Chapter 8: A Rally, Wasted Time, and a Bluff

It was dark. Cold. The snow was red and covered in bodies. His head hurt. He was bleeding. He didn't care. He had to repay her. He would have to break his promise, but he couldn't fail a second time. He knew he shouldn't, but he was sure he could do it this time. All he had to do was make sure that those he loved survived. He crawled over to where she lay. She was breathing. He could do this. He had to do this. He wouldn't fail again. He placed one hand on her stomach, where she had been stabbed, before closing his eyes, and breaking his promise.

He woke up in a chair with his head on a small circular table in front of him. He yawned and a faint frown grew on his face as he turned to Junior, who was sitting on the other side of the table from him. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

Junior shrugged. "You seemed like you needed the rest Epizon. You have that rally to catch in an hour too, so I wouldn't waste time getting pissed at me. You do want to catch Roman, don't you?"

Epizon sighed. "Yeah, yeah. Just don't pull this shit again the next time I pop by."

Junior looked at him curiously. "What, are you leaving Vale soon?"

Epizon snorted. "No, no. I just plan on having a chat with the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, a guy named Ozpin, soon after I finish my chat with Torchwick. It will probably end up with him hiring me for something long-term, so I might not see you for a bit."

Junior smiled. "Well, can't say I didn't expect something like this to happen eventually. Politics always involves someone needing an assassin or someone to threaten a rival or something like that. Just make sure not to let him get a leash on you."

Epizon chuckled. "I'm pretty sure it won't involve much politics-wise. And besides, you and I both know that I haven't taken any jobs about assassination in years."

Junior smiled. "Hey, I won't give up hope. You were damn good at them. What changed to make you no longer accept them?"

Epizon shrugged. "Chock it up to some spiritual stuff or something. A "change in my soul", or me "seeing the light", or "remembering my humanity". Oh, what about regret? Regret is always a good reason to use, right? And besides, I've got plenty of cash, blood money and otherwise. I don't need to take assassination jobs anymore, and going legitimate both doesn't match my goals, and would be boring, so I'll just stick to being a gun for hire."

Junior burst into laughter. "Oh, you always crack me up. You may need to work on some forms of humor, but your sarcasm is not one of them."

"Sarcasm is the best form of humor. Anyways, I'll see you hopefully at some point soon." Epizon said as he grabbed a small white mask with red designs on it off of the tabe and walked towards the door.

"Just be careful kid. What would I do without you popping by to drink our rowdy customers into submission?" Junior chuckled.

"Oh, you'd survive. And besides, it'd take a lot to stop me from surviving everything thrown at me. I'm stubborn like that." Epizon threw over his shoulder as he left.

Blake was nervous. She was in the middle of at least a hundred enemies, with only Sun to help her. Sure, they were blending in, but what would happen if their disguises failed? Would they be able to get useful information? Would they even be able to get out safely? She was shaken out of her thoughts by Sun.

"Uh… Blake. I'm not sure if this is good or bad but there's someone else here who probably isn't aligned with the White Fang."

Blake looked at him curiously. "What? How could someone not aligned with the White Fang be bad? If we get found out we could use them as a distraction or something. Where are they?"

Sun winced. "Yeah, he might not be that helpful if it's who I think it is. Look to your left towards the stage. He's at almost the very front."

Blake looked towards the stage for motion in the new recruits, finding him easily, since he was taller than most of the people in the new recruits . "This shouldn't turn bad for us."

Sun looked at her in disbelief. "How? We blew up his warehouse and alcohol! Neptune told me that we might have blown up millions of Lien worth of his stuff!"

Blake's smile shrank a little before growing larger. "Well, based on his reactions at the docks, I doubt he cares much. And besides, he's probably after information on Torchwick's location."

Sun blinked. "Oooooh. Yeah, he said he was after Torchwick for revenge or something like that, right?"

Blake shrugged. "He said he liked the thought of revenge, and was after Torchwick for the deaths of his family, so probably."

"Ok, then-"Sun was interrupted when the White Fang officer on the stage began talking.

"I thank you all for coming. For those of you who are joining us for the first time tonight, allow me to introduce a very special comrade of ours. I can assure you, he is the key to obtaining what we have fought for for so long!"

Sun turned to Blake as Roman Torchwick walked out from behind the large curtain, a pink and black haired girl walking to the side where she watched the crowd. "So uh. You don't think he would go ape-shit and cause a scene in an attempt to get to Torchwick, right?"

