Magnus: Sorry for the long wait, but now we are getting into the final arc of the story, soon it will end, and with that, the lives of Cinder and her goons.
Disclaimer: Did someone else screamed in delight when chibi-Penny appeared on screen? I can't be the only one, right?
Chapter 38
Prelude to an End
The final rounds had finally begun, much to Cinder's distress; from her seat she was able to see each and every one of the selected fighters, all of them the ones she had selected, but with such a critical period of time, and with no more delays, she knew that using the first match was key to get the time and reinforcements she needed so desperately.
"And now, the final part of the tournament will begin!" Professor Port filled the stadium with his voice, calling everyone to attention, then Oobleck began to explain the rules for the final set of matches; in the platform, Nobunaga and Yang exchanged glances, nodding to each other in clear understanding.
They knew what will happen, how the matches will roll, but they only had half of the picture, for Cinder was reticent to share all the details with her minions, especially Neo; they had to hold a meeting before the start of the last round, so they could deal with any possibilities without alerting the enemy.
"Yang, your opponent will be the legless murderer and no doubt this is meant to take advantage of your weaknesses; you are free to deal with him in whatever fashion you like, just remember, after the fight is over, you are not permitted any more violence… no matter what happens." Nobunaga's orders were met with a large and savage smile, for Yang had no intention of leaving enough of Mercury to worry about any future encounters.
"Now that the randomizer has finished, leave the arena to the two selected for the match!" Port called now that the screen showed the faces of both Yang and Mercury, making everyone else leave the platform; on their way out, Pyrrha kept stealing glances toward Penny, who looked as if uncaring of the enormous weight placed on her rather tiny shoulders.
"Hey! We finally get the chance to know each other up close!" Mercury cheekily said, hoping to strike a nerve on whom he assumed was lesbian.
"The only thing you'll be able to feel are my fists, chibi." Yang coolly replied, giggling at Mercury's face of confusion at the edo word; then both took their stances, but where Mercury looked serious and focused, Yang looked like a well trained beast of war, barely containing herself before unleashing her fury, all while sporting a wide and wild smile.
"Begin!" Oobleck called the match to start, and Mercury decided to go into the offensive; his orders were simple, he only had to deal with the bimbo in any way he wanted, either humiliating her, or losing to her, the match and outcome didn't mattered, just getting it over with, so Emerald could work her magic and have everything go wrong… then everything went wrong.
"ORA!" Yang shouted as she punched Mercury in the face, with enough strength to have him perform a couple of flips before finally meeting the floor.
"UGH!" Mercury grunted as he kissed the ground, surprised more at the speed and precision than at the force applied by the barbarian of a girl.
"And that got to hurt!" Port commented as the public was awed at the sudden show of skill; in their seats, Cinder and Emerald looked puzzled at the turn of events, not knowing if the blond bimbo suddenly got stronger, of if she had been holding back the whole time.
"Ok… off with the kiddie gloves then." Mercury stated as he charged with the intention of destroying the blond bombshell, reaching her with a flying kick with a round ready to fire upon impact… but it never connected.
"HA! You are slower than my sister!" Yang commented with a snort as she evaded inside the move, aiming her elbow to his crotch, and allowing his own momentum to make the job for her.
"AAARRGGGGHH!" Mercury screamed all the way down to the ground, and then rolled on the floor in a vain attempt to lessen the pain he was feeling.
"Now that is going to leave its mark with him!" Oobleck said with a chuckle, earning more laughs than groans of pain from the spectators. Cinder felt that this fight was not right; she knew that yang was absurdly strong, but she was showing skill that was not fit for her upbringing and philosophy.
"Now I'm going to make you suffer, bitch!" Mercury nearly shouted as he began to compose himself, but then he found that he couldn't move his left leg; taking a look at it, he discovered that Yang had decided that waiting for him to recover wouldn't do, and had grabbed it while smiling like a mad woman… had he paid closer attention, he would have noticed that her eyes were glowing red.
"GAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Yang began to laugh as she used Mercury's body like a flail to hit the ground, several times, and leaving small craters with each hit; Mercury's body hit the floor in such an angle that the damage to his aura was not that great, but he was in no position to free himself from her grasp, and the numerous hits to the head had made him see stars, leaving him with not enough focus to retaliate.
