Volume 1, Chapter 10
Escalation, Part 2
Leg day: with the exception of Mercury Black, and possibly Melanie Malachite, I can't think of a single person I know who would both willingly and happily subject themselves to such torture. Especially not with Mercury Black as your trainer... And most certainly not with a Mercury Black who is out to make you suffer. Such was my situation... And I have to admit, I absolutely brought it on myself; while I hadn't quite intended it as such, I may as well have thrown down the gauntlet when I ended our conversation about Emerald without denying any sort of attraction towards her. Combined with the newly found interest the two of us seemed to be taking in each other, and it was easy to see that Mercury very rightly felt that his chances were being threatened. So, in the face of that, what better way to humiliate the competition by bringing him past the brink of exhaustion, all while performing the same routine and making it seem easy. Mercury was practically strutting at the end of the day, while I could barely walk (with only my Aura preventing me from resorting to crawling); I hated to admit it, but Mercury had won round two. Round three, however, would have to wait, because that night, Cinder got around to letting us know just why she was in such a good mood that morning...
That Evening
"We're going outside the kingdom?" Three separate voices asked, all in various tones of confusion and concern. There was a Grimm reason, with two 'm's and a capital 'G', why only Hunters tended to leave the safety of the Kingdoms in small groups; even the military would send at least a full company on any mission outside the walls of the four main cities. And while Cinder herself was just as skilled as any Huntress, if not more so, the rest of them were probably only about as good as the average 2nd year trainee at one of the combat academies; Lee himself was likely only as good as a second year student at Signal, and that only because he'd spent just about every waking moment since arriving on Remnant either studying or training, with Cinder overseeing. Which meant that he'd yet to even see a Grimm in person... And yet, Cinder wanted him to come along with them into Grimm infested territory. Lee slumped into his seat on the couch.
"I'm sorry, Cinder, but are you sure we're up to the task? It's barely been five months since I started training; I'm pretty sure that I'd either just get myself killed or end up slowing you guys down looking after me."
Lee was rewarded for his pessimism with a hard knock to the head, delivered by his silent partner. His hands instantly shot up to cradle the afflicted area, while his deadliest glare was leveled at the diminutive young woman seated next to him.
"Ow! The hell was that for?!"
Neo was glaring right back... Though, Lee could see just the barest hint of a smirk coming through. Amused by his reaction to the physical abuse, no doubt. But if he was expecting a vocalized... (Telepathized?) answer from her, he would be disappointed, as it would be Cinder, seated across from them in an armchair, who would give him an answer.
"You may be inexperienced, Caerulean, but you are far from unskilled. In not quite five months, you have come from having just the faintest idea of how to fight to being able to defeat a larger opponent with at least a decade's worth of combat experience over you as well as an advantage in range and strength. You are also well on your way to becoming one of the best elemental dust mages Remnant has ever seen... Which is not a praise I deliver lightly, considering that I would say the same about myself. You are also easily skilled enough to compete with a third or fourth year student of one of the secondary combat schools, which is about when the average Hunter trainee will go on their first Grimm hunt, albeit in a controlled and supervised environment. But while the environment outside of Vale's walls will hardly be controlled, you will still have Neopolitan, Mercury, and Emerald, who are all comparable to the average higher combat academy student, as well as myself. You will be just fine, so long as you keep your wits about you."
"If you say so, Cinder..." While Lee couldn't help but feel most of that praise was only possible for Cinder to give because she had trained him herself (mostly), he nevertheless felt somewhat better about the entire situation. At the very least, he was reassured enough that he would agree to go along on this mission. Speaking of which... "But what are we going to be doing? I can't imagine that there's much out there, besides Grimm, Grimm, and even more Grimm."
All four of her subordinates turned curious gazes towards her, intent upon learning just what this mission would entail. Something about it had put Cinder in a good mood, and they would all (except for, perhaps, Mercury) readily admit that they had been dying to know. Knowing Cinder, that most likely meant it was going to advance her goals somehow...
"I take it you are all aware by now that we were betrayed by the Xiongs?"
A round of affirmative nods, as, yes, they did all happen to be aware of that fact. Hard not to be after the events of last week, during which Lee had killed two of them.
"You are also aware that Junior, in an effort to get back on our good side, has been looking into just who his father betrayed us to?"
Fortunately for Lee, his mind was quick enough in connecting the dots to prevent him from exhibiting FNG syndrome, namely by asking the obvious, albeit very stupid question:
"He finally found out?"
Emerald was quick to swat the back of Mercury's head, much to the amusement of Lee and Neo. "Of course he did, idiot; why else would Cinder bring it up?"
Lee, as had presumably Emerald and Neo, had thought far enough ahead to reach the next conclusion. "Whoever Beiji sold us out to, I'm going to guess that Junior went one better and discovered something other than just their name."
"Correct, Caerulean; while Junior already knew who our mystery agent is, that in and of itself was not enough for us to act. While I am confident that we could deal with this agent if need be, he is rarely seen outside of Signal Academy or the company of Headmaster Ozpin of Beacon, meaning that we would have to put ourselves on the metaphorical radar in order to do so, and that would not bode well at this point. No, what Junior was looking into was his connections. The man's sister has been missing for the last decade, but both of his other former team mates are alive, and have two children of their own."
