RWBY Through Worlds (End)

BC52: Dolor (Raven's team)--3

"Hey, everything okay?" Emerald asked Royal when he came out.

"Yeah," Royal lied. "Just wanted to talk shop."

Emerald didn't believe him, but she didn't push for it.

"You down to join us? Vasilias and Xiao-Long want to blow off some steam and relax at the Deadly Club."

[That name can't be worse than Crow Bar.]

"I guess I could." Royal was happy for a distraction.

"Cool," Emerald said. "For a second I thought I'd have to say Cinder would be there for you to agree."

"Huh?" Royal gave her a look.

"I'm not stupid," Emerald said in a more conspiratorial voice. "But don't worry, I'm not gonna say anything--probably."

"Actually, Cap, that's not really it," Royal said. "But it's depressing to go home alone after a successful mission and just sit in front of a TV."

"Uh huh, okay." Emerald didn't buy it.

But she thought he seemed down. What had Raven said to him?

* * *

The Deadly Club--which was a pun, since it had the insignia of a real club (which Nora thought was awesome)--was a lot more innocent than the name implied.

Sure, people got a little rowdy sometimes, but it was near a base, and not at all the type of riff raff-filled pits that the Vacuo clubs usually were.

You could find most of the huntsmen who worked for Argus directly, and plenty who didn't, here on an average day of the week if they didn't have duty.

Normally, Yang would have invited Flower Power or Arkos, to join them, but of course they were all busy being new parents.

Neptune wished Sun was in town; Sun would have cheered them all right up.

But he was pleasantly surprised when Sun actually was in town, and so was Blake.

"Why didn't you guys tell us?" he said when they saw them inside.

"I thought we did," Sun said.

"I guess the message didn't go through while we were outside the cities," Neptune realized.

Service could always be spotty around the cliffs even with the Arena up.

"We asked if you wanted to meet us here," Blake said. "If you didn't get it, why are you here?"

"Oh, we're celebrating. We just got back. It was crazy," Neptune said. "Actually, it was pretty freaky. I'll tell you all about it later, but we're supposed to be taking our minds off it right now."

"Can't wait to hear it," Sun said. "We actually just saw Marrow, and he said that Robyn told him that you have a lead on that case we've been trying to crack finally."

"It's looking that way," Neptune said.

"That's great news," Blake said.

"Blake!" Yang finally spotted them. "Sun? For real?" She came to hug them. "I had no idea you were in town."

They started explaining again.

"What's new with you guys?" Neptune said. "Anything interesting going on in the Capital?"

"Not much," Sun said. "Which is probably for the best. Construction on the new shelter is going well, though. Illea sent us some pictures of it from Menagerie. Check this out."