Chapter 31: Machinations in the Dark


Mercury sat on the bench waiting for his name to get called up for his match against Blondie from Team RWBY.

He could hear the crowd erupt in applause as the match before his had ended.

It wasn't as loud as the exhibition match but it seemed like the excitement had grown again.

Mercury could only thank his lucky stars that he was not one of the unlucky guys who had to follow up that first match.

Even when he was plotting to destroy both of them his inner man couldn't help but think that was an amazing match.

The matches afterward…were not.

Though to be fair, anything after that comparatively would have been like watching paint dry.

He would've liked to say that he was shocked by the results, but he wasn't.

After Observing Mori for so long he could tell the dude was hiding a lot of strength.

And despite his impressive showing against the Headmaster Mercury could tell he was still holding back somewhat.

They actually both were.

Still, to be able to show that amount of skill was impressive.

The dude was going to be a problem.

He'd ask Cinder multiple times if it really was a good idea to continue with the plan with him in there but she kept on insisting that once it had been enacted even, he wouldn't be able to stop it.

Mercury could only shrug and continue to go along with his plan.

She was the boss and all he had to do was follow her.

God, how much longer would he have to wait, he just wanted to get his part over with.

"Are you ready?" Emerald asked as she sat next to him.

"What, are you concerned for me?" Mercury sarcastically asked.

"No, I just want to make sure you don't mess up."

"How would I even mess this up?" Mercury asked with disbelief in his voice, "All I gotta do is play around a little bit with Blondie, lose, and then get hit by her."

"I don't know, How'd you mess up in Argos?" Emerald asked as she looked more annoyed.

"Look from where I was looking, the dude looked like a girl!" Mercury exclaimed as he attempted to defend himself, "When are you going to let that go?"

"Never," was Emerald's short and simple response, "They're calling you by the way, so…go."

"Yeah, yeah," Mercury muttered as he waved her goodbye and began to walk to the arena.

The crowds cheered as he entered the arena.

Raising his arms in a bit of showmanship Mercury began to pump the crowd up.

Mercury walked up to the stage ready for his match as Blondie walked up as well.

He grinned at her as they faced each other.

"You better not go easy on me," Yang said as she flipped her hair in confidence.

"You wish," Mercury responded back.

His words were a lie, he was specifically ordered to lose today.

"Just don't go crying when I send you packing," Yang snarked.

Mercury only chuckled at that.

Her confidence was so cute.

"Fighters, are you ready?" Mori announced.

Both Yang and Mercury nodded yes.

"3, 2, 1 Begin!"

And with that, the match had begun.

Yang threw the first while Mercury blocked crossing his arm.

Immediately afterward he kicked at her. But she in return blocked his attack.

Soon, they were engaged in an all-out brawl in the center of the arena exchanging blow by blow.

Now, if Mercury wanted to he could've let her win now, but his pride as a professional required him to have a better showing.

Her moves were so easy to read, that Mercury could easily tell where she wanted to hit.

Deciding not to make it too obvious by getting hit by a big blow, Mercury was sent flying out of the stage, but using his weapons he was able to change the momentum and shoot himself back on.

"Oh, and she almost got him!" Mori shouted in disappointment!

"No she didn't," Mercury thought to himself as he landed on the stage.

Now that they were separated, he watched as Yang started to fire at him with her guns.

Flipping back to dodge them he fired back at her to counterattack.

Mercury was hoping she'd charge in, but she kept her distance, as their close combat had turned into a firing match.

He couldn't help but notice that she was slowly and gradually closing the distance between them.

That was pretty smart, Mercury had to admit to himself, she wasn't charging and instead was closing the gap bit by bit.

Now, what could he do to change things up?

He fired off a couple of his targeted shots before charging in at her.

Exchanging blow by blow he continued to fire his targeted shots.

Yang being none the wiser to what he was actually doing.

Sensing the timing was now Mercury jumped back as he let the shots fall on the girl.

Looking at how many of the things he fired, he may have shot too many.

If he actually won this Cinder would be mad.

The girl however smiled and right as the shots were about to land on her she took a deep breath and in one punch annihilated the blasts.

