Chapter Text
The Great Sherlock Rose waited for the ambience to settle in before addressing the wretched, cold-blooded murderer in front of her.
“You almost got away with it, but you misstepped Weiss.” Ruby said as Penny moved in closer to her.
Weiss responded with the dramatic gusto that only a villain saturated with pride and ego could. “I have to say, I’m a little surprised you managed to recognize my master plot in motion, even with how legendary the skills of The Great Sherlock Rose and Dr. Penny Watsondina are. But I wonder... how much did you really manage to figure out?”
“Mind if I show some of those skills and expose your actions on this dark, dreary night?”
“Oh, please do proceed.” Weiss smugly answered, crossing her arms.
“Let’s begin with your first murder: the killing of Blake Belladonna.” Ruby began as she started to pace back and forth. “As the evidence clearly shows, Blake was killed using a knife taken from the kitchen prior to the dastardly deed. That’s why later in the night and after I cleared the kitchen staff, I figured that whoever killed Blake must have been Yang, Jaune, or Penny, as they all went into the kitchen during the party and prior to Blake’s death. However, you also entered the kitchen, but unlike those three, you went in way before the party began since your family has been here all day. You then stole the murder weapon and stashed it in your dress’ hidden pocket until the lights went out, when you carried out your heinous crime.”
“Correct so far, Miss Rose.” Weiss replied as she unbuttoned a hidden pocket sewn into her clothing.
“After killing Blake, you got to work covering your tracks while in the same fell swoop trying to hinder my own investigation, just as Penny deduced. That’s why you killed Winter next. Killing one of the only people with investigative skills who also happened to be your family member was a horrid yet expert move.”
Weiss playfully placed a hand on her chest. “You flatter me so.”
“You also made sure to talk away the connection of who’s knife was used by noting that since Winter was killed with Yang’s knife, whoever the killer was could have been trying to frame Yang. That way you didn’t have to worry about using your own knife next to kill Pyrrha.”
“Still spot on, Miss Rose.”
“Now I’ll admit, this next one took me a minute to put together. Utilizing a method of murder that’s not within your knowledge base, such as using a rare poison like you did to kill Nora and Ren, must have been a tricky play to pull off, and I was so focused on how someone could make a poison that couldn’t be bought that I almost missed a key detail.
It’s not that Cyanisic can't be bought, it just isn’t commercially available. But just because something isn't sold in stores doesn’t mean you can't buy it somewhere else, like where you did for example: on the black market. Given your family business and some of your father’s shady former partners, you’re the only one who could possibly have the money and connections to be able to buy something like that.
That brings us to your final murder, when you killed your own mother by plunging a knife into her heart. When the lights went out just before you killed your mom, I heard several noises. The sound of movement in front of me, a whack and whimper, a thud, and the sound of more movement in front of me. You swiftly dashed toward your mom, scrapping your ankle against a table as you did and letting out a reflexive cry, then you slammed the knife into your mom's chest and returned back to where you were. It's also why you were limping when you went toward your mother's corpse.
Now, the only thing I’m unsure of is your overarching motive. So, why’d you do it Weiss?”
“Why does anyone do anything in this world?” Weiss asked. “Why, for money of course.”
Ruby’s eyes suddenly lit up. “WAIT, LIKE AN ASSASSIN?! THAT’S SO COOL!” she shouted in excitement.
“What? No!” Weiss replied, shouting and astonished. “I didn't kill everyone because someone paid me to do it! I did it because of capitalism!"
Weiss took a breath, and her voice filled with malevolous pompousness once again. "You see, Atlas Imports has been getting much more business lately, and if I want to keep up with demand, want my brand to grow and keep my profits expanding, I need more space for inventory, and I need it now. Unfortunately, I’ve grown attached to our shopping complex and my little spot within it, which simply doesn’t have the room. I would hate to have to move, both for that sentimental reason, and to avoid the costs of moving all of my inventory into a bigger space.
While I considered buying more locations outside the complex and thought about the logistics of managing multiple locations, I had a thought. What if I could grow the size of my company, thus being able to hold more inventory, without having to move or manage multiple separate stores far away from each other? What if I just… expanded through the entire complex?
Of course I would never be able to buy out all your businesses. That’s all your livelihoods. Obviously, my only other option was to kill you all, and it's why I killed in the order that I did. I started with Blake, who owns the space to the left of my store. Then, I killed Pyrrha, who with Jaune co-owns the store on the right side of mine. I would have killed Jaune too when I killed Pyrrha, but I figured it wouldn’t be smart to kill a suspect before I had to. That, and I figured I always could have manipulated him into leaving Patch after the death of his wife. Finally, I killed Nora and Ren, who own the gym next to Arkos Market. Killing in this fashion allowed me the opportunity to expand in the most convenient way, to slowly grow into buildings next to one another.