Blake shrugged. "How should I know? I knew him just as long as you did."

Before Sun could reply, a deer Faunus behind them spoke up. "What's a human doing here?!"

On stage, Roman smirked as he tilted his head towards her and began gesturing with his cane. "I'm glad you asked Dearie. Now I'll be the first to admit… humans are the worst. Case in point. So I understand why you would want to see us all locked away, or better yet, killed."

Sun turned to Blake and whispered "Is he going somewhere with this or…?" as Roman continued.

"But before the claws come out, I would like to mention the fact that you and I ALL have a common enemy. The ones in control. The people pulling the strings. The dirty rotten humans that run our kingdoms. Government. Military. Even the schools. They're all to blame for your lot in life. And they're all pests that need to be dealt with. Fortunately, I'm the best exterminator around." Roman turned around and held his hands up placatingly. "No offense to any rodents in the room." He then snapped his fingers as the curtain behind him fell, revealing a huge robot with weapons visible on the top and arms.

"That's a big robot." Sun said as he stared at it.

"How did he get that?" Blake asked him before Roman continued.

"As some of you might have heard, this right here-" He knocked on the robot's leg."-is Atlas' newest line of defense against all the scary things in the world, the Atlesian Paladin. And thanks to my employer, we've managed to snag a few before they uh hit the shelves. Now many of your brothers have already moved down to our new operation in the Southeast. If you'd rather stay within the city, that's fine. But if you're truly ready to fight for what you believe in, this is the arsenal I can provide you. Any questions?" Roman smirked as the crowd began to cheer.

Blake turned to Sun. "We should get out of here."

The White Fang officer from the beginning began to speak again. "All new recruits, please come forward."

Sun and Blake began to look around for an exit. "Well."

Junior was aggravated before the blonde, Yang showed up by the complete incompetence of his employees. The blue haired idiot wasn't helping. "I don't know."

Yang crossed her arms. "How can you not know?!"

Junior scowled. "I haven't talked to him. I haven't even seen him since a couple months ago, when he wanted to set up a meeting with Epzon and I kicked him out. Before that, the last time I saw him was earlier on the night you came in, when he hired some of my men. He paid up front, I lent him my men, and none of them ever came back." he said as he stood and shook a finger in her face.

Then the blue idiot came back. "Where did they go?"

Junior slowly turned from looking at Yang to looking at the blue haired kid. "What kind of stupid question is that?! They never came back." He turned back to Yang. "Who is this guy?"

"Don't worry about him. Worry about me if I don't find out what I want! We had a good conversation last time, so why don't we repeat that? Less painful for you." Yang said as she shoved a hand in the blue idiot's face before pointing at herself with her thumb and putting her hands on her hips.

"I already told you everything! Roman hired my boys, and I guess he wasn't happy with them, WHICH IS SOMETHING I CAN RELATE TO!" Junior aid as he turned to glare at his men. Seriously. They were all fucking idiots.

The blue guy spoke up. "No you didn't tell us everything. Why did he want to meet up with this Epizon guy? And who is this Epizon guy anyways?"

Yang and Junior turned to him in surprise. This kid had actually said something smart. Sure, he counteracted it almost instantly, but still.

Yang answered. "Did Sun tell you about the docks Neptune?" The blue idiot, Neptune, nodded. "Well, the mercenary guy that the White Fang blew up was his."

Neptune winced. "Oooh. But still, why did Torchwick want to meet him?"

Yang turned to Junior. "Yeah. Why did Torchwick want to meet Epizon?"

Junior sighed. "Look, Epizon is after Roman for personal reasons. Not anything I'm going to dig into if I know what's good for me. So I started trying to track down Roman for him. Got a couple lucky breaks, like learning the connection between Roman and the White Fang, but other than that, I never found anything. Roman heard that Epizon wanted to talk, and so he came by to set up a meeting a bit before I found that connection. He said something about getting forced into something way over his head, and waiting an out, but I was still a bit upset that my boys never came back, so I kicked him out. Epizon heard, and he wasn't happy, so I set up something so that anyone who found information on where Roman was could come to me, I'd pay them, I'd tell Epizon, Epizon would hopefully forgive me. Ever since then, I've just been waiting, looking into shit, and most recently, due to certain explosions, letting Epizon hang out around here and get a small amount of free alcohol per day so long as he acts as an extra bouncer."

