AN: Hello once again everyone, here's another chapter of my little story, hope you enjoy it thoroughly. However, before we get on with it, I have a few things I'd like to say to all of you readers. I'd like to thank you all for reading, and to each and everyone of you who left a review at my request or sent me a PM, I am incredibly grateful and am currently taking all of your words under consideration. If I have not already responded to you in a PM, I'll probably respond to you here (alongside all of the reviews for the last chapter):

Chapter 9:

Yukas: Thank you, hope I continue to entertain.

Altair: Hope I continue to overturn your expectations in a good way.

SoulfulBard: X-men 2 is a great movie, and your words have always been a boon for this story.

Jkdelta38: Let me be frank, JIM BUTCHER IS A GOD! Dresden Files, Codex Alera, and his new series, A.W., are all amazing.

ArytomXIII: This wouldn't be an Arkos fic if they didn't, well at least a healthy one...

Dragonbinder: Thanks, hope you continue to enjoy.

roting-CORPSE: Thank you, and that is a great game. Hope they make a sequel or remastered version.

Announcement/Request:

PatMaster: Like I said, I'm not planning to obsess over it, so no worries about the future of this fic (at least due to this reason). I'm looking forward to reading that story of yours.

goddy80119: Thank you, hope you continue to do so.

conglomerate.k at: Thank you, and I do on some point agree with you that the prologue is somewhat length, I'll keep in this mind if I ever choose to write other fics that have prologues.

Jayz21501: Thank you for your input, very much appreciated.

Pure Infinity: I believe you have a valid point, I'll keep this in mind whenever I take a look at the statistics. I'm rather new at this, so that is a rather interesting fact.

Lastchaos Darknoman: Thank you for telling me about this, I'm rather surprised that the system works like this, but can't really say that it is unreasonable.

radar112495: Thank you for the many compliments, hope I continue to live up to your expectations. I can understand why people don't always enjoy a slower build up to romance, especially for a more 'established' pairing.

Jemdeamon (Guest): Thank you, but I can't really blame the community for a lack of interest, that more likely falls upon the author as an inability to garner a reader's interest. However, I'm truly grateful for the compliments.

Revanninja: I can completely understand your point, perhaps I chose poorly, but only time will tell. I also totally agree with you on your last point, I tend to only full commit to a story after a certain amount of development.

kuya-taku: Thank you, but failure to grab a reader's attention is a flaw of the author rather than of the community/reader, so I will nonetheless work towards averting that in the future.

Masternoj: Like I've said above, JIM BUTCHER IS A GOD. That will be all. Thank you again for reading, hope you continue to enjoy.

Boy, that was a mouthful. If you sent me a PM, I probably have sent you one back with my gratitude enclosed within them. However, I'd like to say it again, thank you.

In general, it seems that almost all of you vocalized that a rewrite is unnecessary, so I will comply and just continue writing onwards. However, in taking your words into consideration, I'm considering getting a beta to increase the overall quality of this fic (at least if it continues to grow steadily). I know one you has already spoken up, but if anyone else would also like to do so, send me a PM. With that in mind, on to the story.

Disclaimer: RWBY is the rightful property of RoosterTeeth

Chapter 10: The Flop

"The easiest way to be cheated is to believe yourself to be more cunning than others."

- Pierre Charon

"Hey, Sun…"

"Yeah, Neptune?"

"F*ck you." Neptune said hurriedly between dodges with weapon in hand.

"You wish, bud'," the blond Faunus snorted at him, "It's not even your birthday."

He paused and turned stiffly to face the blond, his left eye twitching wildly, "I'M GOING TO SKIN YOU ALIVE, YOU-"

Interrupting him, however, was the harsh impact of a golden gauntlet on his face. Although his Aura remained active during the hit, preventing a majority of the damage, the force nonetheless propelled him back several metres. Grunting from impacting the ground, he kicked himself up and recovered quickly, dashing forward to return to the fray and assist his blond partner.

