A/N: Hey there guys Co writer Deviljho's Hatred here to bring you guys another chapter of LION. If you couldn't already tell from the title of this chapter, this is going to be an Inori-centric one. Consider it a good way to look into the perspective of our favorite scientific sociopath and some of her past relationships as well as a cool fight or two. Next chapter will be back on the protagonists as the second round begins for the tournament.

Anyway enough rambling on my end, enjoy the chapter!

"James Ironwood my old lab partner, how have you been?" Inori asked, moving a hand under her chin. "Last time we met was around eight years ago. What was the circumstances of that meeting again… Oh that's right. It was when you excommunicated me from the Atlassian science administration!"

The general scoffed at the woman's rage, not bothering to waste any expression on her. "Inori how awful it is to see you again. You are looking deranged as always, as if you never even aged."

"Charming like the once great man I knew. But flattery won't get much from me but a knife to the chest!" The scientist screamed as she reached into her coat pocket and threw three knives at Ironwood. The man rolled out of the way from the incoming blades and pulled out his handgun from his coat and opened fire at Inori. The madwoman twisted her body to the right to avoid the shot and sighed as the general cocked the gun at her. "Oh dear old James, you've gotten sloppy in your old age. You used to be quite the shot but look at you now."

"What are you doing here demon? I thought I told you to never even to attempt to contact anyone from the Atlas military." Ironwood said, slowly moving the barrel of his gun to her head.

"Well I called you out here because I WAS going to offer you a proposition regarding some juicy answers to your 'Queen' question." The scientist took pleasure at seeing his scowl deepen. "But then you come in here in your car trying to run me over so I had to defend myself. Is this how you treat all the women in your life?"

"Not all of them, just the lunatics that perform unethical and inhumane experiments on innocent people."

"Oh spare me the self righteous act James." Inori scoffed. "You used the results of my research knowing full well the methods I used to get them, financially backed up the projects too. You just passed a kidney stone when you heard I started to use some of your men in my experiments and tried to stop my scientific genius."

"I'll admit, I've done and allowed things that I'm not proud of." He admitted. "But I did it to keep the peace of Remnant intact."

"Ha! Peace, as if. You talk about peace but what you really mean is having everyone too afraid of your military power to be questioned. But then again that powerful drive is what I liked about you James." She smirked widely, taking a step forward to her old friend. "We could reunite you know, do great things like you promised we would. We could change the world for the better and you know it."

As she approached the general, Inori noticed a black blade that was flying right to her. She jumped out of the way to avoid being decapitated and caught a glimpse of the assailant. A ginger haired girl with a pink bow in her hair that had five blades floating behind her. "General Ironwood, are you unharmed?"

Taking a good look at the new girl Inori noticed something was off about her. Her body language was much too stiff to be any normal person and unless the girl's semblance was telekinesis, there was no way she could be controlling those swords naturally without her aura showing. However the scientist made her conclusion once she saw the blade that was tossed at her return to the girl and lined itself with the others. "Really James? I mean, really?"

"What are you on about now woman!?"

"No, no I just find this hypocritical as all hell! I mean you make such a big damned deal over me performing some 'unethical' experiments and then you go ahead and build a teenage cyborg?"

"Actually we consider her an android." James corrected.

"Well good for you, you're wrong." Inori bit back. "Though I do have to ask one question about her… Where did you find the body?"

"..."

"Come on you know you can tell me, I mean I am your best friend after all. So spill the beans, where did you find the body to make her cause a dead body just doesn't fall out of the sky… Well unless I'm on a plane and someone pisses me off. "

"Penny, eliminate her."

"Understood sir, use of lethal force will be administered." Penny nodded.

Inori smiled at the android's words and cracked her knuckles. "Oh that is just adorable that you need to send in a fake girl to do your job. However here in lies one big flaw in your plan." She reached into her coat and pressed a switch inside of it. "That flaw being that my robot can beat up your robot."

From behind Inori, two missiles were launched past her and aimed themselves at the duo. Ironwood and Penny both jumped away from the explosives and shielded their faces from the explosion. Once the smoke settled they saw a much more dangerous looking robot. "Extermination Unit Model 1: Virtue MK II, ready for combat. I will not allow you to harm Lady Inori."

"Virtue darling we talked about this, you call me 'Master' remember?"

"Initiating self correction protocol. I will not allow you to harm Master Inori."

"Much better."

"Wait… Virtue? That's… that's your daughter's name! You didn't!"