Yang's eyes flashed. "Really? Is he still around here? If so, I'd like to have a talk with him."

Junior chuckled. "Nope. The kid's gone hunting. Heard from an ex-White Fang that he saved about a week ago that there was a rally where Roman might be in the industrial district today, and he headed there to get his meeting with Roman. If he gets Roman, he won't be here for a while as far as I know. Says he's got a meeting with the Headmaster of Beacon Academy that he's been putting off until after he gets to talk with Roman. Anything else you need Blondie?"

Yang smiled and shook her head. "No. You've helped a lot. Here's some payment." she said as she tossed a Lienny on the table.

"Pleasure doing business with you Blondie. If you decide to pop by that rally to get Roman or have your talk with Epizon, remember, Roman would be a great trade for information, and if he gets Roman first, do NOT try to do some "womanly charms" shit."

Yang looked at him curiously. "Why is that? I could pull it off."

Junior chuckle. "Against anyone else, there's a chance. Against Epizon, that's more likely to annoy him. Anyways, be sure to come back if you need some drinks or information. Just don't bring any overly underaged people or blow stuff up. And don't bring… Neptune, wasn't it? Don't bring him either. I would not be able to deal with his stupid questions."

Yang chuckled before turning to Neptune, who was pouting. "Let's get out of here." She turned and walked out of the club, Neptune awkwardly following behind.

Blake and Sun were in trouble. They had the choices of going closer to Torchwick and maybe blending in, or staying farther away, and not blending in. Sun looked around before leaning towards Blake and whispering "What are we going to do?"

"I'm thinking!" Blake whispered back.

Sun looked towards the stage, where Roman was leaning against the Paladin smoking a cigar, the pink and black haired girl beside him, grinning at the cheers of the crowd. Then the grin dropped as Roman looked straight at Sun and tossed aside his cigar.

"He sees us…" Sun said as Roman started walking towards them, waving at Roman with a nervous smile.

Blake looked around before spotting a fuse box and turned to Sun. "He can't see in the dark." she said before unsheathing her weapon, Gambol Shroud, and shooting the fuse box, plummeting the warehouse into darkness.

"Don't let them get away!" Roman shouted. Blake and Sun saw Epizon walking away as Roman began grabbing the Paladin looking for something as the girl who had been standing next to him held a… parasol? That she had gotten from who knows where.

"Sun! The window!" Blake said as she started running towards the window, Sun behind her.

"Stop them!" Roman said as he fumbled around before finding the button he needed and opening the Paladin's cockpit, climbing in and starting it up as Blake and Sun jumped through the window onto the roof of a different warehouse.

They jumped from rooftop to rooftop as Roman drove the Paladin through the walls of the warehouse and gave chase down the road next to Blake and Sun.

"So you wouldn't happen to have. Oh, I don't know. Some form of backup?!" Sun asked Blake as they ran from the Paladin.

"On it!" Blake said as she quickly pulled her Scroll out of her pocket and called her team.

"Everyone, if you can hear me, we need back-"

Sun interrupted. "HEEEELP! They got a robot, and it's big, really big! The Torchwick guy's in it! But not like, it didn't eat him-" Blake and Sun jumped down from a rooftop onto a street, where they continued to run from the robot. "-he's like, controlling it or something! HURRY!"

Epizon was pissed. He had come here, and not only did he have to deal with the kids, but he actually did find Torchwick. And the jackass wasn't even the correct one! Sure, he had been pretty vague with Junior, but motherfucker! He had wasted 6 months chasing after this guy because he and that red chick had decided to be spiteful! He sighed. At least the kids had given enough of a distraction that he could get out of there without having to deal with all the grunts or anything. Sure, he could do it, but that would waste time and energy, both of which he expected he would need for whatever the Beacon headmaster guy or whatever wanted.

Then Blake and Sun ran past him, with the Paladin right behind them. Epizon's spirit was lifted by this. Sure, he had still wasted about half a year, but he had the opportunity to see sme of the kids partially responsible for the destruction of his warehouse, and more importantly the alcohol within it, and the guy who had wasted almost half a year of his time, duke it out. There was no way he was going to miss this. He followed behind at a jog, noticing a yellow motorcycle and it's blue and blonde passengers begin chasing after the Paladin and it's victims with a chuckle as he passed by the road where Junior's club was situated. Also where the motorcycle came from, but that wasn't his problem. He blinked as he saw that somehow the Paladin and it's victims, as well as it's pursuers, had all disappeared. He gave up the thought of them teleporting or something like that when he heard a loud crash and car horns from below him.