The crowd began to flinch with each consecutive slam, wincing at the display of violence, but where everyone was deciding if to cheer or not, Cinder was smiling, after all, this too was perfectly fine for her plans.
"Are you ready?" Cinder asked to her companion, who nodded with a scary smile, obviously relishing the opportunity given, then the buzzing sound alerted them that the fight was over, making then focus on the blond bombshell who was encouraging the spectators to cheer for her victory.
"WHAT A SMASHING VICTORY!" Port cheered, making the crowd explode with praises about Yang's display of power. Yang was enjoying the feeling, and the sense of liberation that was washing over her; it had nothing to do with winning or the cheering crowd, it was the knowledge that she had gained a degree of control over her own self what had her celebrating; the blood had called out to her, to finish the murderer off, to smash his skull and spray his brain all over the stadium, but she had defeated it with obedience, and had finally defeated her own mother… then she felt movement behind her.
"I'm not done with you." Mercury said as he got up, looking like a vengeful madman.
"The fight is over, fuck off!" Yang replied while not losing sight of his movements, her instincts were kicking full force, and she felt that spilling blood was going to become a matter of survival and not pleasure.
"I'll take on your girlfriend after I'm done fucking you!" Mercury shouted as he launched his kick; he was moving with such speed and precision that Yang had no doubts about his intentions, but her body was ready, and so began to respond accordingly, raising her arm to deliver a most brutal swing that should he survive it, he would be left with a torn body… but then…
"… after the fight is over, you are not permitted any more violence…" Nobunaga's orders were clear, and if she didn't want her mother to win, she will have to obey; time slowed down to a crawl as she fought her instincts, and she ended up closing her eyes in waiting for a blow… which never happened.
"What the?!" Yang muttered as she opened her eyes, just to find Mercury still standing, but not attacking, then she found that she was no longer on the spot she was standing before, but closer to the murderer… with her fist still ready to deliver the punch.
Murmurs began to run through the spectators, and Cinder began to shift on her seat as teams RWBY and NKRA started to act as if ready to jump into the arena; Emerald could only shrink in fear as she noticed that her trick hadn't work in the first attempt, so before she could be scolded, she tried again.
"What is happening?" Yang muttered once more as she took steps away from Mercury, who looked just as confused as her, the she saw him smile, and launch his high kick again; Yang simply closed her eyes with all her might, willing her arms to remain down, and when she opened her eyes, she had closed the distance yet again, with her fist ready to attack.
"No!" Yang barely managed to not shout, not knowing if the mirage thief had a hand on this, or if her blood was finally able to influence her; what she saw next made her panic, for instead of an attack, Mercury was now reaching to grab her breasts, that's when she decided to finally act, but not in the way that Cinder expected.
"HEAVENS! PROTECT ME!" Yang yelled as she took from a pocket one of Kanetsugu's talismans, he had insisted on everyone carrying them as a last resort in case of an ambush, and today it had payed off; a large kanji appeared beneath the blond bombshell, and a shimmering light surrounded her shielding her from pretty much everything… including the semblance that was manipulating her perception.
"AAHH!" Emerlad screamed in pain as her head shot back with copious amounts of blood coming out of her nose; Cinder had to make a split decision right there, ignore Emerald in favor of watching what the other teams were doing, or taking the thief to the infirmary and be away from the scene… she decided for the later, as having the thief in such condition would arise suspicion among the academy's staff.
Down in the arena, the only ones missing were Ruby and Kanetsugu, but this hardly made for a difference to the crowd, as atlesian soldiers joined the scene too…
"Yang!" Ranmaru shouted as he reached his beloved one, who was sitting in the floor, looking both distraught and disoriented.
"Easy boy; come with us, we only want a few questions answered, nothing more." One of the soldiers said to the murderer, who raised his hands in clear surrender; he knew that what happened to Yang couldn't be linked to him, and at most, he would spend the night in a cell while he is found innocent.
"Ok, not doing anything." Mercury replied, trying hard to not smile at the situation, and then he watched Ranmaru almost rushing at him.
"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MAY GIRLFRIEND?!" Ranmaru yelled with a face contorted in fury, quickly grabbing Mercury by the shirt… making a small plastic bag fall from his clothes.
