AN: I gotta say, I'm surprised that a few people have expressed displeasure at the last chapter for having Ruby kiss Cinder.

Not because it was Cinder, mind you, but because it was another girl.

Kinda disappointed.

So, at the end author's note, I'm going to go into my overall thoughts on Volume 8.

TW: Sexual assault

Chapter 71

She remembered her battered, bruised, and starved body being dropped in front of her. Her very presence made Cinder's blood freeze.

"Why do you resist, child?" The unnatural woman's voice asked, its very sound sending chills down Cinder's spine.

Cinder tried to respond, but didn't have the strength left to form the words.

"No matter," the woman said, walking towards her slowly. "I don't need you to agree, I just need you to obey." The woman touched the back of Cinder's head, and the girl managed to scream as what she would later learn was the parasite embedded itself into her brain. "You will become whatever I decide you are. Nothing more, and nothing less."

"How did you do that?" Cinder asked the green-haired girl, having cornered her in an abandoned alley. The girl, having not realized that she had been followed, turned around in surprise, reaching behind her for her guns.

"Don't," Cinder said, making the girl flinch. "Unless you want them to hear you." As she spoke, they could hear the retreating footsteps of the officers the girl had tried so hard to escape from.

"W-what do you want?" the girl asked.

"You have a gift," Cinder said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," the girl insisted.

"I've seen plenty of liars and thieves," Cinder said. "Stealing is an art of patience, coordination, and in a pinch, sleight of hand. But you didn't steal the ring in your pocket." The girl gasped and checked her pocket. "You took it right before the jeweller's eyes. And he gave it to you with a smile on his face."

"Who are you?" the girl asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Don't worry, I won't turn you in," Cinder said. "My name is Cinder Fall. What's yours?"

"…Emerald," the girl said. "Emerald Sustrai."

"Well, Emerald, stick with me, and you'll never be hungry again."

Cinder and Emerald stood before a burning house, a grey-haired boy with bandaged and bloody knees standing over the corpse of a man.

"What are you looking at?!" the boy spat.

"I'm looking for Marcus Black," Cinder said. The boy spit blood and pointed at the corpse at his feet.

"There you go," he said.

"That's the assassin?" Emerald asked.

"And you're his son," Cinder said, looking back up at the boy. He wiped the blood from his lips. "We saw your fight from the treeline. He's taught you well."

"Guess so," the boy said.

"What's your name?"

"…Mercury."

"Well, Mercury, I have a job for you."

"So let me get this straight," Adam Taurus said, standing before the trio of Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury in his tent. Cinder stood in deference to him, only to avoid making him mad, while Emerald and Mercury were on their knees. "You could've gone to anyone for help. You could've made a deal with a gang leader, paid off some Huntsmen that have strayed from their…righteous path… but instead, you choose to seek an audience with me."

"You're the one we need," Cinder said. "Your skill, your ability to lead those beneath you. You're an exceptionally valuable man, Adam. And we've put a lot of thought into—"

"Then you're clearly not thinking straight!" Adam interrupted her. "If you truly understood me, you would know coming here was a mistake. The White Fang is not an organization for hire. We're a force of revolution!"

It took every ounce of willpower Cinder had to not roll her eyes at the melodrama.

"I believe our plan will be beneficial for all parties involved," Cinder continued, watching Adam pace impatiently. "I have an… associate in Vale. He and I are working on a revolution of our own. But we can't do it without your forces. We need—"

"What you need…" Adam interrupted her yet again. "Is to leave." He held up his weapon menacingly. Cinder felt a prick in the back of her head that she tried her best to ignore. "You're asking my men to die for your cause- a human cause. That's not an idea I'm willing to entertain."

"Very well," Cinder said, forcing herself to still be polite before exiting the tent.

"What now?" Mercury asked.

"We'll be back," Cinder said. "There's something else we need to do first."

Everything was going to plan so far. Emerald's illusions caused Amber to get off her horse in the middle of the road, holding out an apple to what she thought was a sad little girl.