The woman flashed a grin of pride and gave a pat to her daughter's side. "Oh yeah, this is my little girl alright. I just made some few adjustments to make her better, to live up to her full potential. And boy did she come out just right."

Ironwood felt his skin crawl in disgust at Inori's joy at creating such an abomination of life. "You… you're a monster!"

"Oh 'I'm a monster!'" She mockingly repeated back. "Pfft, haven't heard that one screamed at me before. And of all people to call me a monster. I still haven't gotten an answer about where that body you used to make that little girl came from yet. Did you murder an innocent girl to get it? I'm thinking you murdered an innocent girl, wouldn't be the worst thing you've done now would it?"

"You used to be such a brilliant mind Inori, such promise and genius that could've helped so many people. But now you're a pitiful husk of the woman who is so lost within the abyss of your insanity with the only thing left to cling to is your hollow intellect." Ironwood raised his gun, aimed right to her head. "As your once friend, I'm going to put you out of your misery!"

"Misery? Seem to be projecting quite a bit aren't you?" The scientist scoffed. "So tell me, have you forgot all that you owe me James, after I gave you your arm back after you so idiotically lost it in that field mission. Figures you Atlisians forget all the important things to pursue your own oppressive agenda. Anyway enough prattle! Virtue kill the girl, the old man is all for me!"

Virtue's hands shifted inwards as her fingers slipped inside her to exchange for more dangerous looking claws, all of them pointed at Penny "Understood, will terminate with extreme prejudice."

"You know, you never hear anyone exterminating with mild prejudice at all. But whatever, kill her."

The cyborg nodded its head and charged at Penny who brought her swords out front to block the incoming slash from the larger robot. The blow knocked the ginger haired girl back a good distance away from the general.

"Penny!" Ironwood moved to help the girl but a knife being tossed at him stopped him in his tracks. He barely had enough time to move out of the way from the blade and glared hatefully at the smirking scientist.

"Ah, ah, ah, let our girls have their playdate. The grownups need some time to play alone."

Penny rubbed the back of her head with a small groan, slowly getting back up from the hit she blocked. The strength that machine had was unreal, more so than anything she's foughten. It looked like she would have to go all out to stand a chance of winning. The robot landed in front of Penny, her blade arms drawn forward ready to attack.

"Target: recognized. Solution: approved." From behind Virtue, her tail split in half both of their ends turning sharp. "Target weapon's type has been identified. Now executing elimination process."

Penny grasped two of her swords to block an overhead slash from Virtue and moved the rest of her blade wheel at her legs. The ivory cyborg moved her legs upwards to avoid losing them and thrust her tail at Penny who moved the her floating blades to parry the twin strikes. The smaller girl quickly jumped to place her feet onto Virtue's face and kicked off it to gain some space between them. While her opponent staggered back Penny threw her swords towards the intimidating robot but her tail quickly swatted away them.

'She seems to have some auto defense program to defend her even when her body isn't able to react. I have to take care of the tail to hope to do any damage.'

She dashed forward and sent five of her blades at Virtue which were deflected by her tail as she recovered and spun her arms around to block Penny's jumping slash and locked her arms in place. A burgundy Aura began to come from the larger cyborg which made the smaller girl's eyes widen in surprise but managed to compose herself as she let go of her swords to step away from something large that fell from above her. Looking at Virtue she frowned at seeing a burgundy, translucent blade come from a small distortion from where she was. Considering from what she overheard that this person was once a human, it only made sense that she had a semblance but this only made things more complicated.

The orange haired cyborg opened the palm of her hands, the aura in her creating another large distortion in front of her. "Lay waste."

Penny quickly dashed to the side a split second before a storm of translucent blades came out of the distortion ready to eviscerate her. The smaller girl frowned at seeing Virtue move the distortion to follow Penny's movements and brought her own swords in a circular formation in front of her. The swords began to glow with a light green energy, spinning faster as more of it gathered before jumping over the orange haired cyborg and releasing the blast at her. The beam made contact and resulted in a huge explosion on Virtue.

Penny retracted her swords to her side, exhaling a breath of relief that the fight was over. Looking over to her side she saw that Ironwood and this Inori woman currently had each other in a deadlock with their weapons pointed right at each other. "General I'm coming!"

