F3: Hello everyone and welcome back to chapter 22. We last left off with Emerald and Mercury defeating Coco and Fox in the doubles round and now the next round is about to begin. Before we get started the oc characters of Team SPIR along with Melanie Tora and Ophelia Sorrel are owned by me. Senka Linwood is owned by MountainKing312 and Decode9 owns Akane Shidou and Diana Mirai. With that said Let's Get Started.
Volume 3-22: Fated Showdown.
Meanwhile in the city Star and company were in Vale as they were gathering things needed for Rinas birthday even though it was supposibly tomorrow. Iona was able to grab something sweets cause Iona knows that her teammate has a sweet tooth.
Cinder and Blake got Rina a simple book to read on her spare time. Neo however was still nervous about all of this not even sure what to even do.
"So Ruby did you get her anything?" Star questioned.
"Oh I've got something made for her. It's a brand new snake sword for her since her current one is starting to get old and losing its edge." Ruby added.
"Alright so the only thing left is get the cake and then we'll head back and set things up. Hopefully Yang and Weiss are back at the academy as well." Star said as the six girls headed toward the small bakery shop.
"Though its rather odd. I heard that place was about to go bankrupt but then the owner found six hundred thousand worth of lien on top of the registor and they managed to pull the business out of the gutter." Cinder replied.
"Okay that is a lot of lien to drop into a business. Especially that much." Iona added as the shop came into view.
The six of them entered the shop as the bell rang above when the door opened. Luckily they weren't busy due to the festival that was going on.
The manager noticed them come in more importantly Star.
"Ah ha their you are. Here to pick up the cake." The owner replied.
"Yeah." Star said as the manager went into the back to grab the cake. Ruby however looked around the place as she'd never been in a place like this especially anything that was so colorful.
She then noticed the photo that was hanging nearby especially the women in the picture.
"Wow. Who is that?" Ruby asked looking at the women in the photo.
"He told me that was the original owner of the bakery. Melosa Trill I think he called her." Star replied.
They all immediately recognized the last name the moment Star said it.
"Wait a minute. Trill. Could that be Rinas mother?" Ruby questioned.
Blake then looked at the man in the photo as well "And I'm guessing that's the father right their." Blake added.
"From the looks of it that seems to be the case." Cinder deduced.
The manager then came out and brought out a medium sized box that had the cake in it.
"Alright this is for you. It's a good thing you paid for it in advance." He said as Star carefully took the cake.
"Give my best to Rina will you. I'm sure she'll love it." The manager said as Neo only facepalmed shaking her head.
"Alright let's get this back to Beacon and into a cooler so it can stay cold for tonight." Star said as the six exited the shop and headed straight back to Beacon and prepared for the decorating.
=RWBY=
Back at the arena Rina and Pepper were now entering the battlefield from the right side this time along with their opponents from the left. Their opponents were Akane and Melanie as they prepared themselves.
"Alright everyone I know this is the match we've been waiting for but only one of these two teams will move one. Pepper and Rina representing Team SPIR versus Akane and Melanie of Team AMLT." Port announced.
Rina and Pepper readied as the dial began to spin determining their battlefield.
Meanwhile in the stands Yatsu had a tablet in his hands that seemed to have access to the battlefields controls.
"Let's mix this us a little bit. See how they'll handle this." Yatsu said as he had the dial stop on what appears to be a picture of a building. He put away the tablet as it showed on the screen on the battlefield but he didn't noticed that Velvet was watching the whole time at what he was doing.
"Well this'll certainly be a rare battlefield. They'll battle on a city like field. Let us see if they can handle it." Oobleck announced as literally buildings came from the ground.
"This'll be interesting. Ready for this Rina?" Pepper asked with a smile.
Rina drew her sword with a grunt "Let's just get this over with." Rina replied not wanting to waste any time in the fight.
The buzzer sounded signaling the start of the fight. Rina drew her pistol and began firing at the two blasting them with ice and lighting dust with each shot. Akane responded in kind as she brought out her sword blocking and dodging each bullet. During that Pepper decided to charge at the tiger faunus who more than eager to fight as she immediately switched to her weapons sycthe mode as she slashed at her opponent.
Nearly avoiding it ony catching a hair on her head Pepper tried to hit her with a punch but was side stepped as Melanie avoided it before a quick kick to her stomach making her double over before using her sycthe to throw Pepper into one of the buildings nearby shattering the glass on impact.