In reality, there was no one there besides Emerald.

Unfortunately, Emerald shifted her foot, kicking up some dust underneath it, catching Amber's attention. The Fall Maiden's horse bolted, and Amber threw her cloak off, pulling out her weapon, a wooden staff with a Dust crystal on each end. Emerald dropped the illusion, running towards Amber while firing her guns. Amber simply raised her hand to deflect them. The Maiden spun her staff around her to kick up a wind storm, making Emerald slide back.

Mercury jumped over a fence on the side of the road. He tried to kick her, but she blocked him with her staff, and forced both of them back with another blast of wind. Mercury launched himself off a post at her, and Amber hit him with a blast of fire. He curled up to take the fire with his legs, burning away his pant legs and revealing the metal prosthetics underneath. He kept going to kick Amber, knocking her down. Emerald dropped down from above, hitting the Maiden so hard the ground underneath her cracked.

The duo backed up, getting ready to keep going, but Amber suddenly got up, flames erupting from her eyes. The winds kicked up again, swirling around the brown-haired woman. She began levitating, thunderstorms gathering in the sky above them. A lightning bolt dropped down towards them, the teens barely able to dodge in time. They began firing at her, but an invisible shield appeared around her, absorbing the bullets. Amber clenched her fist, making leaves rise up into the air. She then froze them, sending them flying towards her attackers.

Cinder chose that moment to approach her, but the Maiden noticed her, launching a fireball at the black-haired woman. Cinder jumped over it, and slid her palm along the dirt, using her Semblance to superheat it. She turned the dirt particles into sharp pieces of glass, which she launched at the Maiden.

The attack knocked Amber down, and the trio descended on them. Amber recovered faster than they expected, managing to kick them away from her. Cinder stayed back, allowing Amber to fight Emerald and Mercury. She combined her swords into a bow, knocking three arrows. After Amber knocked Emerald and Mercury away, Cinder fired the arrows, burying them in the dirt around her.

The arrows exploded, knocking Amber's Aura out and sending the Maiden to her knees. The trio slowly approached her, only for her to blow them back with a gust of wind. Amber looked up, her eyes engulfed in flames again, blasting Mercury with a bolt of lightning, and hitting Emerald with a burst of flame.

Amber approached Emerald, raising her staff to finish her off, but before she had the chance to, Cinder fired an arrow, hitting the Fall Maiden in the back.

"Stay away from her," Cinder said, dropping her bow and slowly approaching her. She reached into her pocket, pulling out a white glove. "Hold her still," she said, and Emerald and Mercury each grabbed one of the Maiden's arms. Amber looked up at her in terror. Cinder held up the glove to her face.

"Please, don't…" Amber whimpered.

"For what it's worth," Cinder said. "This isn't personal. I'm just doing my job." A small portal opened in the palm of the glove, a small Grimm bug stepping out of it. It spat a black web-like substance at Amber's face. The black lines began glowing, causing Amber to scream in agony. Cinder felt the power enter her body, her own eyes erupting into flames like Amber's had previously.

Suddenly, Cinder found herself needing to dodge a sword swing from a red-caped Huntsman, the sword cutting through the web before the power transfer was complete. She looked up at the Huntsman, only to freeze.

Qrow?!

She used her newfound powers to create an explosion under Qrow's feet, allowing them to escape.

Emerald fired her pistol into a White Fang grunt, finally making Adam exit his tent, to see the men that the trio had slaughtered.

"What is this?!" Adam roared, his sword drawn.

"You were right about one thing, Adam," Cinder said, using her powers to make her weapon disappear in a burst of flames. "We could have gone to anyone for help. But we chose you. We came here offering friendship, and you spat in our faces." She summoned a flame in the palm of her hand, her eyes erupting. "Now, we give you another choice. You will be working with us, but whether it's hand-in-hand, or beneath my boot, is up to you." Emerald and Mercury presented Dust crystals and money to him, while Cinder kept up the flames, making the choice clear.

Yang stood across the arena from Mercury, a confident smirk on her face.