Her rushing to Ironwood's side proved to be a fatal mistake as once the smoke cleared Virtue stood with not even a scratch on her. A blue bubble shield surrounded her, most likely having brought it up before the beam made contact and vanished once the cyborg let down it's clawed arm. Hearing a whirring noise from behind her, Penny had no time to react as Virtue boosted right into her and grabbed her by the head. The orange haired cyborg looked Penny in the eyes for a few seconds, gauging the emotion she was currently expressing which was one of fear and tossed her into the sky. The ginger hair girl flew skyward, unable to do anything as several distortions opened up around her all of them slowly bringing out translucent blades from them.

Virtue interlaced her fingers together and closed them, signaling the blades to all fly at Penny.

All at once the girl was slashed at every possible angle with no way to defend herself. She cried out in pain as the blades hacked and pierced her body with one final giant blade that slammed her brutally into the earth. Sparks came out from the cuts on Penny's body, her Aura nearly depleted as she struggled to get up from the bludgeoning. A shadow loomed over her just as she managed to prop herself up on her elbows. Virtue loomed over the smaller cyborg who was currently struggling to get upon her feet and grabbed her by her head.

"You and I are very similar in our creation but our powers and skills are light years apart. Keep this in might next time you dare to oppose Master Inori."

Penny slowly lifted her arm in a feeble attempt to remove the clawed hand from her face. "I… won't let you hurt the general."

"Fear not, you shall be silent now." Virtue let go of the girl in her hand and brought her right claw to slash Penny away from her into the direction of the two fighting humans.

Inori smirked as she threw another knife at Ironwood, who sent the projectile ricocheting back with a blast from his gun. The knife was caught by Inori as she twirled it in her hand. The orange haired woman showed a smug grin to the general. "It's so cute how you try and act all tough with that glorified toy pistol of yours, James."

"And it's cute how you call yourself a genius while at the same time challenging me." Ironwood shot back with a glare.

"Oooo, cocky aren't we?" Inori smirked. She threw out her arms, revealing three knives in each of her hands. "Well allow me to show you how much I've improved over the past eight years."

With a swift motion, Inori threw her many knives in Ironwood's direction. Ironwood quickly dodged the attack as he jumped behind his car. He brought out a grenade from his belt and prepared to throw it at the scientist once she got in close enough. Inori could easily see him baiting her though and threw two knives, aiming them over the car. The second knife clinked against the first, redirecting it straight down towards Ironwood. The general noticed the small blade coming for him just in time and jumped out of the way. As he rolled across the street and got to his feet, he saw Inori leap over the vehicle and come down at him with an axe kick. Ironwood backflipped away to avoid the attack.

"May I have this dance?" Inori said with a sinister giggle. She quickly began a hand to hand fight with the general. Ironwood had the advantage in terms of strength, but Inori's flexibility allowed her to easily evade the straightforward punches and kicks Ironwood threw at her. She ducked under another swing from Ironwood's fist and sent a flurry of swift blows to the parts of the general's body that wasn't metal. She knew his body in and out, since she designed the mechanical amputations he had. Ironwood pulled the pin from his grenade and tossed it up before jumping back. Inori wasn't having any of that though and kicked the grenade back towards Ironwood, adding a thrown knife to prevent the explosive from coming back her way. The knife stabbed into the grenade, causing it to explode right in front of Ironwood. The blast sent him flying back into a building. He groaned as he got back to his feet, his body writhing in pain.

Inori giggled as she walked towards the battered general, twirling a knife in her usual murderous way. "At least one thing hasn't changed after all these years. You still know how to show a girl a good time. Just like that one night we spent together."

"What in dust's name are you talking about?" Ironwood asked.

"Don't you remember?" Inori asked. "It was dark and cold. You were drunk and threw yourself at me. I said it wasn't right, but you didn't listen. Oh I still remember that magical night."

Ironwood simply responded with a blast from his gun. "You're lying."

"Of course I'm lying. It's called a joke." Inori told him. "Geez, I guess your sense of humor was lost along with most of your body after that operation."

The general was tired of playing around. He fired multiple rounds at Inori, who put everything she had into dodging the blasts as they exploded on impact on the road. One shot did manage to hit her however, causing quite a bit of pain to the scientist. She used the debris from the shot to disappear.

Ironwood scanned the area, not lowering his guard for even a second. His instincts quickly kicked in when he felt a murderous presence behind him. He turned around and aimed his gun directly at Inori's head, while the scientist stopped her arm that was in the process of swinging a knife aimed at the general's neck.

"Not bad James." Inori smirked. "Not bad at all."

"I'll ask you again demon. What are you doing here?"