Meanwhile Akane and Rina were going at each other with their swords clashing trying to gain an upper hand on the other. Rina could tell that Akane was a skilled opponent especially how she handled her sword but she was going to prove that she was the better fighter as Rina pressed her attacks.
"This girl ain't half bad but she's rushing in without a plan and not even going to help her partner. Good thing their's plenty of light." Akane smirked as she dodged another attack backflipping away from Rina to get enough distance away before activating her semblance which fired three light arrows at Rina. She managed to dodge one of them but the other two were a direct hit on her knocking down some of her aura.
That was until Akane drew her own pistol that she dubbed Rising Sun and fired at Rina using regular bullets to attack her. This time Rina switched to her weapons whip mode or at least tried to as it didn't do it immediately as it seemed to be jammed.
For now the only thing Rina could do was dodge the bullets that were coming at her as she hid in the arenas alley.
"Crud my weapons not responding how it should. Its probably taken a beating after so many times using it. Guess I'll have to play smart." Rina thought having to change up strategies.
Akane saw this and decided to take advantage of that as she used her semblance again conjuring a ball of light in her hands before then throwing it at the girl. Rina saw a lamppost nearby as she jumped to avoid it using her athleticism to grab the top of the lamppost. She then swung on the lamppost before perching on top of it.
"You're going to have to do better than that." Rina added perching on the lamppost.
Akane only smirked as she prepared herself.
Meanwhile Pepper jumped out of the building she was thrown into as she glared at the other faunus as Pepper got into a fighters stance as Melanie readied herself for another go.
The two stared at each other for a moment before Melanie decided to charge in at Pepper as she swung her scythe at the girl. Given her opponents range Pepper had to dodge the attack but was unable to get close to the girl.
"This is going to be a problem. I can't get close if her weapon has a long reach. I've got to bridge this gap between us." Pepper thought as she dodged another attack. However she noticed something that she didn't see before that everytime Melanie attack there was a slight hesitation in her right shoulder before attacking again.
Seeing the hesisation she decided to use that to her advantage as Melanie came in for another swing. She avoided the swing and that was when she made her move as Pepper rushed at her and delivered a swift punch to her side making Melanie backpedel from the hit but Pepper only pressed forward sending another punch her way this time was to the gut.
Melanie saw this and quickly switched tactics jumping away from Pepper trying to get some distance between them as she swapped back to her weapons handgun mode and began firing from a distance.
Pepper immediately engaged her weapons gun mode and began firing at Melanie as well but her weapon had a faster rate of fire than Melanies. However Melanie was already coming up with a strategy in head as she looked toward the buildings that surrounded them and thought to use them to her advantage.
She pressed a button on her weapon which seemed to change her type of ammo as she then aimed at the window.
"Hey do you know where you're aiming?" Pepper said as she continued firing at her but Melanie only smirked.
"But of course I do." Melanie smiled which seemed to confuse her not until she felt getting hit on the side of her left hip as if she just got shot at knocking out some of her aura.
"What the?! How did she hit me!?" Pepper thought holding her left hip looking at her opponent.
"Thought I had only dust bullets huh. This handgun has other options for me to use at my beck and call. That was just one of the options." Melanie said as she pointed her handgun at her opponent.
"Let's see you dodge these." Melanie replied as Pepper got up and took a fighters stance again.
However that didn't last long as Akane suddenly collided with her from behind with Rina not too far behind.
Melanie and Akane quickly recovered standing with their backs touching each other.
"You okay?" Melanie questioned as Akane readied herself.
"Yeah just got caught off guard. Apparently she's very atheletic." Akane said gesturing to Rina.
"I'll take that as a compliment." Rina replied with a smile readying her sword.
"Let's go Rina!" Pepper called out as she rushed at Melanie. RIna tried again to activate her swords whip mode pressing the button again. At first nothing happened until it finally broke apart to its whip mode and charged at Akane.
Akane readied her sword to block the oncoming attack activating her shield to block the whip sword from hitting her. She then charged at Rina using her short sword as it ignited into flames thanks to the fire dust she has in it.
Pepper charged at Melanie to try and finish this fast but she knew that Melanie wasn't going to let that happen so easily.
=RWBY=
In another part of the arena while Coco wasn't happy that she didn't advance into the next round but that gave her more time to look for weaknesses in the arena itself so that way she would find the most effective way of taking down the arena.