Mercury could hear the crowd murmur as the girl unleashed her unknown martial arts.

"Oh, and Yang unleashes the Fist of the Black Tortoise!" Mori screamed from his box in excitement.

"Ah shit," he thought to himself.

Looks like she was using that against him.

One of those ridiculous Martial arts that Mori had shown and taught her.

She suddenly appeared in front of him, her leg raised.

She was about to do the second of the combo.

His instincts fired up as just as she stomped it, Mercury quickly fired his boots to minimize the shockwave of the attack.

It didn't do much as he was still put off balance by the attack.

Mercury barely had any time to gather himself as she now came with her third part of the combo.

Attempting to minimize the damage he curled up in an attempt to avoid as much damage as possible.

He could feel himself getting pushed further and further into the audience.

She then suddenly stopped, but Mercury knew he wasn't in the clear.

It was the fourth part of this devastating combo.

He had seen this combo in action against her in combat class from Mori.

It looks like she had absorbed some of his bullshit.

With her arms outstretched he could see what looked like a dragon surround Yang.

"Fuck," He thought to himself as the dragon's jaws swallowed him.

"And the Winner is Yang!"

He could hear the crowd cheer at the announcement of his loss as he lay on the ground.

Mercury couldn't help but feel disappointed in himself.

Even though he was planning on losing, she won straight up.

He needed to do something about that combo for the future.

Even if he wasn't planning on throwing, he would have had a hard time dealing with those techniques.

He could still read her moves but her moves had such overwhelming power that even if he could read them he couldn't do much about them.

While thinking about what he would need to do he got up and walked towards her.

He noticed as he made his way to her that she was breathing heavily.

Looks like those techniques took a lot out of her.

Deciding to file that away in the back of his head for later, he continued to approach her ready to do his part of the plan.

"Well legs, sorry," he thought to himself.

He could see that Blondie was getting affected by Emerald's semblance, just as he held his hand out to her to "show" good sportsmanship, she struck.

He could feel the pressure from her punch as she unleashed, at that moment his instincts were yelling at him to dodge or else he'd be in a world of pain.

Too bad those same instincts were telling him he wasn't going to dodge in time.

Closing his eyes, he braced himself for the world of pain he was about to be in.

It never came.

He heard a boom and a gasp from the crowd but there was no pain.

Where was the pain?

Mercury opened his eyes and was shocked to see that the reason for no was Mori who had appeared between them in an instant.

His hand smoking from stopping Yang's fist, he had arrived just in time to stop Yang from blowing Mercury to bits.

"How fast is this dude?" Mercury thought to himself in disbelief.

He had appeared from his spot in his commentator box down to the arena in like a second.

"Yang, what are you doing?" Mori calmly asked as the crowd started gasping about what happened.

"He was about to attack me!" Yang yelled, her eyes now red.

Mori looked confused before he turned to Mercury.

"I wasn't!" Mercury exclaimed while he defended himself, "I was just trying to tell her it was a good match before like a madman she struck at me!"

"Really?"

Mercury watched as Mori's eyes looked deep within him.

Now, Mercury had been in a lot of situations in his life, but this was by far the most uncomfortable one he had ever been in.

There was something about him that made it feel like he was looking into his soul.

"I'm telling the truth I did nothing!"

Technically, he was telling the truth he didn't do anything…It was Emerald.

Coincidentally, speaking of the girl, Mercury could see from the corner of his eyes Emerald jumping out of the stands and running to the stadium, it looked like she was attempting to make her way to his side ride now.

She reached him just as a smaller than usual troop of Atlesians had arrived on the scene

The crowd continued to boo Yang as they went to apprehend the girl.

Just as they were about to grab her, Mori stepped in saying that everything was fine, and they didn't need to be so forceful.

They began to talk about what they should do.

Meanwhile, Yang was only looking incredibly confused as she looked at the big screen of what just happened, the crowd muttering in anger.

"Due to some difficulties," Mori announced into the microphone after he was able to come up with something with the Atlesians. "We'll be taking a quick break."