"Oh so now after firing several mags of ammo at me, you finally want to listen?" Inori asked. She rolled her eyes. "For your information my dear old friend, I came to make a deal with you." Giving a small glance to her side she smirked seeing her daughter currently holding a defeated Penny in her hands. "Plus I'm about to get a whole lot of leverage in a few seconds."

Ironwood was about to question what she meant by that but got his answer when Penny suddenly landed roughly in his vision. "Penny!"

Seeing him get distracted, Inori jumped into actions as she slashed at his metal arm and made him drop his gun as the hand fell limp. She quickly slid behind the general and used her right arm to put him in an armbar and drove her knee into his spine causing his knees to buckle and fall. Ironwood grunted in pain as he fell on the ground and felt his blood run cold as the edge of Inori's knife was placed right near his jugular. "So willing to listen now?"

"You disgusting snake…"

"Since we're old friends I'll take that as a yes." She pulled away her knife but kept his arms locked while sitting on him. "Now I know that you and your little entourage are on pins and needles trying to scrounge up any sort of information on the White Fang and this 'mysterious Queen'."

"How do you-"

"Genius now stop interrupting." The scientist scolded. "Now I'm willing to give you some of this information go but under a few conditions. Meet them and we'll have a deal."

"Atlas will never negotiate with kingdom level terrorists Inori, you should know this or did you forget that when you lost your mind?"

"I don't think you realize the situation you're in right now."

"And if I don't?"

Inori moved her knife towards Ironwood's neck, ready to carve a big red smile in it but a sudden ringing in her coat distracted her. "Ugh every time I'm about to do something fun…" Reaching into her coat she pulled out a small device and pressed the button to open it up. The message she saw come across the screen made her eyes shake and shrink in silent rage. "...Well James it was fun, it really was but I have to get going now."

"What!? After all this you suddenly decide to leave!?" The general yelled at the woman on top of him.

"I know I hate to cut our much long awaited reunion short but I just got notice that some very naughty kids have broken into my personal lab. So I have to go give out some motherly tough love and make sure they never try something like this again."

"You're going to kill them aren't you?"

Inori giggled insanely. "Oh James you can read me like a book can't you?" She then jumped off his back and landed in the waiting arms of Virtue who was revving up her booster engines. "It's been fun, we'll pick up later this week okay? Bye bye!"

The general could do nothing to stop Inori from escaping as she and her daughter flew off into the sky away from him. While he wanted to give chase he knew that repairing Penny was the higher priority right now. He sighed, seeing the girl in her state of disrepair and picked her up and brought her into the car he came in.

"Are you almost done with that lock yet, Em?"

"Shut up and let me focus. And don't call me Em."

Emerald slowly picked the lock to Inori's lab. She had done more jobs than she could count where she would pick locks or hack electronic locks with ease. But this one was different. For starters, this was one of the most advanced locking systems she had ever come across. And second was the fact that she was being especially careful not to trip any security alarms. Cause if Inori caught them doing this, she did not want to know what the crazy scientist would do to them.

After another few minutes, the door unlocked and opened for the two of them. Emerald wiped the sweat from her forehead. "There we go. Now let's hurry up, find what we're looking for, and get the hell out of here."

"No arguments here." Mercury nodded. The two of them peaked into the lab, seeing no one there. They entered, making sure to be as silent as possible.

Emerald walked up to the computer in the room. "I'll see if I can find any blueprints in the files here. You try and see if you can find any papers."

"Yeah, whatever." Mercury replied. He began looking around the room for anything resembling blueprints while Emerald opened file after file. Several minutes passed by with neither of them finding anything noteworthy. Time was of the essence since every minute wasted was another minute closer to when Inori would return.

After scanning the entire room and still coming up empty handed, Mercury decided it was time to give up. "Look, let's just get out of here. We haven't found anything and that wackjob could come back any minute."

"No way. I'm not failing this mission and letting Cinder down." Emerald switched off the computer and began looking around the room. Something didn't add up. Inori was crazy, but she was also smart. Why did the room seem so void of any advanced equipment. It was mostly basic things that were probably for keeping up maintenance on Virtue, a bed, and a tv.

'Wait… the tv.'

"Mercury, help me move this." Emerald said as she walked up to the television set.

"What, are we a moving crew now?"

"Fine then. If this thing breaks, I'm telling Inori it was you who did it. How do you think she's gonna react to finding out her main source of entertainment is gone?"

