RWBY Through Worlds (End)

BC75: Red Herring (Heroes and Villains)--2

Raven actually consulted Cinder, to her great shock.

"You've been in the position of these people before," she said candidly. "If you were them, what would you be doing?"

Cinder hid her astonishment.

"You won't like the answer," she said. "Because one thing that keeps bothering me about this is that we've had more than enough time to question Dawkins and gather other information."

"So? He didn't know that much," Raven said.

"Reasonably, the pirates at least knew what he knew, and his account said the bandits knew him also. He was a go-between--that makes him still a problem for us to catch. And we have his daughter, which is leverage? Where is she now?"

"Kali and Gira have her and were going to take her to Menagerie with the others, I believe, since Mistral is the first place they would look," Raven said.

"Yes...but they know we know something of their plan," Cinder said. "Even assuming that they didn't know Dawkins overheard that tip about the orphans possibly being plants, he knew that they wanted to weaken Argus, a much bigger plot than we imagined at first... At least he could put it together, or we could. So why would they still attack us after that? And why wouldn't they have spies here in Argus keeping track of things? So, even assuming they didn't know we put it together before, they must have reported it."

"I considered that possibility, but I'd have to interrogate every single person who works for me to be sure," Raven said. "With Robyn's help, it could take all day... I suppose I can order it."

"Don't you think anyone who works for you would be too obvious of a spy?" Cinder said. "Consider this...we invaded Beacon from the inside because no one expected that, then, but that's old news by now; everyone expects it. We pulled the same trick with every kingdom, so now they're all on their guard. Watts proved it all over again... But any spy who works for you would be easy for you to catch, if you have Hill or even Pine. So..."

"If we're talking the entire city," Raven said, "I could never verify that. I don't have the authority to even if I could. So everyone is suspect."

"Yes," Cinder said. "Everyone, and this mission has not been kept that secret."

"We thought there was no need of it, that the more people who knew, the less likely they'd able to escape...but if that means we played into their real plan, then we've been fools," Raven said. "I had hoped it wouldn't be the case."

"So you did think of that?" Cinder said.

"I've run a thousand scenarios through my head, but deciding which was the most likely was another story," Raven said. "And what would your next move have been if you were them?"

"I can't be sure they are quite the same as me." Cinder folded her arms. "I had a point to prove, they don't. I wouldn't think they'd plan to publicly humiliate Argus unless there was some real profit in it... And it hurts them, even Watts admitted it. Unless they could just take it over."

"That's not how it works here. We're not barbarians," Raven said. "Sheer force wouldn't put them in charge for lon., Theo would come and stamp them out easily. Our military force can't equal Vacuo's right now, and Vale would help. They may not like Argus that much, but they would never trade it for a pack of cutthroats."

"Then we're at the same problem: motive," Cinder said. "They have no ideals to prove, that's clear, so they aren't terrorists. They're more like a cult of greed and lust... How can they even be organized enough to do this? I believe even Shine would agree that you must have some good quality in you somewhere to be able to function well enough to do this much damage."