"Do we still need to be here, or can I take him back?" Emerald asked in fake concern.

"Not yet," Mori answered, "We still need you guys to figure out what just happened."

"Come on!" Emerald argued with what Mercury could tell were fake tears in her eyes, "I know she's your friend, but my teammate almost got crippled or worse and he's shocked about what just happened, so let him rest, you need to show some impartiality!"

Murmurs from the crowd began to fill the stadium.

The look of suspicion that Mercury had gotten from Mori was now focused on Emerald.

It looked like he wanted to interrogate Emerald, but if the shouts from the crowd were an indication, the people were on Emerald and Mercury's side.

"Fine," He sullenly agreed, "You can take him, however, if we need to talk to him then we'll call."

Emerald nodded as she and Mercury got off the stage.

Mercury couldn't help but feel a hole burning in his back from the stare Mori was still giving them as they exited the arena.

Once they were out of sight Mercury breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks for saving me, Em." He said as he turned to her.

"It's fine," was her response, "What did I say about fucking up though?"

Mercury could only groan at Emerald's comments.

Ahh crap, she now had this over him.


Cinder could feel her nails pierce the sleeves of her dress as she angrily looked at Mercury and Emerald.

"How do you mess that up, Mercury?" Cinder berated, "You had only one job, one easy job and you messed that up!"

"I thought I was in a good position," Mercury responded, defending himself, "She was about to hit me and everything, but then that monster suddenly stopped her."

Cinder gritted her teeth as she remembered the previous events.

This was the third time that Mori Jin had disrupted her plans.

The first was that dust shipment that led to Roman getting captured too early.

It wasn't much dust but it set her plans back somewhat.

The second was at Mt. Glenn when he defeated Adam.

Now, she didn't really care about losing Adam as an individual, he was powerful, yes, but he was mostly just dumb muscle who was set off easily.

The biggest blow came from the fact that she almost lost the White Fang faction who supported Adam.

She needed that faction to continue with her plan and losing them meant losing a big chunk of the attack force.

It was only through clever oration and making Adam a Martyr was able to convince them to stay.

Now there was this!

She was hoping that she'd make the crowd panic and start to get full of fear to rile up the local Grimm, but all that came from it was slight discomfort.

Still, everything should be fine, even though this part had failed it wasn't crucial to the overall success of her plan.

Granted, she noticed some of the ships in the sky left that morning but Cinder didn't worry the main fleet was still in Vale.

Mori Jin was a bigger problem who was becoming a huge pain in the ass for her

Her initial plan to get rid of that nuisance was to use Adam, which as mentioned before did not end well, she had severely underestimated his strength.

Once she got a better grasp on his combat potential and how it would affect the board, he became a high-priority piece for her to deal with.

In an effort to figure out what she could do about him she decided to observe him; by having Mercury try to get close as she looked from afar, hoping to understand him better so that she could exploit his flaws.

To her dismay, she didn't find much if anything that she could use.

If he was just an overpowered brute, she'd be able to easily plan around him and kill him, but alas that was severely not the case.

Despite the reputation he had built as a class clown he was intelligent, Cinder understood that clearly.

If he was maybe kind-hearted and soft she could maybe exploit that, but Cinder could tell that wasn't going to be the case as well.

Unlike that naïve girl Ruby who he hung out with he was pragmatic and calculating, Cinder could tell he could make hard decisions at a snap and execute them.

Powerful, smart, and ruthless…Cinder couldn't help but feel some sort of attraction to that.

It was a rare combo that Cinder desired for herself.

Sadly, she could tell that she wouldn't be able to persuade him to her side anytime soon, so persuasion was kicked out of the window.

Eventually, a solution came to her on what she should do about him.

Do nothing.

That's right, Cinder's plan on how to deal with Mori Jin for the past few months had been to simply do nothing.

Don't try to threaten him, Don't make an enemy of him, don't even get on his radar.

Try to minimize any impact he would have on her overall plans.

Now that didn't mean they wouldn't eventually come into contact, but Cinder was hoping by the time he did become involved it was too late.

Even though he was powerful, Cinder doubted his ability to take on the massive horde of Grimm she had planned for Vale.