After mulling it over for a few seconds, Mercury grumbled and walked over to the tv. He and Emerald moved the set, revealing a hidden button underneath. Despite the danger warnings going off in her mind, Emerald, pressed her foot on the switch. A sound was heard as Mercury and Emerald saw an opening appear by the wall. They looked at each other and nodded. What they were looking for had to be in there.

Through the opening, the two of them walked down a long flight of stairs. The passageway was barely illuminated by the torches hung along the sides. Inori definitely had a sadistic mind when it came to interior decorating, that was for sure. Once they reached the end of the stairs, a door was the only thing separating them and the thing they were here to find. Cautiously, Emerald turned the knob and opened the door.

She soon wished she hadn't. She wished she had never found that button. Then she wouldn't have had to witness what she was seeing right now.

All around the room were preserved corpses. Corpses of everyone she had killed both inside the White Fang and other random people she must have found outside the base all lined in giant tubes. Mercury stepped back out of sheer horror while Emerald vomited on the floor from the ugly sight. She never could have imagined how sick in the head Inori truly was until she saw all of this.

"...'Help me lift the tv.' she said. 'Inori would kill you if it broke.' she said!" Mercury snarked once he regained his composure. "ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? CAUSE NOW WE'RE IN A GODDAMNED HORROR MOVIE PROBABLY MINUTES AWAY FROM BEING OPERATED ON!"

"SHUT UP!" Emerald coughed back, standing back up after wiping her mouth of the leftover bile. "... Look let's just get the crap we need and get out of here! I see the main computer past all the bodies."

Mercury wanted to comment that he had played enough video games to know what would happen if they walked down a hall full of corpses but decided it was better to just get the job done and get the hell out of here. Moving past the still bodies the duo made their way to the main computer and began to hack into it. Unlike the door, there was little to no security on the computer. Probably because Inori didn't think someone would be suicidal enough to actually break into her room out of fear of death. Within a few seconds of searching Emerald found something that looked pretty important, important enough to be hidden behind a wall of documents.

"...The 'Extermination Armor' Project?"

"Sounds important to me, what's it say?"

"It says… oh god…"

"What?"

The green haired girl quickly put in a flashdrive and downloaded the file into the device. Quickly she grabbed any document, any text, algorithm or blueprint she could find and sent all of it to the small jack device. "She's planning to make more of those sick monsters like that Virtue robot out of all these bodies!"

"What!? How can she even do that!?"

"It's the bodies. She needs a person with an Aura, a soul, to be the 'battery' for the suit. Without it there's no way to power those machines." She explained, removing the flashdrive from the computer after getting everything she could.

Mercury let out an anxiety sigh and pulled at his partner's shoulder. "Alright we got everything now let's get the hell out of here."

Before she could even nod in agreement a voice called out from the depths of the dimly lit room.

"Hello!? Is someone here? Did someone find this hell hole? For the love of everything sacred please help me!"

The voice that rang in their ears chilled their bones in a way that no amount of coldness could ever do. Despite Mercury shaking his head no, he cursed under his breath when Emerald ran to the source of the voice, possibly putting them in even more danger. When he caught up to the thief he was dumbstruck at the sight that awaited him which caused Emerald to fall to her knees, her hands covering her mouth.

On an operating table was an emaciated faunus who was strapped down to the table tightly. But what was so horrifying about this whole mess was that chest entire chest cavity was completely open, the flesh that once covered his chest pinned down with operating knives. His organs all exposed with dials and pins jabbed into them with notes and observation papers scattered around him. "You two! Please help me!"

"Wh-What the hell happened to you!?"

"She kidnapped me eight days ago! That sick twisted bitch has been sticking things into my organs, prodding and poking me, injecting me with stuff that made me bleed everywhere!" he yelled in anguish. "I beg of you to please just kill me! I don't want to suffer anymore, I don't want to be in pain!"

The silver haired teen looked to his left, seeing that Emerald was still shellshocked from the gruesome visage. He sighed softly and lifted his leg right over the faunus's head. He might have been an assassin but Mercury understood the concept of mercy killing. Whatever Inori was putting this faunus through, he was sure death would be much more preferred to whatever he had to suffer through.

Seeing the teen lift his leg ready to strike managed to make the poor soul smile, the comfort of death soon approaching him. But before the release of death could reach him, the faunus's eyes widened in horror as he began screaming hysterically. This caused Mercury to lower his leg in confusion. "What, what is it!?"

A hand laid itself on Mercury and Emerald's shoulders which caused them to go stiffer than any stone. They both slowly turned their head around to see the worst possible thing standing right in front of them, it flashing a cold sinister smile.

