.

He looks at his scroll and chuckled.

'Only an hour. Damn, I'm good.'

He returned his scroll and ripped out another note to write in. This time using a pen instead of a marker. He wrote carefully and folded it shut with his fingers.

He turned his head towards Neo who was still eating her 5th tub of Ice cream. He whistles loudly to call her attention. Neo looks up from enjoying her dessert and stares at the piece of paper Torchwick held up for her to see. She tilts her head as if to ask.

"Yes, Neo it's time for the brats to come in and do their part of this job."

Neo pulls out her scroll and switches to the time, she shook her hand for Torchwick to focus on before tapping at the clock.

"Tomorrow night should be good. Make sure they know not to take a peek out in the open. We don't need that headmaster of theirs snooping around where he doesn't belong."

He walks slowly towards Neo and her outstretched hand. Torchwick places the piece of paper on her palms and lays on the couch, tipping his bowler hat to cover his face.

Neo smiles and heads towards the door, she opens the door outside and steps into the dark streets illuminated by lamps in the night. She looks at the cliff Beacon was built on and skips over towards it as she pockets the message Torchwick had for team RWBY.