She noticed that one of the faculity members came out like he was in a hurry for something. However noticed that it was the main controls for the arena. That intrigued her as she headed toward the door before it could close fully stopping it with her hand. Making sure that nobody was looking she slipped right inside the room.
When she got inside their were screens everywhere in the room that had mulitple objects on it even the screen to keep an eye on the match plus on other things as well.
"So this is where all the magic happens. Perfect." Coco said as she took a flash drive from her pocket and inserted it into the USB drive. She began typing on the keyboard before pressing 'Enter' on it as a progress bar appeared on screen as something began downloading into the system.
"Controlling Ironwood's soliders is one thing but having control over the entire arena is definitely another." Coco smiled. Suddenly she heard the door open behind as the guy that had left suddenly returned.
"Dang forgot my photo." He said but noticed something was off. For one nobody was in his seat and suddenly theirs a progress bar on screen that is already a quarter of the way through its download.
He pressed a button to try and cancel the download but that didn't work. He then noticed the flash drive that was inserted. A little confused as he went to take it out he was suddenly grabbed from behind as arms were wrapped around his neck. And in one fluid motion the arms moved fast enough to break his neck killing him instantly as he dropped to the ground like a sack of bricks.
Coco emerged from the shadows with a disappointed look on her face as she sighed.
"Great. Now look what you made me do. I had to kill you so you didn't ruin my plans." Coco said stepping over the dead body as she returned to the computer in front of her the progress bar now at halfway done.
"Soon the Amity Arena will be under our control my queen and then you'll have your vengence." Coco smiled evily as watch the bar progress.
=RWBY=
Meanwhile back in the arena Pepper and Rina were in quite a predicament. Both of them were now left with under thirty percent of their aura while Akane and Melanie had fifty and forty percent aura between the two.
"This is bad. We're both almost out of aura. Not only that we're both getting exhausted from the fight if this keeps going." Pepper replied as she was breathing rather hard.
Rina as well but she knew she had to push herself if they were going to win. However a pulse rang through her skull as if someone was talking to her and she knew who it was.
"You're not going to win unless you let us out and help. You are weak and you know it. You're too afraid to show them who you are." Her authoritive side replied.
"You'll never become stronger unless you embrace us." Her seductive side replied.
"Embrace us!" They both said as their voices echoed in Rinas mind which seemed to be enough for at least one of them to take over as Rina dropped to a knee.
"Rina. Hey you okay?" Pepper asked looking toward her but she didn't answer immediately as she had her head down.
"Um... Rina?" Pepper asked again but this time Rina got up from her spot her eyes staring at the ground.
Suddenly Akane got a chill down her spine as if something was dreadfully wrong.
"I got a bad feeling about this." Akane said looking toward the girl. Rina opened her eyes but instead of bright cyan they were suddenly a dark purple as she glared at the two.
Pepper who was next to her noticed this and she knew that for sure that Rina didn't have that color of eyes.
"Rina you okay?" Pepper asked again.
"Shut up and stay back you idiot. I'll handle this." Rina ordered her tone of voice more serious and full of authority. She began moving forward leaving behind a rather baffled Pepper.
"Just so you two know I'm done playing around." Rina replied confidently.
"Oh so that was you just playing with us. I highly doubt that." Akane added readying her sword and shield. However Melanie looked at Rina and carefully examined her especially the way her stance had changed from a relaxed stance to a more hardened yet offensive stance.
"Yes. Now let me show you what I can really do." Rina said as she then suddenly charged at the two going for Melanie first as she swung her sword whip at her scythe her weapon wrapping around it.
Melanie tried to force her weapon off her but to no avail as Rina jumped toward the side of the building before jumping off it launching herself toward Melanie delievered a solid punch to the side of her skull causing her to lose her grip of her weapon as Rina quickly discarded the weapon far away from her as she threw it toward the rooftop of the building.
Akane slashed at Rina trying to get away from her teammate but somehow Rina dodged the attack and backflipped over Akane but she was able to wrap her weapon around Akane completely immoblizing her. Once she had her trapped Rina pressed a button to trigger her lighting dust shocking Akane before using her as a wrecking ball knocking her into Melanie before sending her flying into a nearby building with enough force to send her directly through the building as Akane landed hard actually knocking her out while her aura was intact.
Melanie now without a weapon tried to strike at her with her fists but it was predictable as she caught her fist.
"Your not exactly a physical fighter are you." Rina said almost insulting Melanie as the tiger faunus got out of her grip but didn't escape her long as Rina managed to wrap her sword around her waist before swinging Melanie into the air.