"God fucking damn it. They led a giant robot into civilians who they are supposedly training to protect." he sighed before jumping down onto the highway and looking around. There were lots of spin outs, crashes, cars that had been shoved into the walls, but apparently this Torchwick guy had decided not to outright kill people, so point to the guy for being smarter than the kids. If he had killed civilians, the police and Huntsmen would have been gunning for him. His bounty would also go up, and then Epizon could get paid for turning that in. At this, Epizon paused. That was a good way to make up for losing half a year of his time. He'd turn in the fucker and get cash doing it. This would be fun

He jumped down onto the highway and burst into a run before slowing down as he came to a section where cars had been flipped, and checked to see the conditions of those inside. All of them were unconscious, but none of them died, and none of them were old or young enough that their spines snapped or anything like that. Just bruising and getting knocked around a little. He sighed before counting the number of flipped cars. 5 of them were upside down, 2 on their sides, and the Hardlight Dust barrier where he could see trails of crushed concrete leading to was right in front of him. He could do this.

He carefully grabbed the front end of the first car, and used the rear bumper as a point on which he could tilt the car, until he lowered it back onto its tires, damaged, dented, and with bruised passengers, but with less likelihood anyone would die or get anything too permanent as a consequence of all their blood rushing to their heads. He repeated the process 4 more times, with the 5th one slipping for a second before he caught it again, but nothing too bad happened. He didn't bother doing anything too complicated for the cars lying on their sides, and instead just grabbed the uppermost side, and dragged them back down, before rolling his shoulders. Aggravating, but the less deaths involved, the less bullshit he'd have to put up with from the cops due to his involvement. And he could just say that the cars were like that when he found them. Much easier that way. As he turned to walk to the Hardlight Dust barrier, he blinked.

Standing in front of it, holding a parasol was the pink and black haired girl from the rally. She was also the one who had been hanging out with Torchwick at the warehouse and cut open the vent. "Fancy meeting you here." Epizon said as he walked forwards.

She blinked at him before smirking as she leaned on her parasol.

"Really? It's no fun when you don't talk back! Would you at least mind telling me if you're going to get in the way of me taking Torchwick in for his bounty?"

Her smirk disappeared as her eyes grew cold before she burst into motion. Epizon barely dodged as her parasol soared past his face, now with the sharp blade she had used to cut him out of the vent sticking out of the top.

He jumped backwards and drew Rend and Mend. "I'll take that as a yes. Do you have a bounty too, or just him? If so, you're free to go. I just want to pay him back for wasting half a year of my time. It's really fucking aggravating, you know?"

She frowned at him as she stood there, silent, eyes remaining cold.

"Good talk." Epizon sighed as he rushed forwards. The quicker he got this done, the quicker he could beat the shit out of Torchwick and drag him to the cops. Annoyance was a powerful motivator. He just had to hope those kids didn't fuck up his plans again.

Below them, Roman was not having a fun time. The brats had destroyed his Paladin, his cane was buried underneath a chunk of said Paladin, the kids had him outnumbered, his Aura was low, and Neo was nowhere in sight. Usually she was already here to help him out of situations like this. His eyes widened as the blonde one, who had done her best to destroy literally everything punched the air in front of her and something that looked vaguely similar to the Fire Dust flares that his cane, Melodic Cudgel shot. Except amped up to 100 and, wait, was that a shotgun shell? How was it even shooting accurately from all the way over there? He quickly aborted this thought process as he raised his arms to try to guard better against the projectile and raised his remaining Aura. If he was going to get taken down by a bunch of kids, then he'd at least want to keep his arms. And who knows, maybe the red bitch who was currently threatening him with being burnt alive would break him out. Not likely, but possible. The shell hit his forearms and blew him backwards a yard, breaking his Aura and getting some soot on his coat. He quickly brushed it off before looking at the girls in front of him. He may not have anything he could do right now to fight them, but he had an ace up his sleeve. He just had to wait it out a little bit more, and maybe Neo could get here in time to save him from going to jail. Again. And with that thought, he began utilizing one of the largest aces up his sleeve. He bluffed.

He reached his hand into his pocket as he smirked at the girls. "Hey kiddos, I know you're all pumped up to catch a criminal mastermind like me, but maybe you should tone it down?"

