RWBY Through Worlds (End)

BC25: Break (Renora and Co.)-3

"Everyone here knows pretty much everyone else these days." Ren didn't see it as remarkable. "If I'm looking for someone, they just think it's for work. And it is, in a way."

"This is so exciting," Sun said. "I wish I could call Blake in--she loves this. You sure we don't have time?"

"I think we'll be done before she even arrives," Ren said.

"But could we have her interview someone else, so they won't know it's us?" Sun had a semi-decent idea, actually.

Except they had no one in mind.

Sun insisted on calling her anyway.

By the time he finished it, Ren was already mostly to the correct loading dock, and Cinder was with him. Sun was still outside.

"If this does turn out to be bigger than just your town, I think we'd get some recognition for exposing it," Ren remarked. "Not that I really need it. It might help you, though."

He seemed chattier when he was working.

"No thanks." Cinder would prefer no one knew she was here at all.

Edwin Teach was standing by his ship (which was a small, fast carrier that would not have had a lot of equipment for fighting more than a few Grimm and was designed for short delivery routes no doubt), just checking his scroll.

He looked harmless enough. He was older and probably had been a pilot for many years, but he wasn't old, by any means.

Ren didn't know exactly how to ask him about it tactfully, so he explained the situation in brief terms.

"Have you noticed anything odd while loading up cargo? Like less of it than there should have been, or anyone around it who wouldn't normally be?" Ren asked.

Teach stroked his beard.

"I can't really say," he said lazily. "I mind my own business, mostly. I load whatever's here, and often enough no one's helping me do it, though they should be, but we're always understaffed. Ask any pilot, they'll tell you the same, and I can't imagine any of my crewmates would have stolen anything."

"Oh, I don't know if they've stolen it," Ren said. "Could just be an error in our system."

"If that's it, then you better be asking the technicians," Teach said. "Hey, lady, don't touch the plane."

Cinder had been running her hand along the hull, perhaps searching for a hidden hatch, though she doubted it would be necessary for this sting.

But she pulled her hand back with all her cat-likeness and gave him a fake innocent look.

Cinder was always so obvious when she was coy that Teach probably knew she wasn't really compliant.

"I was just admiring it," Cinder said, in her old tone that made Ren's skin crawl with the familiarity of it. "It's pretty fast, isn't it?"

"Do you know airships?" Teach asked.

"Oh, I've flown around a bit in them," Cinder said. "It's small but powerful, right? Takes a lot of skill to pilot this."

Cinder had always been bad at flattery, and even her efforts to do it sounded fake, as Raven could have told you.

However, on men in particular this didn't usually pose much of an obstacle to getting her results. They seemed to think it was part of her game.

"I don't know if it takes much more than any other plane, but I certainly take pride in it," Teach said, less hostilely. 

Ren didn't really get why Cinder was bringing it up.