Shifting the guandao in his hand into a familiar rifle, he quickly fired a burst at the ravenette flanking Sun, buying the blond some much needed room to retreat and regroup. Arriving swiftly beside him, Sun mumbled out a word of thanks in between heavy pants, to which he merely grunted nonchalantly in response. It wasn't the first time he'd saved his best friend from being killed by the long list of people he'd inopportunely pissed off by a rather creative variety of methods, a list that he had ironically added himself onto at the moment. If anybody was going to kill the blond, it might as well be him; he certainly deserved it considering the amount of problems Sun caused him on a daily basis.

Finding another fist quickly approaching his face, he instinctively backpedalled out of range and shifted his weapon into his signature trident. Finding an opportunity in the blond brawler's overextension, he locked her gauntlet in between the gaps of his trident and pulled, quickly unbalancing her. With a quick spin, he utilized the momentum to launch the brawler into his partner, who received her with a small smile on his expression.

Combining Ruyi Bang and Jingu Bang together, Sun swung the staff horizontally and impacted the blond's stomach, returning her towards her partner. The ravenette received her partner rather gracefully, utilizing an acrobatic flip to distribute the force of her flight and allowing both to land safely.

The blond looked absolutely livid at this point, golden Aura flaring wildly around her as her lilac eyes turned scarlet. He gulped loudly at the sight, tightening his grip around his weapon. To his surprise however, it was the ravenette rather than the blond who struck first.

Her speed was almost unreal as his eyes could barely keep up with her, but it was her semblance that truly confounded him. The woman dashed towards him almost haphazardly, utilizing a variety of acrobatic techniques and incredible footwork to misdirect and elude him, compounded only by the fact that she regularly left clones behind each time she switched directions. It was incredibly difficult to predict any of her movements, a necessary skill unfortunately necessary to take full advantage of the longer reach his trident and guandao possessed.

Suppressing the growing emotion of panic within him, he shifted his stance defensively and began striking, carefully minimizing the possibility of overextending. Each thrust of his weapon quickly disintegrated the growing number of clones surrounding him, but to his utter dismay, she could create them much faster than he could destroy them. Frustration quickly growing within him at his rather tedious prospects, he returned the trident into its guandao form and began swinging. The clones surrounding him began to quickly disappear once again, the weapon's horizontal swings being much more efficient in culling them.

Nevertheless, the proprietor of them remained elusive as he continued his assault, moving steadily closer towards his partner. Quickening his pace, he hastened his swings and increased their regularity, utilizing his Aura to enhance his speed. Then at the corner of his eyes, he could spot a subtle streak of black in between the clones. He smiled inwardly at the sight, whether it was a steady loss of speed from Aura exhaustion or the fact that his eyes were adapting to his opponent's capabilities were currently not his concern, but he was thankful for the opportunity nonetheless. He hastily extended towards it for a quick thrust, aiming to end the battle with a single blow.

Yet to his surprise and frustration, the tip of his blade met nothing but another hollow construct. Attempting to pull back his weapon and resume his systematic assault, his eyes widened quickly at the realization of his rather precarious stance. He had lunged forward for the attack, and he was not alone in this realization.

The ravenette emerged from shadows with a leg sweep, immediately unbalancing him as he fell backwards. Landing on his back, he quickly sought to recover and counter the blow with his weapon, only to find a blade already pressed perilously on his neck.

He turned slightly in hopes of finding his partner rushing to aid, but disappointment quickly overtook him as he winced at the sight of his best friend taking a brutal left hook to the gut.

Returning to meet the amber eyes warily watching over him, he meekly released his grip on the weapon beside him and raised his hands up in surrender. He inwardly sighed, praying to Oum that prison had hot water.