"Increase her gravity." Rina ordered.
"What!? But from that height-" Pepper started but Rina looked back to her with a hard glare making her flinch.
"Do it. Now." Rina said again as if asserting her authority over her.
Pepper gulped and without much choice snapped her fingers increasing Melanies gravity. The tiger faunus felt a great pressure on her as she sped toward the ground faster than she wanted. She tried activating her semblance but it was too late as Rina delievered a powerful knee strike directly to her stomach which dealt heavy damage to her aura give the increased gravity but even if her aura had taken the hit the pain from the sudden impact was too much for her to handle as she past out after the impact.
"I... I can't believe my eyes. Akane Shidou and Melanie Tora have been knocked out which means the winners of this round via KO is Pepper and Rina of Team SPIR!" Port announced as the crowd cheered as the arena reset to its standby mode.
Senka and Diana quickly came out and got their teammates making sure they were alright after the beating the two got. Senka lifted up Melanie while Diana got hold of Akane.
Rina however turned awaya and began walking back toward their team room but Pepper stopped her.
"Okay what the heck was that about? Didn't you remember the plan." Pepper said but Rina remained stoic.
"We won didn't we. The team moves on to the next round. That's all that matters." Rina simply stated.
"While we did win that stunt could've done more than damage her aura but she might've broke a rib or two after that." Pepper retorted back not exactly happy how her partner treated the fight.
"Their injuries are no concern of mine or yours. If they can't learn to take the pain then they don't deserve to be huntresses." Rina replied.
Now that really didn't make Pepper happy as she got up close to her.
"Take that back." She growled.
Rina was about to say something but a pulse vibrated through her brain as if someone trying to regain control as she feel to a knee again bringing a hand to her head her eyes closed.
"Huh?" Pepper said confused at what was going on.
Rina reopened her eyes as bright cyan flashed before her.
"Ugh... my head..." Rina replied almost her glare suddenly soften as she got up from her spot. Pepper noticed that her posture changed as well as she wasn't so still stiff like she was a moment ago.
Rina looked around and noticed that suddenly the fight was over which gave her a worried look.
"Did we lose?" Rina questioned. Pepper even noticed her tone had returned back to normal.
"Um... no we won actually... don't you remember what you did?" Pepper questioned which only confused Rina.
"Huh? I thought we had a plan or something ready. Well a win is a win right." Rina said with a smile as she walked off the stage leaving behind a confused Pepper.
"Okay just what is going on with her? First she acted all tough and commanding like and now she's back to normal... something isn't right here." Pepper thought as she went to catch up to her partner.
=RWBY=
Star got a message from Jaune informing her that her team had won the doubles round which she was glad about which means they'll be competing in the singles round but like last time she'll have to decided who would be a good choice. But right now she wasn't worried about that as herself, Iona, Team RWBY along with Team CMNS are helping with decorating for Rinas birthday.
However Neo was still showing signs of worry like something bad was going to happen if they do this which didn't go unnoticed by Ruby.
"C'mon Neo we still need help with the last of the decorations." Ruby said but Neo only looked away not even bothering with the decorations.
Neo typed on her scroll before showing her what she typed.
"We shouldn't be doing this without her conscent." Neo's message said.
"I think that's the whole point of a birthday party. It's suppose to be a surprise. Plus we won't get the chance to celebrate it since tomorrow will be the singles round. Oh she's going to love this." Ruby squealed but Neo only facepalmed again.
"Thanks for helping us set things up." Star thanked gesturing toward Cinder and the others.
"Well. Rina is your teammate and it's only fair that we help out a fellow friend." Cinder replied.
However Neo wasn't the only one that was starting to worry. Weiss was as well considering what she found about Rina's parents.
"Actually... maybe we shouldn't do this." Weiss said which made everyone stop for a moment.
"Not you too Weiss. The girl deserves this." Yang replied to her partner.
"I know but hear me out a moment. Remember when I said I would find when her birthday was? Well I found... something else as well." Weiss started.
"Like what?" Mercury questioned.
"Her mothers death certificate. I crossed them and they matched up to her birthday which is tomorrow. Her mother died when she was born." Weiss replied which surprised the group.
"Okay... did not know that." Iona replied completely surprised.
"That's not all I found. Their was another one but it was five years older than the one of the mothers. Her father died three days after her birthday." Weiss replied.