"Well, what do you know?" she asked her boyfriend. "Looks like we're up first."

"Looks like it," Mercury said.

"I hope you know I won't go easy on you just because I love you," she said with a wink.

"Right back at you," he said with a smirk.

"Mercury Black versus Yang Xiao Long!" Oobleck announced. Yang cracked her knuckles, getting ready for the fight.

"These two have proven themselves quite the power couple, despite being from different academies!" Port said. "Hopefully, no matter who wins, there will be no hard feeling between these lovebirds!"

Mercury kept smirking at her, not looking like he was trying to prepare.

He must have been pretty confident, then.

"3, 2, 1, begin!"

Yang got into a combat stance, but to her surprise, Mercury just reached into his pocket, pulling out his scroll. Yang's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing," he said, seemingly opening up a video, and projecting it outwards.

What was he doing, playing a video in the middle of a fight?

And then she saw the video, and her eyes widened.

She saw herself on her knees, her face deep in his lap, head bobbing up and down while he sat on a bed.

That was…

That was last night!

"W-What?' she asked, and could hear several surprised gasps from the crowd. "What is this?"

"What do you think?" he asked. "That's you blowing me."

"Y-you filmed it?" she asked.

"Yup," he said simply, and then the video changed to show her now completely naked, straddling his waist and bouncing up and down, his pants down around his knees, but not all the way off.

She could feel red-hot shame creep its way onto her face, hearing her own moans fill the air of the arena as the reality of the situation finally sank in.

He was sharing a video of her, naked and having sex with him, with the entire world.

"S-Stop!" she yelled, trying her hardest to fight back the tears that threatened to fall. Instead, he pressed a button on his scroll.

"Whoops," he said in a mocking tone. "Looks like I accidentally sent the video to everyone in the stands, when I meant to hit delete."

"N-no," she said, looking up into the crowd desperately, to see several people pulling their scrolls out. Some even had the video open! "No! Stop it!" She looked desperately back at Mercury. "Why are you doing this?!"

"Because I never cared about you!" Mercury yelled. "The only thing I ever wanted from you was sex. When we got to this shithole of a school, the only thing I wanted was to hook up. Have some fun to pass the time. I figured you'd be easy. But no. You didn't want to put out. But I couldn't just stop speaking to you. It would've been obvious what I was after, and that would've made things awkward since you know Cinder. So I had to pretend for months to care about you. I had to act like I actually liked you. And when I finally got you in the sack, it turned out you were a virgin and sucked at it anyway!" She couldn't stop the tears anymore, hearing the boy she thought she loved saying awful things like that to her. "This is your punishment for wasting my damn time."

"B-but," Yang said. "I-I loved you."

"That is so not my fucking problem," he said.

Ruby couldn't believe what she was seeing.

Mercury had filmed them without telling her? And he was displaying it for everyone to see?

Why? Why would he do such a thing?!

Suddenly, she heard beeping sounds all around her, and people pulled out their scrolls, displaying the very video now being projected to them.

Too many of them continued watching it after pulling it up.

"Stop!" she tried to shout to the people around her. "Stop watching it!"

And then she heard what Mercury said to Yang.

Her eyes teared up as she looked at her sister, scared, humiliated, and ashamed, being told by her own boyfriend that he only ever wanted sex from her, and was punishing her for not giving it to him right away.

"Yang!" she called out desperately. After a few more seconds, Yang stormed off, fleeing the arena in tears. Ruby saw Mom and Uncle Qrow jump out of their seats and head straight for the arena, her uncle reaching for the sword on his back.

"I'm gonna kill that little punk!" her uncle yelled. By this point, the arena had descended into complete chaos. Mercury noticed the people coming for him, and took off in the opposite direction.

Ruby got up from her seat, heading straight for the locker room, followed closely by Blake and Weiss.

Her sister needed her.