"Is there a problem here kids? I thought I told you not to wander off on the field trip?" Inori said. "Now I come home to see my lab open, my computer hacked into and a kid ready to kill my lab rat. Now I know who put you kids up to this but I want to hear it out of your mouths." A shadow loomed over the scientist's face as she slammed both Mercury and Emerald's heads together and came uncomfortably close to them.

"Who told you to break into my lab?"

Emerald, seeming to regain control over her body slapped away Inori's hands off of them and pulled out her sickle swords. "Give us one good reason why we should tell you anything you disgusting monster!"

If it was even possible, Inori flashed a grin so wide and full of teeth it threatened to split her face in two. She shook her arms which made ten knives, five for each hand, fall into her fingers. "Oh boy little girl, you have no idea just how much trouble you're in."

Cinder sat in her office, waiting for a report from Mercury and Emerald. Her two subordinates were taking far too long for her liking. Inori was an unpredictable woman, and in her line of work unpredictable was just another word for dangerous. Cinder knew her control over the scientist was slim at best. And if she couldn't control something, it was a liability.

'Calm down.' Cinder told herself. 'Those two are my top subordinates. They'll do their job accordingly and come back with what I need.'

A sudden boom that just faintly registered in the room told her however that she might have given them a task too big for them to handle. Soon Adam came into her room, confirming her fears. The masked faunus stared at Cinder. "We have a problem."

Cinder sighed, knowing this wasn't going to end well. She got out of her seat and ran out of her office. Just as Cinder was approaching the door to Inori's workshop, the door blasted open, with a beaten and battered Emerald crashing into the wall along with the door.

Yep. Inori had returned.

"What the hell is that woman?" Emerald asked, her voice trembling with fear. "She isn't human."

Cinder looked inside the room, her eyes narrowing at the sight. Inori was holding Mercury up in the air with her hand gripped tightly around his throat. Judging by the damaged look of Mercury's mechanical legs, Cinder assumed he couldn't move or fight anymore.

"My god you take an eternity to choke." Inori said as Mercury gasped for air. She brought out a knife and held it murderously in her hand. "I'm all for prolonging a person's suffering, but I'm a little busy right now. So I'm afraid I'm going to have to put you out of your misery." Just as she was about to stab him, a fire ball came flying at her. Inori dropped Mercury and jumped away from the blast. She stared at the new arrival with a sadistic smile. "Aw, is mommy here to pick up her two trouble makers. I'm afraid you'll have to wait a moment. I'm giving them a much needed spanking."

"I'm putting an end to you, Inori." Cinder glared. "You've stepped too far out of line for me to ignore your behavior."

"Excuse me? Behavioral issues is it? Um ring ring, ring ring!" Inori held out her thumb and pinky next to her ear. "Oh hello kettle, this is pot. Oh pot, how are you doing today? I just wanted to let you know that you're black. Well I wanted to let you know I've been killing all your friends." Inori smirked at the glare Cinder gave her. "Well, well isn't this a delicious bit of irony. But what can one expect from a woman chasing a phantom's dream of fairy tales just to be feared by everyone."

Cinder stare showed no trace of emotion, just an unfeeling void of emptiness that promised nothing but torture. A look Inori was all too familiar with. "Care to repeat that line of yours Inori?"

"Ooh did I hit a cluster of nerves there Cindy? Because I got to say that your diary was a fantastic read of childish dreams and unrealistic aspirations. Though if what you said in that book is true." A mad smile appeared on her lips as her eyes shrunk in insanity. "You'll make a fine specimen to dissect and craft into my next line of toys!"

"ENOUGH!" Adam roared, drawing his blade and pointing at the mad woman. "I've had it with your disgusting actions human! For every single faunus you have killed, I shall deliver that pain back a thousand fold!"

"While it's cute that you think you can hurt me I want you two to think real carefully about this. You had your kids break into my home, steal my secrets, trash the place and expect me to be okay with it. Personally, I feel transgressed and violated and demand an apology. Do that and we can forget this whole thing ever happened and I'll only kill one of the kids as an consolation." Inori gave a small glance to the fallen Emerald. "She dies and I'll keep Mercury as a pincushion for my developmental projects." She moved her head to dodge a fireball thrown by Cinder. "Well it looks like negotiations have dissolved. Time to die everyone~!"