Now I admit that doesn’t explain all my actions. That certainly doesn’t explain why I killed Winter and why I killed my mother.
While Penny was right that I killed Winter to hinder you, it wasn’t the only reason I did. I did it to make my cut bigger.
My cut of the inheritance from my mother’s death.
Now that father is out of the company and out of the family, her name is on quite a few very valuable assets. If she were to die, those assets would get split between her children: me, Winter, and Whitley. With at least Winter out of the picture, I would get far more out of the deal, and could sell those assets, giving me money to buy property and assist in growing my business.”
Ruby grew more and more disgusted with every word she heard. “I can’t believe you would sink this low just for money. Weiss,-” Ruby uttered the name with more pain than she ever had. “-you were my best friend. But now, you’ve broken my heart. You’re going away for a long time.”
“Hm.” Weiss let out a chuckle as she turned her back to Ruby. “I’m afraid I have to disagree. See, with everything you did determine, you’ve missed one. Important. Detail.”
“Oh yeah? And what’s that?” asked Ruby.
“My dress has two hidden pockets.” Weiss swiftly spun around and from her dress pulled out a gun with her left hand.
She immediately pointed it at Ruby -BANG- only for it to be shot out of her hand by Penny’s now drawn pistol. “Penny, careful! I just got my nails done!”
“Oh, sorry Weiss.” Penny sheepishly replied.
“Nice shootin’ partner.” Ruby said to Penny. “Like I said,” Ruby continued, turning to Weiss again. “You’re going away for a long time Weiss. Dr. Watsondina, if you could be so kind, please cuff and keep an eye on her. I have to tell the police to come arrest Weiss for multiple homicide.”
The music stopped a few seconds after Ruby’s declaration. “Sorry, I wasn't sure you guys were done.” said Blake.
A big toothy smile grew on Ruby’s face. “OH THAT WAS SO MUCH FUN! Thanks again everyone for playing along. And special thanks to you Blake. I can tell you put a ton of thought into Weiss’ part.”
“I actually didn’t write any of that.” answered Blake. “I only wrote that she was supposed to kill the guests, and roughly how some of the murders were carried out. All that stuff about motive and even killing her sister and Ms. Schnee was all Weiss’ work. She actually volunteered to be the killer when she found out what we were doing, and just kind of wrote her whole character.”
“Well, someone had to write my part after the junk you came up with.” Weiss said as she turned to Blake.
“Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad.”
“Oh really?” Weiss answered, clearing her throat, preparing to mock Blake. “You’re probably wondering why I killed Blake first. I did it because Blake is just so much prettier than me!”
“Ha! Gotcha!” Yang interrupted. She held up her phone and pressed play on a repeating recording of Weiss' voice. “Blake is just so much prettier than me! Blake is just so much prettier than me! Blake is just-”
“Told you I’d get her to say it.” a snarky Blake said to Yang, talking while the recording continued to play in the background.
Weiss’ face grew red. “YOU DELETE THAT THIS INSTANT!” shouted Weiss, throwing her arms to the ground and balling her hands into fists.
“Weiss,” said Ruby, her welling, happy, touched tears present in the way she said her best friend’s name. “You wrote a whole villainous motivation backstory, killed half our friends, and even killed your mom and sister when you didn’t have to just for me?”
Weiss shrugged and smiled. “I am your super-bestie-better-than-the-restie after all.”
Ruby dashed toward Weiss and scooped her up in a big bear-hug. “You sure are! Oh, I love you Weiss!”
Weiss let out an affectionate sigh. “I love you too Ruby. Happy Birthday.” Weiss returned Ruby’s embrace, at least as best she could with her arms pinned to her sides from Ruby’s hug. “So now that the game is over, I’d like to say I think we all have earned some yummy dessert.”
“Heck yeah we did!” Ruby exclaimed as she put down Weiss and looked around the room. “Now where's my cake?”
“Did someone say cake?” Summer asked as she walked into the dining room, pushing open the hallway door with her back while holding Ruby’s birthday cake. Ruby got stars in her eyes when she saw that the ice cream cake was decorated with a perfect depiction of Crescent Rose on the top.
She dashed back to her seat where she watched her mom place the cake. She sat and listened to her friends, girlfriend, and family sing Happy Birthday to her, and got the first piece of her ice cream cake.
After she was sure everyone had gotten a slice, Ruby dug in while listening to the sounds of conversation and Weiss trying to steal Yang’s phone. She couldn’t believe how sweet her cake was.
And though the cake may have been sweet, it was the love and dedication of her friends, girlfriend, and family to help put on her murder mystery game that was even sweeter.
“Dammit Yang, I should have killed you first!” Weiss shouted as she chased Yang around the room.
Best. Birthday. Ever.