The blonde one snorted. "Please, we can easily beat you. Why should we back down."

Roman's smirk grew as he withdrew his hand, a small grey detonator, with a red button on top held within it. "Well, I know you kiddos didn't really care about the civilians earlier, when you led me onto a highway-" The cat Faunus winced at this. "-but I'm pretty sure you should care. After all, I press this button and a large portion of Vale's commercial district goes boom. What, did you think I didn't do anything to those Dust shops I robbed?" The faces of the persistent brats grew pale as they realized what he was saying. "Any of you make a move, or try anything like using Red's Semblance to nab this, and boom! You get the idea. So how about we have a little chat? I don't like you, you don't like me, but I figure why not exchange information? If I'm going to have my night wasted, I'd rather it be here, learning and teaching, then in a prison or talking to my boss." Roman said as he shrugged. "So is it a deal?"

The brats tensed before Red spoke up. "Can we discuss this?"

Roman stared at them in disbelief. His bluff was actually working? His smirk grew. "Sure! I don't have anything else I can do that I'd want to be doing anyways."

Red perked up. Strange "Ok. Just uh… hang in there."

Roman pulled out his lighter, which he had recently re-acquired from a certain mint haired brat, before placing the detonator in that hand, so he could quickly grab a cigar from his coat pocket. He put the container back, before lighting the cigarette, and putting the lighter back where he grabbed it from switching the detonator back so he looked like he could press the button at any moment as he took a drag from his cigar. He didn't know where Neo was, or what she was doing, but he hoped she got here soon. Eventually, one of the girls was going to figure out he was bluffing, and he was pretty sure they would not have mercy on him. Especially the blonde and black haired ones. They seemed to particularly despise him. Though he was kind of interested in the blonde kid's changing eye colors. He heard the faint sound of ringing metal from above him and frowned. Either the cars are getting hit by something, or someone was fighting up there. And he was inclined to believe the second one more, which meant that Neo might be involved. He just hoped she was okay.

AN: 2 reviews!

selfishgecko: I like your theories, and there is nothing more I shall say. Both to avoid spoilers, and because there's really nothing much else to say.

Alduin(Guest): I'm glad you liked the chapter. Tukson won't be a major part of the story, maybe he'll get a cameo at some point, but otherwise, unless I have a burst of inspiration for a role he could play, his main role was just to tell Epizon about the rally. Lien or something else of value was going to be exchanged either way, since in this case, Tukson was effectively an information broker for Epizon who gave him particularly useful information. Yes, Epizon is a Faunus. The kind will be revealed at some point, as well as his Faunus trait, but it has been hinted at once, very briefly, and a bit vaguely. Yang confronting Epizon will be interesting, but she has been warned by Junior, so maybe she'll listen. As for the spoiler, if I put a spoiler in, it's usually for a reason. Either to mislead, for humor, or because I want to see people's ideas on things. (This specific spoiler is fairly obvious, but I still added it in for humor's sake.) I can respect ignoring spoilers, since I do like to avoid those as best as I can with books or fanfiction I find particularly enjoyable to read. Glad you like root beer too, and hope this chapter doesn't disappoint your expectations.

Now that the review replies are out of the way, hi! I actually only went through 4 completely different drafts this time, and finished this final version Tuesday night, so yay! Hopefully that means I'll be able to work ahead a bit, but I'll still keep to the same schedule as best as I can to avoid running out of finished chapters or time to finish up chapters. (As a note, this chapter was uploaded late because I had a lot of stuff to deal with this week, and I remembered to upload the chapter a bit late. Sorry about that.)Anyways, this chapter is where you can definitely notice some differences, with Junior having information, just not entirely useful, Yang and Junior don't hate each other, Neo doesn't show up because she's busy with Epizon, and so Roman pulls the most easily seen through bluff of all time. And succeeds. Amazing. Give the man an Oscar. Next chapter will be just a continuation of this, might add in a song to the fight between Neo and Epizon( that shouldn't really count as a spoiler given the fight pretty much already started), Roman will have a chat with kids, and maybe some other things will occur. For now though, stay safe, feed me more feedback(including criticism), for it is what I thrive on, favorite and follow if you like the story, and I hope this chapter matched or exceeded expectations. I will see you next Thursday, on Christmas Eve. I might add in a little holiday (non-canon) Omake for fun, as a little mini-chapter on Christmas day if I have the time, but for now, see ya.