And even if he did somehow deal with them she would have the time to be able to grab the other half of her maiden powers and then be able to deal with him.

Today's event's all but crushed that idea.

The match of Nikos vs that robot from Atlas was the most important one in her plans. With the destruction of the robot, she'd be able to begin her attack on Beacon.

But since Mori was able to react in time to stop Yang's punch, he'd be able to react in time to save the robot.

"Should we really be continuing Cinder?" Mercury asked as he interrupted Cinder's thoughts.

Cinder's eyes flared at the mere thought of her subordinate questioning her.

"Could you care to repeat that?" Cinder coolly asked as she raised a finger and let it rest on Mercury's chest.

"I mean I don't know if your plan will work with that monster Mori in the audience," Mercury stammered, "You saw how fast he was able to react that fast, I think he'd be able to stop anything that looks out of whack."

"That and I think he's on to me," Emerald chipped in, "He's going to be extra suspicious of anything off now."

Cinder lowered her hands and thought about the reasoning they gave.

Cinder had been thinking of the validity of how her plan would work lately.

Outside of Mori Jin, there was also that unknown third party with the pillar who destroyed the Grimm invading from the breach.

Cinder had no idea what that was and seeing it made her feel uneasy.

Then there was the fact that she had trouble contacting Watts.

Ever since the breach, she had been unable to reach him or anyone else involved in her mistress's circle.

If she had more time, she'd scrap her plan and make up a new one.

But that's the keyword.

She didn't have the time.

Ozpin was bound to find a new Fall Maiden soon and if the power was transferred then it'd be a lot harder for her to find the new maiden.

She needed to enact her plan now.

But she couldn't with Mori around who was able to react to anything.

"I don't need to eliminate him, I just need to get him away for one match," Cinder muttered to herself as she paced back and forth trying to think of a way to get rid of him.

"I don't know if this will help Cinder," Emerald chipped in, "But apparently he's really attached to his friends."

"Of course, he is," Cinder scoffed, "You see the way he acts; I don't see how that'll be helpful,"

"No like really attached," Emerald responded, "Apparently he lost someone close to him a short while back and he's deeply possessive of making sure that doesn't happen again.

Cogs started to roll in Cinder's head as she turned towards Emerald, now intrigued, "and how do you know this?"

"Yeah, how do you know that?" Mercury asked, baffled, "I've been trying to get to know him for a month and he hasn't even opened up to me."

"That's because I didn't ask him," Emerald replied, "Use your head, Mercury, if you can't get any information from the source, you try other places."

A lightbulb flickered in Cinder's head, "His friends." She spoke, "Good Job Emerald," Cinder praised as she patted Emerald on the shoulder.

"Yup," Emerald happily replied, "I just asked his friends why he trained so much, and they said he had someone close to him die recently."

"And you are sure this is accurate," Cinder said hopefully.

If this was true this was something she could use to get him out of the way.

"Ruby and Yang seemed pretty truthful," Emerald responded, "I even was able to ask Jaune as well."

Perfect, cogs of an idea started to fall into place.

"Emerald, get Neo," Cinder said beginning to initiate something, "I need her now,"

"Roger," Emerald replied as she blended into the shadows.

This was perfect, she had the weakness she needed to be able to get him out of the way.

It wouldn't eliminate him directly but it'd be enough to distract him.

Once he was out she'd be able to get her enormous horde of Grimm into Vale and wreak havoc.

With those huge numbers, he wouldn't be able to do anything.

No human would.


Mori was outside leaning on the wall in front of Team RWBY's room as they were talking with General Ironwood.

He could hear the protests of the girls as Yang was recounting her story.

Based on the tone of their voices it looked like their arguments were not going well.

A couple more minutes had passed by before General Ironwood had exited the room.

"General," Mori greeted frostily.

"Mr. Jin," the General responded back with the same coldness.

"I assume that things have been cleared up?" Mori asked as he looked into the room

"They have," the General replied, "It has been decided that due to Yang's actions Team RWBY has been disqualified."

Mori began to feel irritation build up within him.