"What is this?" The soldier asked to no one in particular as he lifted the item; Mercury was frozen in terror, his mind was unable to form a plausible excuse to what was a massive fuck up on his part… he had no idea why or when did he left that bag on his shirt and not his boots, but that was besides the point right now…
The soldier had gained everyone's attention as he checked the white powder, then he threw the bag away like it was in fire, and pointed his rifle toward the murderer; Mercury didn't need two guesses at what was going to happen…
"ANGEL DUST!" The soldier shouted, making all the other soldiers point their weapons at Mercury, who instantly decided that running away and leave the rest of his team to deal with the downfall was better than the alternative.
Mercury quickly leaped away from the line of fire, and jumped to gain momentum for a double kick-shot that would see him out of the arena… then he fell face first, and found that his legs no longer answered to his will.
"You are not getting away, you damned piece of… why aren't you bleeding?!" Ranmaru said as he was holding Mercury's legs with his left hand and his nodachi with his right; everyone watched the scene with open mouths and wide eyes, for even at the distance, they could clearly see that the downed student spurted sparks and cut wires instead of flesh and blood.
"AH! MY LEGS!" Mercury shouted in a vain attempt to gain any sort of mercy.
"You have a lot of explaining to do." Nobunaga said as he approached Ranmaru's side, placing a placating hand on his shoulder, so he doesn't execute the murderer right now… then the legs on Ranmaru's hand slipped from its boots, revealing a couple more bags of the highly illegal drug.
"An awful lot of explaining indeed…" Nobunaga added as he raised an eyebrow; the first bag had been masterfully planted by Ranmaru in the moment of contact, having the cooperation of the soldiers was also a key factor to ensure a proper capture of one of the enemies… getting even more dooming evidence to use was rather disturbing.
At the infirmary, a few moments later…
"You focus on recovering, I'll check on Mercury and how he is faring." Cinder said to the dizzy thief, in a rather rare and disturbing show of concern.
"Miss Fall, please report immediately at the headmaster's office." The intercom carried Glynda's voice with a force that put to shame even the most ferocious of the storms, making Cinder grimace at what could possibly require her presence.
"I have a bad feeling about this…" Cinder muttered as she left the room, failing to notice Ruby and Kanetsugu entering it.
"Hey! We were looking for you!" Ruby greeted as she looked at Emerald, who was admittedly too ill to even pay attention, not that she would miss an opportunity when offered.
"You were?" Emerald asked while holding her nose, making her sound funny, and less suspicious.
"Well, I'm here for a checkup; Ruby was looking for you. I'll leave you too to have your girl's talk while I submit myself to the medics." Kanetsugu said with a defeated tone, earning a soft pat in the back from Ruby, and a small chuckle from Emerald; both girls watched him walk to the next room, noticing the pained limping of his form.
"So?" Emerald decided to go for short phrases, while trying to sound as friendly as possible.
"Well… you see… I've been talking with Kanetsugu, about our future… and we came to the conclusion that allowing a concubine may be for the best…" Ruby explained, with a rather cute show of hesitance; Emerald had to take a minute to digest what she was hearing, for apparently her original plan to separate this couple had finally failed… while leaving a different path open for her.
"Huh?" Emerald was unable to form a proper reply, or even ask for a clarification; the pain on her brain, coupled with the shock of such revelation left her quite vulnerable.
"Yes, well, we want to start a large clan, and with only me as his wife, that would take quite too long; sharing the duties of the temple with someone else will also be appreciated." Ruby mildly clarified, leaving the thief with a wide smile.
"So, where do I sign up?" Emerald replied with as much cheer as her pain allowed her, already planning to take the title of wife, leaving the petite girl as a concubine.
"Not that fast! We can't allow a criminal into the criminal… so…" Ruby interrupted Emerald's thoughts with a rather shocking declaration, to which she had no idea how to reply.
"Criminal?" Emerald asked out of shock and lack of brain power, making her wish to bit her tongue.
"Your teammate, Mercury… he had angel dust with him, and it seems that he used some of it on my sister." Ruby said with a rather serious frown on her face, barely making her look less cute than usual.
"HE WHAT?!" Emerald asked in response, sounding shocked and scared out of her mind; the blood coming out of her nose helped greatly to make her look as if unaware of her teammate's proclivities.