With a roar, Sage rushed forward to meet the hammer-wielding maiden before him. Their weapons clashed once more in a flurry of sparks and aggression, as every bit of force behind their melee could be sorely felt by either combatant. Feeling the strength in his arms quickly draining, he begrudgingly broke the clash with a heavy swing of his blade and quickly retreated to gain some ground.

Frustration and fatigue ran rampant within his mind as he warily eyed his opponent across from him. It had taken quite a lot out of him to bring a 2-on-1 fight down to equal footing, but the consequences were rather evident by his condition. The blade in his hand steadily grew heavier with every second, his vision blurred momentarily in between tired gasps, while his entire body felt sluggish and unresponsive. Resetting his stance, he pulled up his blade once again and exhaled, pulling whatever Aura he could spare to suppress the growing protests of his body.

Directing Aura into the balls of his feet, he methodically shifted his weight and readied himself. Discharging the collected reserve of Aura, he closed the gap between his opponent and him with a breathtaking burst of speed in the blink of an eye. He swung his blade horizontally at the woman, utilizing the force that propelled his speed to strengthen the weight behind his slash.

To his surprise, however, his blade met thin air as the woman ducked; crouching on one knee, she pulled her hammer back and smiled. Soon thereafter, he felt the cold steel of her hammer impacting his chest with a ludicrous amount of force. He winced at the growing pain in his chest as he was launched upwards. The blow had possibly fractured his ribcage, and to his utter dismay, it could only get worse from here.

Flying through the air, the woman gave him no respite as she leaped and chased after him, swinging her hammer in a downwards arc. He grimaced as the hammer flew towards him and instinctively brought up his blade to mitigate whatever damage he could. The blow was heavy and incredibly fast, propelled by its instigator's strength, alongside gravity itself. It felt as if his arms were going to be ripped out of its sockets as he blocked the seemingly insurmountable force that accelerated his descent.

Nevertheless, even if he had succeeded in preventing every bone in his body from being shattered momentarily, with Aura levels at an all-time low, he was most probably not going to survive the impending impact with the ground. Gritting his teeth, he flipped and spread his arms outwardly, maximizing his surface area (and in turn his drag force) as he faced the ground below him. He flared his Aura, concentrating it to protect his front, while praying to Oum that Scarlet's offhanded lessons about aerodynamics had given him a chance to survive.

As he met the ground with a brave smile, he could feel the earth shifting beneath his weight and growing outwardly in a transfer of force. Soon thereafter, feeling no other change in his surroundings, he groggily raised himself up, utilizing his sword as a makeshift cane. He now found himself at the centre of a newly-formed crater, smiling inwardly at the fact that he was not in fact dead, but grimacing outwardly at the sight of who was waiting for him at the edge of it, his ever-smiling hammer-wielding opponent.

He raised his sword up once again to meet her in combat, but immediately faltered when she shook her and walked closer towards him. She remained wary, but the manner of her actions was much less antagonistic.

"Let's stop this." She said tiredly with a sigh.

"Wha-"

"Look, we'll guarantee you all a fair trial, and if you surrender willingly, we can even work out a lighter sentence."

He could scarcely comprehend the words coming out of her mouth. Shock and frustration spilled out of him as he snarled, "Trial, surrender, sentence, what the hell are you talking about?"

Then time seemed to stop for him when she answered, "We have your captain in custody."

"What…" The word was all he could muster as his heart fell harshly, despair quickly growing within the pit of his stomach. Then despair quickly turned into disbelief, and in turn, anger. "You're lying, Atlesean dog."

Her eyes widened slightly at the title, and although they noticeably grew darker, she nonetheless remained calm. "Look around you, your ambush has failed and your comrades arrested by the second. You're barely able to stand up, let alone wield a weapon, so please surrender." She emphasized her words pleadingly, but it only served to fuel his frustrations.

"SHUT UP! MY CAPTAIN IS INDOMITABLE! SHE IS UNFALLABLE!" He roared as he rushed towards her, infusing his Aura with anger. It flared wildly around him, dulling the pain of his injuries and empowering him with renewed vigour.