"And you've investigated Yang's side of the story?" Mori asked as he looked the General directly in the eyes.

"Due to the evidence we've gathered we have come to the belief that she was mostly suffering from exhaustion because of the match and in that moment of weakness, she lashed out at Mr. Black hallucinating that he attacked her." The General responded.

Mori snorted at that reasoning; Yang looked perfectly fine from an exhaustion standpoint from where he was standing.

Yeah, she was exhausted from using all four parts of the Dance of the Four Gods.

But she wasn't that exhausted.

"And you've questioned Mercury?" Mori asked as he maintained eye contact.

Ironwood shifted uncomfortably before Mori's gaze before answering, "Like I said based on the evidence we have, we didn't feel the need to, and we didn't want to disturb Mr. Black while he is still recovering from the shock of what happened."

Mori's gaze turned into a glare.

Really?

He wasn't going to question Mercury at all?

"Miss Xiao-Long is lucky she got off with just a disqualification, she could've gotten a worse punishment like being expelled or even charged for what she did," General Ironwood continued, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have other important matters to take care of and you do too."

And with that, the General marched down the hallway with his guards.

Mori continued to glare at the man as he was walking out.

Mori knew the man didn't like him, he didn't hide his hostilities very well.

For the most part, Mori just ignored it as it didn't really bug him, however, if the reason why he was so harsh with Yang was because of his grudge against him so help him…

Mori turned towards Team RWBY's room knocking as he waited to gain entry.

It was swiftly opened up by Ruby who had an unhappy face on.

"Oh, hey Mori," Ruby said with a sad tone as she let him in the room, "She's a bit down right now."

Mori looked over at Yang who looked downcast.

"He didn't believe, I told him everything I saw and he didn't believe me," She murmured before she turned to Mori, tears forming in her eyes, "I didn't attack him I swear! You believe me, right Mori?"

Getting on his knee he gave her a big hug before looking into her eyes.

"Of course, I do," Mori immediately replied as he let go."I know you Yang and you wouldn't do something like that even if you were exhausted."

Her eyes started to water when he finished his sentence.

Ahh, shoot did he make it worse?

He was always bad with stuff like this.

"I agree," Weiss chipped as she nodded along, "You are a lot of things, however, excessively violent is not one of your traits."

"I don't believe you would've done something like that without a reason," Blake said as she put her two cents in, "You are my partner and I'm with you all the way."

Yang began to tear up as all the girls went for a hug.

Sensing this was a delicate moment Mori got up and headed to the door intent on making his way back to the stadium.

"Hey, Mori?" Ruby called as she left the group hug and went to talk to him outside the room.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you," she said as she looked at him, "You really helped her out there."

"You don't need to thank me," Mori replied, "She'll be fine as long as she's got you guys."

"Still…thank you," Ruby responded as, "I guess I better let you go for the next match huh?"

"Yup, I think the next match after is going to be Pyrrha vs Penny, and I don't want to miss announcing that."

"Ohh, you don't want to miss that," Ruby said her face lighting up, "That's going to be a lot of fun, I'm wondering how Penny is going to respond to Pyrrha's semblance especially since Penny is a—" Ruby's eyes widened as she immediately clamped her own mouth with her hands.

Mori only chuckled at her actions, "Don't worry Ruby I know Penny's secret," he whispered in her ear.

Ruby's eyes widened more as it looked like she was asking how.

"Trade secret?" He smiled as he walked away, "I'll see you later then!"

"See you tonight!" Ruby responded as she waved goodbye.

Mori began to make his way back to the stadium as he tried to make sense of the past hour.

Like he told Yang, he didn't think she struck Mercury without reason and by the tone of her voice, Mori could tell she was neither lying nor delirious like Ironwood believed.

It also helped he had always been suspicious of Mercury, Emerald, and their leader Cinder especially because of the scent they gave off.

It was the scent of blood and a lot of it.

Unfortunately, they hadn't done anything bad since they arrived at Beacon and Mori couldn't really say that the smelling of blood was a dead giveaway that they were up to no good, after all, he was probably drenched in it.

