The Vulture's Nefarious Plans | RWBY/Vulture Crossover

Volume 3 Chapter 2: An Unlikely Partnership

It was downright astonishing how much could change in a year. Your entire life could flip upside down, you could lose your friends and family- hell you could lose yourself.

A prime example of this was one Ruby Rose. Just a year ago, plus some change, she was one of the top officers for the Force based in Vale, with a floor that just kept rising and, given her young age, a ceiling so high it was remarkable.

She was surrounded by great people too. One of her closest friends in Jaune Arc and an unlikely partnership with Weiss Schnee. Even though the two were like night and day, they got along rather well, especially the longer they knew each other for. She had her bombshell of a sister always there for her, and her retired mother to fall back to when things got really bad.

Not to mention, everyone in the precinct was just nice all around. Coco, Pyrrha, Velvet- she got along with them all pretty well. All in all, life was great.

Keyword: was.

It all started when she started going after him. It was slow at first, with her just getting more and more stressed at each attempt to locate and capture infamous criminal mastermind The Vulture coming up empty, with no leads whatsoever. Though, that was practically paradise in comparison to what happened next.

Slowly but surely, the winged faunus managed to take everyone close to her. The people most important to her, having their lives snuffed out by him.

Jaune? Him. Yang? Him. Weiss? Him. The three people who arguably were the closest to her died at the hands of the elusive vulture mastermind. Had she evened the score a little bit with her recent takedown of Lieutenant Honk and Beefer Sutherland? Sure, but it wasn't enough until he was dead. At her hands.

So, how had Ruby's life gone since her last encounter with The Vulture back at the 1st Bank of Vacuo, you may be finding yourself asking? Well, simply put, not good. She did get sent to jail for ignoring police orders and interfering with that bank robbery, though her former boss in the police captain fashionista took pity on her and used her status and connections to get her out in the matter of a few days.

That's not to say things got better, because they didn't. As one would after losing their close friends and sister, she spiraled down into a depression, powered by alcohol. Like her uncle, she soon found herself downing bottle after bottle on a daily basis. Hell, she even took up smoking.

The young Rose rarely talked to anyone. In fact, the only person she talked to regularly- or semi-regularly at least, was her mother. And even then that was only through phone calls.

Things only got worse as hers and all four kingdoms' police forces came up empty in their extensive searches of The Vulture, meaning he was most likely either underground, at sea, or on some undocumented island. Any one of those options would make for a difficult and expensive search, so the four kingdoms called off the search.

Not Ruby though. Surprisingly, despite her hard addiction to pretty much any alcoholic beverage, from beer to whiskey to vodka, she had actually done some pretty impressive research on the winged criminal and the remaining members of his crew, which was difficult in of itself as little was known about the three of them.

Eventually, Ruby had ruled out the underground option, leaving the island and sea ones as where the remnants of The Vulture and Co. were located.

Taking a sip from a flask, its contents being a blend of several different alcoholic drinks, scotch the main ingredient, the Young Rose took a drag from her cigarette, making her way over to the board where all her research was tacked onto. Silver eyes scanning each and every slip of paper and piece of evidence tacked onto the  board, they drifted to the middle of it, where a map of Remnant was located.

Where the fuck were they...?

A question Ruby found herself asking every single day. How they had gone a year, despite being the most wanted men on Remnant and one of the most infamous criminals in history, without a single lead or even a damn sighting was beyond her.

In the middle of her speculation of where they could possibly be at, a knock on the door pulled Ruby out of her thoughts. Narrowing her eyes with a scowl, she snapped her silver eyed gaze to the door, stomping over to it before throwing it open.

On the other side was another criminal mastermind, one who had lost quite a bit of her infamy thanks to all the focus being on the ink furred faunus, even though he had been M.I.A for the last year. Cinder Fall. If this was a year ago, Ruby would've been shocked to see the fiery woman at her door, most likely a little scared as well.

Now? She merely regarded her with a stoic expression, crossing her arms and arching a brow at her guest. "Cinder Fall. Heh, you used to cause quite a stir back a the office." Ruby greeted, before turning around, leaving the door open for the amber-eyed women to enter if she wished.

"So, what the hell are you doing here?" She asked, swiftly returning back to her board, gaze set on it as she inquired on Cinder's intentions and why she had decided to show up at the former police officer's apartment complex.

"Ruby Rose. Quite a fall from grace, hm?" The amber eyed woman mused in thought, standing beside the young Rose, regarding the great amount evidence and research on the board in front of her mildy impressed.

"Just get to the damn point already." Ruby snapped at the taller lady with a snarl, not taking too kindly to her comment, even though it was accurate. In response, Cinder smirked, clearly finding amusement in pushing the younger girl's buttons.

Finally moving away from the board, the fiery lady felt free to pour herself a shot of scotch. "Just an observation, Rose, no need to get upset." Cinder hummed, taking a sip from the shot glass. Meanwhile, the Rose rolled her silver eyes in return. "Yes, a fall from grace. All caused by him. Am I correct?" Cinder asked, knowing damn well the answer was a resounding 'yes'.

"How did you ever crack that case..." Ruby muttered sarcastically, turning around and crossing her arms, a narrow eyed glare hanging on the amber eyed woman. "I'll say it again, get to the point." Ruby huffed. Her patience had grown dangerously thin at this point, almost nonexistent.

Figuring she should reveal what she had came there for before the former officer kicked her out, Cinder took another sip of the alcoholic beverage. "As you wish. You and I, we have a common enemy. I'm sure you know who I'm referring to?"

Scowling at the older lady, she responded with another roll of the eyes. "I'm not a stupid little girl anymore, I know who you're fuckin' talking about." Ruby huffed, again getting a smirk out of the amber eyed women, finding slight enjoyment in annoying the silver eyed girl.

"Good. Then you shouldn't be too surprised by next request." Cinder said, taking the last swig from the shot glass before placing it on the old wooden table in front of her. "I would like for us to team up." She told her, which did make her pause, admitted taken a bit off guard by her request.

"Think about it this way: With all of us working together, that damn birdbrains won't stay hidden away for long. We will found him and whoever is left of his crew. Then we can both enact our revenge." She explained, waving her hand in an alluring manner.

At first, the Young Rose was hesitant. She wanted to be the one to get revenge, and her alone. She didn't want anyone else interfering with her vengeance.

However, on the other hand, it would make the job of locating him easier if she wasn't all on her own. And half revenge was better than no revenge at all.

Downing the rest of the flask's contents, she chucked the small metal compartment to the side before walking forward until she and the amber eyed woman were only separated by a few inches. After a moment, Ruby extended a hand for Cinder to meet to shake.

"It's a deal, partner."