"Unfortunately, we were unable to apprehend Mister Black," General Ironwood said, standing in the middle of Team RWBY's dorm room. Yang had ran all the way back there before collapsing onto Blake's bed, sobbing uncontrollably. Ruby was doing her best to comfort her, but other than holding on to her tightly, she had no idea what to do to help her sister.

She still was trying to process that Mercury had done something that cruel. It was almost unimaginable, and yet it had happened. To her sister, no less. She thought he was their friend. Heck, Yang loved him. Or at least thought she had.

"He fled from the arena, took down several of the mechs we sent after him, and just disappeared," the general continued.

"How could he just disappear?" Weiss asked. "Amity Colosseum is floating. The only way out was by airship."

"We're not sure, but we're doing our best to locate him. Miss Xiao Long, rest assured, we will find him, and we will apprehend him."

Yang said nothing, instead continuing to cry. The general looked away from her sadly.

"You have my sympathies," Ironwood said. "This was truly a heinous act."

"I don't give a damn about your sympathies," Yang said, surprising everyone. She looked up at the general, her eyes red. "You couldn't possibly understand what just happened to me. My boyfriend, my own fucking boyfriend, filmed us having sex, without my permission, and then shared it with the entire world! Millions of people just saw me naked on national television! And everyone in those stands have a copy for their own sick pleasure! So unless you have a way to turn back time and stop me from ever meeting that asshole, I don't want to hear it!"

General Ironwood looked down at the floor.

"I'm sorry," he said. "You're right. Empty words are the last thing you need right now. And while I can't turn back time, I can still do my best to bring him to justice." He turned around to head for the door. "And I know the tournament is probably the last thing on your mind right now, but Mercury Black's team has been disqualified. If you would like, you may have another attempt, but I would also understand if you would like to withdraw."

"I think we're going to withdraw," Blake said. "I don't think any of us care about the tournament anymore."

"I understand," General Ironwood said, reaching for the doorknob. "And again, I'm sorry that this happened." He opened the door, only to reveal Cinder standing in the hallway. He nodded to her, and stepped outside, letting her in. The members of Team RWBY all leveled glares at her.

"What the hell do you want?" Yang asked. Cinder put her arms up in surrender.

"Yang, I promise you, I had no idea he was planning to do that," she said. "I would have stopped him if I'd known." Yang continued glaring at her.

"Do you swear that you didn't know?" Ruby asked.

"I swear," Cinder said with certainty. "I'm just as shocked and angry as you are."

"I doubt you're as angry as me," Yang said, making Cinder flinch.

"I-I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry. I should have kept a closer eye on him. I never expected he would do something like that. I didn't want things to turn out this way…"

"What?" Ruby asked.

"Nothing," Cinder said. "I'm going to find him, and when I do, I'm going to make him regret the day he was born."

"Save some for me," Yang said. "I don't think I'll feel better until I get the chance to rip his balls odd myself."

The evening news was having a field day with what Mercury had done.

Cinder could faintly hear them reporting on the outrage, where a student was set up to fight his own girlfriend during the tournament, only to publicly humiliate her by sharing a sex tape with the whole world.

Grimm attacks outside the kingdom had gone up as a response to the anger people felt at him.

Cinder found she was too angry to care.

Mercury was currently dangling in front of her, having been strung up by his arms from the ceiling with chains. His metal legs lied on the floor, out of his reach. Emerald was standing off to the side, watching as Cinder punished the boy.

She punched him again, his Aura having shattered long ago, just adding to the bruises on his face.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" She yelled. "We had a plan!"

"Why does it matter?" Mercury asked, still defiant after everything she had done. "You wanted an outrage, you got an outrage. Who cares how it happens?" Cinder punched him again, causing him to spit out blood.

"It matters because we had a plan, and you decided to go off on your own!" Cinder roared. "You seem to misunderstand your place. You are a hired gun. Nothing more. Your job is to do what you're told, not take things into your own hands!"

"And honestly, as much as I hate these brats, that was really fucked up," Emerald chimed in.