Now, however, this incident gave him a more concrete reason to be suspicious of them.

What were they planning, what were they after, and why were they trying to rile up Yang to disqualify her?

It didn't make sense.

It couldn't possibly be for the tournament's prize, because unlike the God of Highschool's winner who got a wish, this prize was just a little Lien and personal glory.

If they were after Yang specifically that didn't make sense either as there were more subtle ways to do that and the method they used didn't imply they were after her as well.

So, what could they want?

Dammit if he just had his fiery red eyes and golden pupils, figuring what exactly happened with Yang would be so much easier.

Just as he neared the bus to take him to the stadium, Mori's shoulder was suddenly poked as his thoughts were interrupted.

"Ruby?" He asked, confused as he just left the girl, "What do you want?"

All Ruby's response was to point him at a spot near a forest.

Mori's eyes narrowed, "You want me to follow you into the forest?" He asked.

Ruby smiled and nodded before walking merrily into the forest.

Thinking she was acting strange, Mori decided to follow the girl.

As they continued to make their way deeper and deeper into the forest a silence permeated the atmosphere before Mori finally broke it.

"You know we've been at this for a while, is this part where you ambush me now?" He asked with a bored tone.

Ruby? turned around with a devilish smile transformed into a girl holding an umbrella with a combination of pink and brunette hair.

"Wow, you saw straight through her," Emerald remarked as she stepped out of the shadows, "how did you know?"

"Really it was a poor choice of costume; I just talked with Ruby earlier, if she wanted something she would've told me right then and there" Mori deadpanned, "That and there's no way she's ever that quiet."

"You really got to talk more, you know that Neo?" Emerald said as she identified the name of the fake Ruby.

Neo looked offended and responded by giving Emerald a glare.

"Right, sorry mute."

"Pretty ballsy that you knew this was a trap but still decided to walk into it," Mercury suddenly spoke as he walked out of the darkness.

"I figured the best way to catch you guys was using myself as bait," Mori responded nonchalantly, "By the way, Mercury I'm glad to see that you have recovered so quickly from the near-death experience you were subject to."

"I have a short memory."

"So, what's the plan here?" Mori asked as he eyed each of them "Lead me out in the middle of nowhere and get rid of me?"

"Basically," Emerald responded, "We need you out of the way so our master's plans can continue."

Mori couldn't help but feel a little insulted right now.

He had fought Demons and Gods and these small fries were thinking they could get rid of him with a simple ambush?

And they didn't even bring their full team, he could forgive Neo for not knowing but he was pretty sure at least Mercury, Emerald and their boss who Mori assumed was Cinder had watched him annihilate student after student in not only one on ones but four vs one as well.

Whatever the reason was they were going to pay for underestimating him and he was all too eager to pay them back for the heartache they had caused Yang.

"You probably should've brought more men," Mori murmured as he got into a stance, "I'd recommend a thousand more if you want to come close to taking me down."

"Nah just us is fine," Mercury responded as he got into his stance while Emerald and Neo drew their weapons.

In a flash Mori struck, Mercury could barely react before Mori began to pummel him.

Mori chose Mercury first, for the heartache he gave Yang.

As he was pummeling Mercury into the ground, he saw Emerald behind as she tried to strike him with her weapon, he caught her midair and threw her into a tree.

From the corner of his eye, he could see Neo charge at him with her umbrella ready to pierce him.

He sidestepped her easily as he caught her hand and in one motion struck Neo into the ground with his elbow.

"Is this really the best you got?" Mori asked in a bored tone as he watched Emerald crawl and get up.

"No," Emerald breathed heavily, "But this is!"

Mori suddenly felt a huge weight as he was forced into the ground.

He tried to move but couldn't for some reason.

Was this the work of a semblance?

Marrow's semblance had trapped him like this earlier.

He didn't hear his voice yelling at him to stop so he probably wasn't part of their group.

Did they have a semblance similar to his?

"What'd you do?" Mori angrily asked as he continued to struggle.

"Don't worry about it," Mercury said as he gingerly got up, "Just know you'll die without a struggle."