Adam charged at Inori with seemingly lightning speeds ready to cut her down in one fell swoop but his blade was stopped mere inches away from her face. The bull faunus could believe his eyes as a black, shadowy hand was holding the blade away from killing the scientist. Inori grinned at his shocked face while moving her face close to his ears. "Shocked Adam? Do you feel that presence stopping you from hurting me?"

"You trickery won't do anything to stop me!" The bull faunus yelled as he dragged the blade down to escape the grasp of the hand and twisted the sword around to aim at her neck. Once again it was caught with the same shadowy hand, impeding the progress of ending Inori's life.

"Oh this is cute and all but honestly I hate animals who can't take a hint." The black hand threw the blade aside, making Adam lose his balance and soon his breath once Inori's own hand grasped his neck to wring the life out of him. The red haired man could feel his eyes bulging out at the amount force behind her chokehold. However his torment wasn't going to last long as she threw him to the side to avoid another fireball tossed at her by Cinder. "Oh so the big mama wants a piece of me now?" She walked over to Mercury who could hardly even move and threw him at the scarlet clad witch. Cinder moved out of the way to avoid burning her ally but the distraction gave Inori the time she needed to leap behind the flying boy and land a hard punch on her temple. The sheer force behind the punch made Cinder tear through a wall of metal and crash into several tables and chairs as her punch seemed to land her in the mess hall.

"Now isn't this just delicious?" Inori taunted the witch, jumping through the hole she made with leasure. "These mutts fear you so much yet a simple scientist is kicking your ass. Hell I don't even work out and one punch from me knocks you through a wall? Really Cinder this is just sad."

Cinder glared hatefully at the orange haired woman. Clearly her downplaying her strength was a guise that she was foolish to believe. Her physical strength despite her appearance was gigantic and her brilliantly sick mind was a dangerous combo piece. And there was the fact of that strange black apparition that appeared when Adam tried and failed to strike her down. At this point the answer was clear to Cinder.

She would show this Inori what she was truly capable of.

"Come on is this all you got Cindy? You can't expect me to believe that the much feared leader of this terrorist organization can be tossed around by a meek little woman like me." Inori picked at her ear in disinterest. "If you don't take this seriously then I'm just gonna kill your little brats and hang them by their own organs as decorations in my room."

"I have had enough Inori. It's time to end this game now." Cinder said while getting up from the wrecked tables.

"Oh finally a challenge! Bring it on dumpster baby!"

That was it. That was the true final straw that Inori just drew.

Slowly Cinder's eyes started to glow with an amber light as she was lifted from the ground. Inori was enraptured at seeing the raven haired woman fly into the air as if by magic, smiling insanely once her entire being was cloaked in flames. She started clapping her hands at the sight, clearly either driven mad or not understanding the situation she was in.

"So it is true then, you weren't making this shit up Cindy! Oh this is amazing, amazing, AMAZING!" Five knives flew into her hands from her coat, all drenched in a purple fluid. "I have to have you, you're gonna be what puts my name in the history books as the first woman to kill and experiment on a being of pure magical force!"

"Your name will be remembered by no one Inori." Cinder said, much too calm for the scientist's liking. "You'll be a forgotten name not to be remembered by anyone. Just another victim to my absolute rule."

The scientist's left eye twitched in an uncanny manner with any signs of sanity completely missing from her face as she charged at the floating woman. At once Cinder moved her hand forward and snapped her fingers at the ground which cause the floor to explode right in front of Inori. The orange haired woman blocked her face from the fire and jumped into the air and tossed knives at the airborn woman. Inori scowled as each and every knife was deflected by the woman with a simple flick of her wrists all of them headed straight for the scientist. She ducked and weaved to avoid being stabbed by her own weapons, grunting in pain as a fireball exploded near her side and burnt some of her hair. Inori quickly closed her fist around the burning hair to stop the fire from spreading and turned to Cinder in the air.

'Well it seems this situation has gone south too quick for my liking. Time to do what anyone in my dilemma would do and bolt it.'