"Here's how this is going to work from now on," Cinder said, her teeth grit. "You don't eat, you don't sleep, you don't even breathe unless I tell you to." He tried to say something, only for Cinder to interrupt him by punching him again. "I didn't say you could breathe yet!"

"F-Fuck you," Mercury said, only to receive another punch.

"I don't think you quite understand the gravity of the situation you've put yourself in," Cinder said, lighting a small fire in her palm. "Let this serve as a reminder." She opened up her palm, the small flame still lit, and slowly moved it towards his face.

"Wait, what are you-?" he asked, before she made contact with his cheek.

His screams were almost deafening.

AN: So, yeah, I know it was fucked up what Mercury did, but for some reason this was one of the first story beats I thought of when I came up with this story. Throughout this story, a lot of people made the mistake of thinking Mercury actually cared about Yang. Back at the beginning of Volume 2, I had the narration flat-out say that Mercury only approached Yang because he made the same mistake Cardin did and thought she was easy.

Anyway, we've got the rest of the Vytal Tournament after this, and things are just going to keep getting worse.

As always, thank you very much for reading, and I'll see you all next time!

SPOILERS FOR VOLUME 8!

So, overall, I enjoyed this volume, but I thought it was a bit of a step back from Volume 7, which in my opinion, was the absolute best. I just gotta say:

What the hell does CRWBY have against Penny? I mean, seriously.

So, this volume had a few serious missteps, namely Ironwood. I was a defender at first of their decision to turn him into a villain, but as the season went on and he went farther, it became less believable. Like, by the time the SDC ships were evacuating people from Mantle, he really should have just swallowed his pride and let the team evacuate Mantle and apologized, but it seemed like he just kept getting worse out of spite. It was probably because his transition to villain was such a big deal last volume, that it couldn't just fizzle out like that, but I feel they could have handled it in a way that didn't seem as ridiculous towards the end. Like there was no way he legitimately thought bombing Mantle was the right way to go.

The fake-out deaths also weren't cool. Like we knew they weren't going to kill off Yang, and the rest of the team and Jaune falling into the pit just proved that she's not dead. It would have been more effective if it wasn't someone who's name is in the show's title. Also, Penny dying again really pissed me off. Why can't they leave her alone? Especially after they went to the trouble of turning her fully human.

I feel another misstep was Salem and the Hound were taken out of the Volume a little too quickly. The Hound died the second time it showed up, and honestly, I was expecting Salem showing up at Atlas to be like when Thanos arrived at Wakanda in Infinity War. Instead, Ozpin blasted her with magic, and then they had to get the hell out of didge before she came back. The first half of the volume was fantastic buildup, but I found the payoff of what they were building up to be a little underwhelming at times.

With that said, this volume also had plenty of standout moments. The revelation of what the Hound really was, or rather who it was, was suitably horrifying. Especially with the implications it added of what exactly happened to Summer. I just wish it had happened later.

Emerald turning on Salem and joining the heroes also genuinely made me happy.

I also thought it was very interesting that even though Ren finally admitted that he loved Nora, she basically rejected him because she realized that she doesn't know who she is outside of their relationship.

In the finale, Vine's death was very well-done. Honestly, I think he had the best death in the series so far other than Pyrrha.

As much as I hate that they killed Penny again, I do have to admit that her death scene was beautiful, with her communicating with Winter to gift her the Maiden powers.

I also gotta say, I feel like they're banking a little too heavily on Cinder as the show's main antagonist. She feels more like the main villain than Salem does sometimes with how much attention they're giving her. Though I did like her leaving Watts to burn to death, even though Watts was my favorite villain.

And Ironwood killing Jacques was just glorious. Now Ironwood gets to wallow in his failure.

So, with Team RWBY, Neo, and Jaune apparently sent to another world, I have a serious question: Is Volume 9 going to turn RWBY into an isekai? I'm not sure how I feel about that.

And now, the long wait.

Overall, it was pretty decent. Nowhere near the worst, but a step down from Volume 7. Here's hoping Volume 9 can iron out some of the lingering writing problems that have been plaguing this series sine pretty much the beginning.