Mori snorted, despite being massively weakened, outside of Adam he hadn't found anything that could harm him on Remnant so far, and he highly doubted any of these three could do it.

He just needed to find a way to get out of this invisible force, once he did he could figure out what it was and think of a countermeasure for it.

"Mori!" A voice shouted from the clearing as Team RWBY charged out of the forest, "We've come to save you!"

"What the, how?!" Emerald shouted.

"I saw someone that looked like me leading Mori somewhere and thought that was weird," Ruby responded, "I grabbed my Team before coming here thinking he was going to be in trouble."

Mori grinned as he watched Team RWBY fight.

He was still stuck but he could see them turning the tide of battle.

Mori grinned they had become so st—

A pillar of fire suddenly erupted onto Weiss as she was charging.

Mori could only stare in horror at what just happened.

"Weiss!" He screamed as he watched the flame subside with the person within it now gone.

A figure suddenly descended from the sky.

It was Cinder

"I ask you to take care of one simple thing and this is how things end up," Cinder said in a dissatisfied tone.

The rest of Team RWBY looked horrified.

"Weiss!" Ruby cried out weakly

"Get out of here!" Mori screamed in panic, "She's too much for you!"

"But Mori we can't leave you!" Ruby shouted back.

"As if I'll let you leave," Cinder said with a wicked smile before suddenly appearing behind Blake

"No!" Mori screamed as he still struggled to move.

It was no use as Cinder's arm shot through Blake's chest.

The girl fell listless onto the ground, a surprised expression being the last thing on her face.

"You'll pay for that!" Yang screamed as she charged at Cinder.

"Don't Yang!" Mori screamed as his voice fell on deaf ears.

He watched as Yang used the fist of the Black Tortoise but she missed as Cinder swiftly put Yang under her heel.

Fire swarmed around her hand as a sword began to form.

"No… please… don't," Mori begged as he watched Yang struggle to get out from beneath her foot.

He himself continued to struggle with whatever binding him still in effect.

Cinder ignored Mori's begging, as she drove the blade into Yang's body which stopped its struggling and went limp.

She then turned her attention to Ruby who had collapsed in despair.

"Run, Ruby!" Mori screamed with all his might, "Don't worry about me just Run!"

Mori's pleas went unheard as she looked catatonic after what she had just witnessed.

Move Dammit Move!

Why couldn't he move?!

It was as if the whole weight of the world was on him, like Tathagata holding him down all over again.

Again!

Again!

That familiar scene was happening in front of him again!

Tathagata slaughtering everyone after his Journey to the West.

Being stuck in the God Realm; watching his friends fight and bleed while he could do nothing.

Mubong Park's hand piercing through his Grandfather.

Why could he do nothing but be a bystander when it was most important?

Why was he so powerless to save them?

Why did the ones he love have to die before his eyes?

"Pl-please I beg you," Mori whispered, his face low on the ground, "Take me instead and let her go."

Cinder only smirked as she swung the sword downward.


Emerald watched as her enemy continued his crying and begging.

There was something about it that was heart-wrenching.

"Man, that was easier than I thought," Mercury said as he looked at Mori crying, "Should we get rid of him now?"

Neo made a stabbing motion as she seemed to like Mercury's idea.

"No, that'll only wake him up," Emerald said, "You've seen how durable he is, I doubt anything we have could hurt him, remember Cinder's orders were to only incapacitate him for a short while."

"Yeah, you're right," Mercury responded as he looked at him, "I also don't think I'd want to face him, especially after whatever you've shown him."

Emerald shuddered as she agreed with Mercury's assessment.

The killing intent the boy had was immense.

"We should get back," Emerald said as she turned to Mercury and Neo, "The match is going on and I have one more thing I have to do."

"Sounds good to me," Mercury said with a laidback tone as he walked away.

Neo followed suit.

Emerald began to follow as she looked back at the still crying Mori.

His cries of pain tugging at her heart.


The Beast was getting closer to its destination it could feel it.

Soon it'd be able to complete its mistress's task.

Cannon fire could be felt on its back as it made its way to land.

Looking up to see its attackers the beast located them quickly in the sky.