"I think she has no idea of what happened during the fight." Kanetsugu said as he re-entered the room, earning Emerald's attention.
"Huh? What happened? What did he do?" Emerald asked now, unable to see anything weird due to the pain on her head.
"Look, the cops will want to ask you a few questions; just… clear any misunderstandings, and help in seeing that bastard properly punished, so we can start talking about a life together." Ruby simply said while placing a hand on Emerald's shoulder, letting her know that she was going ot be welcomed.
"With the temple already under construction, we really need to start thinking on the together part; now let's go, we need to check your sister's condition." Kanetsugu ended while guiding Ruby outside, leaving Emerald to her thoughts; once outside, Ruby quickly cleaned her hand with a handkerchief, feeling unclean after touching the enemy… then again, she found it scary how Nobunaga's plans were coming together with such ease.
Meanwhile, at Ozpin's office…
"HE DID WHAT?!" Cinder was incensed, unable to believe what had transpired on those minutes it took her to take away Emerald from preying eyes.
"I take it you were not aware of his criminal tendencies?" Ozpin asked with his usual calmness, looking as if ready to believe in the good of all people; it was sickening, and one of the reasons Cinder wanted to kill him, and yet, she couldn't be more grateful for it.
"IF I had been made aware of his involvement in such horrible thing, I would have killed him myself before turning his worthless corpse to the police!" Cinder didn't need to act the part; while she knew of his need of the damned drug, she was ready to sell him out to the police the moment it proved to be even the slightest bother… like right now.
"As appropriate as that answer is, you must understand that until the investigation is over, you and the other two girls will be under surveillance; I hope you understand the severity of what is being at stake." Ironwood was the one to talk now; Cinder knew that things were going horrible wrong when she saw the general in the same room as the headmaster, yet she couldn't have guessed how much.
"I… I understand. Just to get a hint at how long this investigation will take… how much of the abominable stuff did he had on his person?" Cinder asked a sensible question, one that the adults in the room knew was born of self preservation, and not concern.
"Four bags." Ozpin dropped the bomb, making Cinder go pale at the implications of the investigation; there was no way for them to believe that the entire team was not implicated on the trade of drugs, let alone be aware of it!
"I…" Cinder was understandably shocked, for Mercury's stupidity had reached unimaginable levels.
"Return to your room; an escort will arrive shortly to keep an eye on you." Ironwood said as a way of dismissing the young woman before them, who simply nodded and left the office with what little grace she had left; Ozpin and Ironwood exchanged a smirk, knowing that the enemy had taken the bait, and will act as predicted… one of the minions of the Abyss was going to die, and the rest will be left weakened.
Now, out of the elevator, Cinder had to plan a way to escape this horrible situation; she had no doubt that the tournament will be delayed for the rest of the day, tomorrow too if she was lucky, but Emerald was rather vulnerable right now, and Mercury will be singing like a bird the moment his body suffers from withdrawal… then she overheard something that made her hair stand on end.
"You got permission to perform the interrogation?" Cinder managed to recognize the voice of Adam's ex, and she had no doubts she was talking about Mercury.
"I was affected as much as my beloved Yang. It is my right to tear the truth from his lips!" The other voice belonged to the edo girl, and that was worrying.
"You think you can pull it off?" Blake asked now, sounding a little bit worried, but not for the other girl.
"Don't worry; by the time I'm done with him, we'll believe every word that comes out of his mouth." Ranmaru replied with enough malice to make Cinder envious, and that is what made take the decision to visit Mercury before going after Emerald.
Mute; come to the medic ward ASAP and bring a nurse custome.
Cinder typed her message and sent it away as she began to make haste for said medical ward; she never noticed how Blake and Ranmaru looked at her from around the corner, smiling like devils at her fleeting form. Maybe if she hadn't been so scared and worried, she would have noticed all the coincidences, but as she was, it was almost like the hand of an invisible god guiding her to an inevitable end.
Medical ward, non-numbered room…
Only a couple of hours had passed since he was arrested and confined to this room, chained to the bed like some rabid animal, but to Mercury, it felt like days; the first bag was enough to see him executed, but that was much better than what awaited him for carrying so much of the toxic drug, he was going to be subjected to torture to find out the entire supply line, and then publicly executed to make an example… worse still, he was beginning to feel the effects of withdrawal thanks to his frayed nerves, the cool beauty not only cut off his legs, she did so in a way that left him in perpetual pain, which was about to kick in.