Forgoing his better judgement, he allowed instincts and emotion to guide him. Throwing his full weight behind each blow, he attacked relentlessly as he swung wildly from a myriad of directions. Their weapons clashed repeatedly within the range of crater, each exchange deadlier and more desperate than the last.

"SHE IS THE GODDESS OF VICTORY, AND THE GODDESS SHALL NOT FALL AS LONG AS I BREATHE!" He snarled, swinging his blade further back for a heavier strike. Their weapons clashed once again, Aura flaring wildly between them as the ground beneath them shattered from their exchange.

"STAND DOWN ALREADY!" She relented slightly and utilized his uncontrolled momentum to unbalance him. The woman moved deftly out of the arc of his swing, and swung her hammer horizontally. He could hear his bones crack as the hammer's head impacted his knee; it took everything he had to not scream out as the following pain assaulted his mind, forcing him to buckle.

"Stand down…" She pleaded tiredly.

"Never…"

"Why?"

He lifted his head to meet her eyes, surprised to find nothing but empathy within their depths. "It is neither by loyalty nor faith that I follow her, but it is because I owe everything to her… I would forever be a slave if not for her," he pushed himself up with the help of his blade, wincing slightly at dullness he felt in his left knee, "and Ms. Nikos will not fall as long as I breathe."

But he never made it up before oblivion took him, as the indistinguishable sensation of a fist within his gut ferried him across, while her words served as his lullaby, "I understand. You're a good man…"

"Dammit, can we get anything from the captain?" Scarlet snarled over the bridge.

"No, sir! Nobody is in the vicinity of the bullhead and we are out of range for comms."

"Well, move closer then!"

"But sir-" The man stopped dead in his tracks as he met Scarlet's eyes, worry and frustration clearly evident within them.

"Set course for the island, we're moving out!"

"SIR YES-" Interrupting the entirety of the crew, however, was an explosion that rocked the ship to its core, as alarms blared soon thereafter.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?" Scarlet yelled over the chaos ensuing around him.

"Sir, we have an incoming call."

"WELL, WHO IS IT?" He turned swiftly to face the officer, urging him to hurriedly answer before the situation descended further into chaos. But before he could answer though, the bridge was silenced by the appearance of a single man on screen.

"Hello, hello, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls," the man hummed flippantly, twirling a white cane nonchalantly around his right wrist, "it's good to see each and every one of your darling faces."

Scarlet visibly grimaced at the man's appearance, an action that did not go unnoticed by the man in question. He smirked at the display, pulling out a cigar out from his breast pocket and lighting it. "Ah, Scarlet, how's one of my favourite fashionistas been doing?"

"Torchwick," he spat through gritted teeth, "what do you want?"

The man merely grew amused at the question, as if the answer should've been obvious for all to see. On screen, he stood up from his chair and straightened his signature white jacket, before dramatically donning his bowler hat with a cruel smile. "Why Scarlet, you're all nothing more than a happy addition to my current agenda, but you know full well what I want from you," he paused melodramatically as he released a puff a smoke from his cigar, "I want my flagship back, alongside all of your traitorous heads."

AN: Lots of things happening, too little time. Anyways, hope you enjoyed all of it, but as usual there are things we must discuss:

1. Sage's backstory is steadily revealed throughout his fight with Nora, hope you enjoyed the development of his characterization. I'll let you decide whether he meant 'slave' literally or metaphorically for the time being.

2. We found Torchwick, yay! Hope he's what you expected him to be. To be quite honest, he as a sky pirate would not be too different from what he acts like in canon, so I hope I did him justice.

Oh and a notice, I have summer semester exams next week, so no update (sorry), and probably why this chapter was shorter than usual (sorry again).

Aside from the menial things in life, hope you enjoyed. If you have something to say, leave a review. If you liked it, consider a fav or follow. Thanks again for reading, good day to you all.