"Whoa. Okay that has to be rough. Then who was she living with before she came here." Yang questioned.
Weiss gulped nervously before glancing over to Blake since only they know who she was adopted by. Plus they also that Neo was giving them a hard glare as if to tell them she'd kill them on the spot if they told them.
"She's... living with her uncle from what she told me." Weiss replied trying not to show that she was lying.
"Man. Losing both parents. Probably hasn't been easy for her." Star replied.
"Which is why this birthday party has to be extra special for her. A chance for her to have fun." Ruby replied that happy smile on her face.
At that moment Stars scroll rang as she check the caller I.D. seeing that it was Pepper calling her.
"Hey Pep. Nice job on getting through the doubles." Star replied with a smile on her face but then it turned to a look of concern.
"Hold on I'll put you on speaker." Star replied placing her scroll down on the table.
"Okay go ahead." Star said.
"It's just like I said. During the match it's like she was having pain in her head again and then she... changed." Pepper said.
"Changed? What do you mean by that?" Iona questioned.
"I mean like her entire mood changed. Not only that but the way she fights was brutal. It was like she was giving off this authoritive vibe that even made me scared." Pepper replied.
"That's a little creepy. How could you tell?" Ruby asked.
"Her eyes changed color. After the fight they changed back to normal and her personality returned to normal." Pepper replied.
"Yeah that is creepy. What are you two doing right now?" Yang asked.
"Rina was rather hungry after the match so were getting something to eat before heading back to the dorms." Pepper said.
"Okay. We're almost done here. We'll call you when its done." Star said as Pepper hung up as the group continued to decorate for Rinas early birthday party.
=RWBY=
Meanwhile at the festival Pepper and Rina were checking out the what it had to offer.
"I thought you hated coming to the festival." Pepper said.
"Well... maybe I should check it out before it goes away for another four years." Rina added as she looked around some of the vendors. She looked at one of the food vendors for something to fill her up after their match.
After about ten minutes of having something to eat the two continued looking around the festival even participating in a few of the games that were their.
Twenty minutes past and they were about to head back to the dorms but the heat was starting to get to them.
"Man. Has it gotten hot out here or something or is it just me." Rina said.
"Yeah its unusually hot for today." Pepper added wiping off the sweat from her head.
"I think I saw an ice cream stand back a few vendors. I could grab some if you want." Rina replied.
"Sure. If they got a bananna split one I'll take it." Pepper said.
"Alright. Stay right their I'll be right back." Rina said as she took off to find the vendor.
Pepper smiled a little seeing Rina take off but it also gave her a little bit of time to think of something for her birthday. She looked around and noticed a game vendor nearby. Like it was a complicated game as their was a machine along with a large pad in the center. There is a sign that reads 'Test Your Strength.'
Pepper saw a power meter and the current score that was only three hundred and twenty nine. With a smirk on her face she decided to give it a shot and moved toward the vendor.
After about three minute Rina came walking back with two ice cream cones in hand with a bananna split for Pepper and a simple vanilla for herself.
"Okay Pepper one bananna split just for-" Rina began but noticed that Pepper was gone from her spot. Suddenly Rina felt like she was the same five year old girl twelve years ago. Her breathing became heavy as she began looking around frantically for her teammate as memories of that night came to her mind as she remember being in that alley on that cold night.
She held her head dropping the ice cream in her hands as she was trying to push back the painful memory of her father leaving her at the festival as she fell to her knees.
"Not again... not again..." Rina muttered as people only walked past her like she wasn't their.
Another painful minute past until Pepper came walking back with a small plushie of a black cat.
"Hopefully she likes this." Pepper said as she began walking back to meet up with Rina but when she got back she saw Rina was on her knees holding her head with her hands with the discarded ice cream near her with tears running down her face.
Pepper went to check on her partner as she placed a hand on her partners shoulder which made her flinch staring at her as bright cyan met orange
"Rina. What's wrong?" Pepper asked.
Still with tears in her eyes she suddenly wrapped herself around Peppers waist like she was a safety vest.
"Don't leave me... please..." Rina begged burying herself in Peppers shoulder.
After getting her partner off the ground Pepper thought it would be a good time to leave the festival. However that only made Pepper wonder more curious about her partner and about her past.
F3: That's the end of chapter 22. The next set of matches in the doubles rounds are coming soon. If you readers like this please let me know in the comments and make sure to add this story to your favorites to keep up with the updates. With that said this had been Fireuser3 and I'm out.