"Oh no, not now!" Mercury muttered as his body began to tremble, feeling hot and cold at the same time… then he began to feel the amplified pain, but his throat seemed to be unable to give a proper scream; as he began to try to focus on anything in a vain hope to save his strength, he noticed that the door to the room opened, and two nurses entered… then he noticed who they were, and wished it was the firing squad instead.
"It seems you fucked up big time, Mercury." Cinder said with an eerie calm voice, sounding as if nothing really bad was happening, thing that was scary on its own.
"H-hey! I know I have no right to ask, b-but… do y-you have a p-pain killer with y-you?" Mercury asked, obviously stuttering due to the pain and the screams of need that his body was giving him.
"Actually, I have something much better." Cinder replied while taking from between her breasts a small plastic bag with a white powder, although just a little, by the looks of it.
"Oh! T-Thank you! I l-love you so m-much right n-now!" Mercury replied as his eyes began to follow the little bag as if his life depended on it; then he watched Cinder placing it at the side of his head, out of his reach due to the bindings.
"Don't you worry, you are going to get your fix in just a moment, but first I need to ensure that you are not going to talk; you aren't going to talk, are you? Neither to the cops, the army, or that cute girl that gained permission to interrogate you, right?" Cinder asked as she bent her body forward, showing up a little bit of cleavage.
"O-of course n-not! What c-cute girl?" Mercury asked now, half trying to see more of Cinder's goods, and tracking his drugs; Cinder frowned a little at his response, obviously not believing that Mercury would keep his mouth shut.
The Edo girl got permission to manhandle you. Neo's sign failed to provide information about how happy she was about the whole situation, her unreadable smile did not help either.
"Oh! Oh-ho! I can't wait f-for her to try." Mercury tried to sound brave, but his stutter and condition gave the impression of looking forward to be seduced, and that was the last straw.
"No, dear Mercury; because I'll give you a very firm reason to not talk." Cinder said as she began to climb the bed on which he was restrained, puzzling not only Mercury, but neo too; the mute girl had truly thought that they were going to assassinate the murderer; she even had the srynge ready with the narcotics to make it look like an overdose.
"You'll see, after you are done resisting this little bitch, and any other attempts at questioning you, we'll have some babies; sounds good?" Cinder said as she positioned herself by his side, riding his arm to the point where his hand was right between her legs, and their noses almost touched; in the background, Neo raised an eyebrow at the peculiar way of persuasion that Cinder was using, she wasn't against it, is just that using it on this boy seemed like a waste.
"Oh yes! YES! It does sound good!" Mercury almost shouted while moving his hand to touch as much as he could; Cinder smiled slyly at him, not trying to move her body away from the murderer's restless hand.
"Now, don't go thinking this is an empty promise; let me give you a little preview of what awaits you, ok?" Cinder asked in a hushed voice, making Mercury nod like a dumb; Neo simply watched the rare display, an unfitting show that was not proper of Cinder.
Mercury was finally able to ignore the pain and the shakes, Cinder had started with chaste kisses on his lips, a way of teasing, then she planted a fuller kiss, then the full kiss including her tongue asking permission to enter his mouth, but when he caressed her tongue with his, she pulled away.
"Now, now; don't get ahead of yourself; you have yet to resist the interrogation." Cinder said as she put a finger on his lips, yet his hand had beginning to grope her most private parts for all he was worth.
"C-come on! J-just a little more…" Mercury begged without shame, making Cinder smile at his eagerness; Neo was beginning to wonder if she should leave the room to give them privacy, it was one thing to have the opportunity to watch her lord and lady get passionate, and another to watch this vile woman toying with a boy.
"Hmmm… ok, you win; but open wide for a very sloppy kiss, so you can grasp the idea of how wide I'll open for you when making babies." Cinder replied to a dumbfounded Mercury, who nodded like an idiot in heat.
