RWBY Through Worlds (End)

BC56: Capital Gains (Raven's team & Co.)--2

It was easy for Neo to find one of the Spider Spies and knock them out without anyone seeing her do it.

Then she hid them in an empty shed next to a pub, and assumed their shape.

"Isn't that assault?" Royal said.

"Oh don't be such a stick in the mud," Cinder was cross. "They'll be fine. I'm sure they've had worse than that, we just need to be sure Malachite isn't double crossing us. We'll let her go later... not that we really have to."

"I'd fight this more if I didn't think Raven would probably allow it and it's a little late to stop you now," Royal sighed.

Neo projected at him: "Don't be such a wimp."

"Having concern for other people's well being is not being a wimp," Royal said. "Try it sometime."

Neo raised an eyebrow like she couldn't believe he just sassed her.

"What are we going to do to kill time while we're waiting?" Cinder wondered. "And you'd better send regular updates. If you get caught, it's nothing but paperwork for us."

Neo gave her a glare like "And you think I would get caught?"

Then she slipped into the saloon again.

"But what if someone asks her something?" Royal said.

"She'll just give them the slip," Cinder replied.

"Why do you dislike her so much, it seems like you have a lot of common interests."

"Firsty, I dislike everyone," Cinder said. "And secondly, she's... well, she's cheeky"

"Cheeky?" Royal said. "That's it?"

"It's more that she detests me," Cinder added. "I lied to her, which she wouldn't care about, if it hadn't been about her boss/partner, whatever. I used her. And then I tried to kill her."

"A lot of your stories of your old friends end with 'I tried to kill them'" Royal said. "No wonder it's awkward."

"I suppose it was underhanded," Cinder admitted sullenly. "But that was what I did... I guess Watts was right."

"Don't ever say that again," Royal said. "Anyone but that guy."

Cinder smirked slightly... but then remembered she was mad at him.

"What does it matter anyway?" She went back to being flat.

"Did I do something to offend you since yesterday?" Royal hadn't failed to notice. "I know you're salty most of the time, but this just seems a little more intentional than usual."

"I don't know what you mean," she lied.

"You've been giving me dirty looks since the flight over here, and I don't know why. I didn't even say that much to you. You should be thanking me for keeping the attention on myself."

"Thanking you?!"

"Yeah, after the way you almost started a fight with Robyn, I thought we were going to have a hard time smoothing it over. Lucky she's pretty laid back."

"Maybe she should have just done this then, and I could have stayed out of it," Cinder said snarkily before walking away--though she had nowhere to go.

Why was she even doing this? Nothing unusually insulting to her had transpired, she had no reason to be more mean than usual... but she was being more mean than usual.

"What was that supposed to mean?" Royal followed her. "What's your problem with Robyn? Did you try to kill her too?"

That was the wrong thing to say.