The technology the humans used had evolved.

The last time it had fought with humans they used ships that based themselves on water.

Now they were using ships located in the air.

Rising up out of the water the beast rose to its true height.

With one swipe of its arm, it destroyed one-fourth of its attackers.

It could hear the humans scream as they rained more fire upon it.

It barely tickled the beast as the beast continued to rampage.

Absorbing the energy in the air the Beasts mouth opened as it prepared to use one of its most devastating attacks.

With a roar, a huge pillar of flame erupted as it destroyed even more of its enemy.

The remaining ships attempted to escape by flying through the air.

Noticing them getting out of its reach and not being keen on letting its prey escape, the Beast held out its arm as giant goops of darkness detached from its body.

From the darkness, Flying Grimm formed and with a single command, the beast ordered its creations to attack the humans.

The Grimm obeyed as they struck at the ships.

One by one more ships fell out of the sky till there was only one left.

However instead of fleeing; it began to charge at the Beast.

Full speed ahead it attempted to crash into the monster's torso.

It had no effect as the beast merely plucked the human's creation in the air before it crashed into it.

Looking within the ship it could see the humans within it shaking in fear.

With as much of a smile a monster could give, the beast then opened its mouth and dropped the last of its attackers within it.


On a scale of 1-10, how mad do you guys think Mori's going to be when he snaps out of it?

Journey is about to hit its one-year mark and I'm pleasantly surprised to see the growth it's had in one year.

I'd like to thank first and foremost my Beta's Eliad and Lurker for checking and helping brainstorm the story, they've helped not only by double-checking the written stuff but also by filtering ideas as well as helping me with bits of the story as well, Check out their stories if you have the chance as they are both quality writers!

I'd also like to thank the RWBY Nook. It's a discord channel I'm part of that is full of RWBY fanfiction writers, being able to see how different authors like to interpret characters and what story beats generally work and don't has massively improved my ability as a storyteller.

Finally, I'd like to thank you the reader! If I didn't have your guys' support and comments I probably wouldn't have reached this far. As an author, it means a lot to know that so many people are reading your story. It makes me feel like I'm not wasting my time and people genuinely enjoy what I write so thank you!

I hope you guys continue to follow the story of Mori exploring Remnant and I hope to see you guys still here when the next year comes around.

I hope you enjoyed this week's chapter and I will see you next time!

Toomuchtime8


.fox37: I'm glad you enjoyed it hopefully you're still on the edge of your seat!

Buttermu: Yup, how he knows will be revealed in future chapters.

David Alejandro Gmez Fernandez: Yup everyone's really growing I'm glad to see you are enjoying that.

DescendantYI2: It's good to see you're still following the story! I'm glad you appreciate the world-building it's pretty hard trying to juggle so many different things at once. As for Salem and Cinder's communication hopefully, this chapter clears up that fact as Salem doing what she wants while Cinder is attempting her own plans.

DaDragon562: I'm glad you enjoyed the fight. Stakes are definitely rising as the climax for V3 is reaching its height. But yeah Ironwood has no idea what he's messing with right now and it'll be fun seeing him have egg on his face.

Waterypaper: Yeah Ozpin didn't really do much before in V3 in canon. And you are correct on what he used!

andielgranrayo: You know what I'm not sure if I will use those yet, maybe it'll depend on how the story will develop.

AtomicGod666: Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.

ChickenHell: Thank you!

Noot: If I have the chance I will! They are so cool!

UdaySra: thank you!

iSee21: Thank you!

pmdg: I had a talk with my betas as well as different guys on space battles and what we came up with is while using it on himself for no pain and limit removal is a no-no like it's said in canon, there hasn't been any reason why he can't use it on other people outside of the author forgetting about its other applications.

Miguel Castro: Right now the story has been pretty consistent on being close to mainline RWBY but hopefully in V4-8 there is going to be more changes.

Wildan: Huh I'll have to check that out.

Manus Manem Lavat: Thank you I'm glad you enjoyed it! The future chapters should explain how he knows it.


Beta(s):

Eliad91

Patrician Lurker