Neo watched with disdain how Mercury licked his lips as he opened his mouth as much as he could, and then she noticed how Cinder did exactly the same, then their mouths connected, and Cinder purposely wen't deeper, as to ensure that his jaw wouldn't be able to close no matter what; it took only a second for the small woman to notice that something was wrong, Mercury's eyes shot wide open, and his expression changed from bliss to horror in an instant. Mercury tried in vain to trash around to free himself, the restrains and the weight of the woman made it impossible for him to get away, and as the trashing began to die down, Neo noticed Cinder's stare focused solely on her, as if to warn her that any sudden moves or sounds would see her the next victim of whatever she was doing to the murderer… then it was over, and Cinder removed herself from atop Mercury's body.
"Oh Mercury, you were right all along; making babies with you was so delightful." Cinder said in a seductive voice as she caressed the cheek of the now fully paralyzed murderer; Neo's curiosity turned into horror as she noticed a really tiny spider-looking grimm still lingering on his open mouth, slowly but surely making its way inside his body.
"Do you want my babies too?" Cinder asked while intently looking at the midget, who glued herself to the wall as if trying to make as much space as possible between her and the monster in the room.
"Then you better not become a burden; now get to the next part of the plan, you need to board an atleasian warship, and I need to plan on how to get rid of our escorts. You'll be branded as Mercury's girlfriend, who ran away after discovering what happened; any objections?" Cinder asked as she sprinkled the contents of the bag all over Mercury's body, knowing very well that Neo will play along nicely, because she wouldn't want to end like the now useless murderer.
That night…
Emerald was finally able to return to her room, escorted by one of the atlesian robots, but safe and sound, and to make it better, without being heavily questioned by the authorities; when she entered the room though, she found that there were another three robots inside, and a rather calm looking Cinder.
"Cinder… can you please tell me what is going on?" Emerald asked with certain apprehension, knowing that anything her leader says will have to be backed up.
"Mercury just happened to be a drug dealer, of the worse kind, he is in the medical ward under arrest, so we can rest assured he won't try anything funny on us; also, his girlfriend ran away, so now we are going to be stuck her for a while. Don't worry; I'm sure they will understand that we are innocent." Cinder said while hugging the thief for added effect.
"And no one will sell us out, I made sure of that." Cinder added by whispering directly into Emerald's ear, sending shivers through her spine.
"That's terrible! And it also explains the questions." Emerald blurted out, earning Cinder's attention.
"Questions? Anyway, how are you, what did the doctors said about what happened to you?" Cinder masked her question with masked concern.
"It was heat-stroke, of all things… one of the soldiers asked me how much I knew about Mercury, but she let me go after seeing that I was not well enough to answer anything; she let me in the care of one of these things though." Emerald replied as casual as she could while pointing at the robot by her side; whatever conversation they were to start was interrupted by a soft knock on their door.
"Yes?" Cinder was the one to answer, just to find Goodwitch standing there with a condescending stare.
"I just came to inform you that your teammate just overdosed himself into a deep coma; it seems that he was able to somehow sneak some of that horrible poison into the medical ward after being checked by the soldiers. In order to make sure that there is not a single spec of it left in this academy, you'll be asked to move to another room while we make this one… safe." Glynda explained in an all business tone, leaving no room to arguments.
"Right now?" Cinder asked as meekly as possible, not failing to notice the group of soldiers in hazmat suits just behind the combat instructor.
"Yes." Glynda deadpanned, apparently ready to find any kind of resistance.
"Are we allowed to take anything with us?" Emerald asked now, not even trying to prevent the soldiers from entering the room.
"No." Glynda deadpanned again, motioning for them to follow her.
"Are you really going to check EVERY nook and cranny? Because I have to inform you that my porn magazines are perfectly legal." Cinder stated as a form to paint herself a humanely normal.
"No, we are going to burn it all to ashes." Glynda explained without turning to look at them, although she did so to not let them see her satisfied smile at her own revenge; the sounds of things set ablaze reached the ears of the three females, and all of them made an inhuman effort to not look back.
Cinder grimaced, but endured it, after all, with this delay, Adam and his forces will be ready for the strike, and with the chaos spread due to Mercury's stupidity, the gimm will be drawn to the city; it was not to her liking, and a lot of things could go wrong, but at least it was still within her reach.
Magnus: Time to start thinking on my next story... either Konosuba, or my Hero Academia.