The scientist quickly made a mad dash for the hole she made earlier but Cinder wasn't having any of that. With a wave of her hand the passageway exploded with a blast of hellish fire, blocking off her only path of escape. Though Cinder was surprised to see Inori just jump though the flame wall to escape. Quickly parting the flames the witch saw Inori lift Emerald by her neck and dig into her pockets and pull out the flashdrive she used to hack into the basement computer. Cinder flew at the scientist ready to scorch her into ashes but hesitated for a split second when she moved Emerald in front of her as a shield. This small hesitation gave Inori the opportunity she needed to bring out one of her shadow arms and punch Cinder dead straight in the face. Seeing that she was stunned for a moment, Inori followed up by throwing a few punches into her stomach and chest, wincing a bit as the fire that surrounded her burned her knuckles. Cinder shot out a burst of flames which made the scientist jump back to avoid being toasted but once again grabbed Emerald with her as she escaped into her room. Inori stomped over Adam and quickly descended into the basement floor with Cinder quite literally hot on her trail. Soon she reached the dead end in the computer room with all the bodies in their tubes and began typing a code into the console. The door in which she came from exploded as Cinder burst through the door ready to torch her but was distracted by the sheer amount of bodies that were being held here.

Inori seized the moment by throwing Emerald at the pyromancer which sent her to the ground momentarily and allowed her to finish typing, grinning madly once she hit the enter key.

"Well that was a fun little bout we had wasn't it Cindy but I'm afraid I must exit stage left." She announced while pressing a small switch in her coat. "And don't worry about cleaning up my mess, I'll be sure to do that once I take a few of my friends and leave. And also don't fret about never seeing me again, after all…" The light in Inori's eyes faded meeting Cinder's as she got up from the ground. "I'll be sure to treat your body with care after you die."

Before Cinder could even try and wipe that empty look off of her face, Inori vanished in a cloud of black smoke. Cinder cursed herself for not being able to kill her when she had the chance but was relieved that the scientist's annoying habits would no longer be a hinderance to her plans. Grabbing Emerald from the ground she made her way back upstairs to an very upset Adam and Mercury who managed to sit himself up against the wall.

"Okay Cinder, I know I'm in no position to ask for any requests but please next time you hire a scientist, make sure she isn't a genocidal sociopath that finds killing entertaining." Mercury groaned.

"Quiet Mercury, this day has already set my plans back several days I do not need your mouth to ruin it any further."

Adam spat some blood out of his mouth and gave a quick look around the room. "At least with that disgusting human gone we can take any information she had stored here for future use."

No sooner than those words escaped Adam's mouth did a hellish explosion detonate from the basement room, a large burst of fire coming from the entrance which made the ceiling collapse, making the room sealed off from entrance.

Cinder gave a pointed look to the bull faunus. "Stop talking and get your men ready, I have an address to make."

At this point Adam didn't even care anymore about taking orders from the pyromancer. Inori was out of his hair and no more of his comrades would be slaughtered for the enjoyment of that woman. All and all, he could consider this day a begrudging win. However their feeling of victory was very short lived as alarms began to ring throughout the base.

'Attention all available hands! Inori is attempting to steal the Bullhead docked in our base! Everyone get to the dock to stop her- AAUUUGH!'

'Sorry for that disturbing announcement, Inori isn't stealing the Bullhead she's just borrowing it. Huge difference and I don't appreciate the slander! Consider this my farewell take away Cindy, ciao!'

Both Adam and Emerald jumped back in fear as Cinder exploded the intercom in the room and burst out to try and catch the scientist. But no matter how fast she went she was too late as the Bullhead started to lift into the sky. Inori waved from the open door on the side tauntingly at the woman on the ground.

"Well Cindy I do believe it's time our professional relationship came to an end! And don't worry about your secret plans I'll be sure to let the proper people have at that gold mine. Oh and before I forget I'm taking Isuka and several tons of your equipment, gotta keep some experimental tools for myself."

Cinder made movement to fly after her but the guns on the Bullhead immediately took aim at her and began shooting. The pyromancer fell back to the ground from the force of the bullets and looked up to see Inori giving her the finger while laughing madly as the plane flew off into the sky.

Once they were a good deal away from the base Inori closed the door behind her and sighed. "Oh boy that was a close shave."

"Any reason why you suddenly decided to go traitor and raise hell?" Isuka asked from the pilot seat, her guitar Lorand sitting in the passenger.

The scientist moved the guitar off the seat and put it to the side. "Simple, they disrespected my belongings and they had to pay. Don't worry about it though, all is gonna go according to my plan but first I need to make a quick stop somewhere okay?"

"Alright." The guitarist brought out the navigation systems and let Inori near it. "Have at it."

"Just need to visit some familiar faces, keep a low profile for about two hours and things will be fine." Inori said as she punched in her destination with a smile.

Beacon Academy.

A/N: Hello readers, it's TheSib. Luckily Deviljho's Hatred and I were able to write this chapter out before I head back to college. I'm sure you have a few questions about Inori's future plans, but you'll have to wait to find out about that. See you next time.