Lee, normally content to let Cinder finish speaking before interrupting, could not suppress an indignant outburst: "Cinder, I am not going to kill a pair of kids!"
Cinder herself seemed surprised that Lee had drawn that conclusion. "Of course not, even I have morals; we're going after one of their parents."
"That's even worse!"
Cinder frowned disapprovingly at Lee, before beginning to lecture him. "That would be, if not for who their parents are. Both are still active Hunters, and either one would pose a credible threat to our goals if and when this agent informs them of our existence. I know you have not been in this world for long, Caerulean, but surely even you have heard of Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao Long."
Lee had. They, along with their teammate from their school days, Qrow Branwen (whom, Lee had now realized, must be this mysterious informant at the center of the conversation), were easily Vale's most famous Hunters at the moment. Despite the fact that all three were by now approaching their middle ages and teaching at Signal Academy on Patch, they still periodically went on high profile missions around the kingdom, conquering both the Grimm and the hearts of the common people wherever they went. Oddly enough, Summer and Taiyang were almost never seen together off of Patch... But, now that Lee knew they had children, it made sense; it would be irresponsible for both parents to take missions at the same time, leaving the two young children alone. Which meant that if they could find out when and where one of them was going to be on one such mission, and then kill them... Lee's conscience positively rankled at this train of thought, but... strip away any sense of morality and it was both a plausible and logical course of action to take. By putting one of them out of action so decisively, the other parent, and, more importantly, Qrow, would be driven into a period of mourning, which would serve to distract him from their trail long enough for it to go cold by the time he was ready to pick it up again. Additionally, in the event Qrow did manage to reacquire their trail, it would keep the surviving parent from joining any mission to track them down... At least until their two children were old enough to be left unattended. At which point said parent, as well as the children if they chose to become Hunters, would likely be first in line to come after them.
"I... Can see how that makes sense. But, rather than kill one of them, why not just deliver a career ending injury? If one of them was suitably disfigured, but still alive, the other wouldn't be able to leave their side for pretty much the rest of their lives, keeping both of them off our case indefinitely. That would still leave Qrow, but it'd buy us enough time for the trail to go cold, while also sending a message loud and clear... If we decided to let him know it was us."
Lee repressed a shudder of self-hatred; as much as it made sense, he was still very morally opposed to going after someone who wasn't directly opposed to himself or his comrades. As far as he was concerned, Qrow had made himself fair game by this point, but Summer and Taiyang remained relatively innocent in all of this...
"A very well thought out idea, Caerulean, but leaving our target alive to relay our identities would cancel out the very premise of this strategy; Qrow can not be allowed to discover just who we are, or what we are up to."
"And he won't, as long as we're smart about it! Strike quickly while the target is isolated, and make certain we don't wear our usual outfits; standardized attire, preferably resembling a known band of mercenaries or outlaws, and make sure that any uniquely distinguishing features, such as our eyes, and in Merc's, Neo's, and Emerald's cases, their hair, are covered up. If all Taiyang or Summer sees is a band of nondescript mercenaries, that's all they'll be able to report."
If he hadn't already voided what little had been in his stomach after their group workout session, it would be fighting to come up right now as he actually advocated a plan that involved the maiming of an innocent. As it was, his eyes were clenched shut as he was wracked with a deep emotional pain. But, considering that the alternative was literally murder (as opposed to his three cases of manslaughter at The Club)... Well, in this case, Lee decided that it was the lesser of two evils... Then again, wouldn't it be kinder to just outright kill the person, rather than leave them to linger as a broken shell of what they once were?
Lee didn't have an answer to that, nor was he about to ask for one; Cinder had made it abundantly clear that she was going through with this, morality be damned. So the best he could do at this point would be to do what he thought was right... Or, in this case, the least wrong... Which meant at least giving their target a chance to live a semi-ordinary life after Cinder was done with them...
For the first time since waking up on Remnant, Lee decided that he needed a stiff drink. Too bad he still had to sit through the rest of this impromptu briefing/planning session.
"You know," Mercury cut in before Lee and Cinder could continue their little argument, "I've been meaning to ask you about this, but it just hasn't seem to come up until now. Lee, did you know that your eyes are glowing?"
"Huh?" It took a moment for Lee to process the non sequitur, and make the switch from his previous rather morbid train of thought. "Haven't they always been like this? The day I woke up, Emerald said they were almost glowing."
"Yeah," Emerald replied, "Almost. This time they actually were until Merc said something."
"Maybe it's just a trick of the light? I mean they do seem to naturally be rather bright like Cinder's."
"Perhaps," Cinder hedged, "But mine do not actually emit light. Yours have been on occasion for the last week."
"Wut."
A gentle nudge to the side caused him to look over to his partner, who was looking up at him with an amused gaze. "They were like that at the club last week too, when I teleported in with that mook you cold clocked. Is there something you're not telling us?"
Lee stared back at her uncomprehendingly as he went over the memory. Nothing had felt out of the ordinary, other than the fact that time had seemed to slow down the instant she popped in. And it had stayed slow, too, up until the mook had dropped unconscious. Perfectly normal for an adrenaline rush... Except that his eyes had moved at normal speed. The phenomenon had repeated itself several times that night, and Lee had been able to consciously replicate it since, which really only left one logical conclusion.
"Ohhhhhh!" Lee smiled as the connection was made. "I guess that must be a side effect of my semblance. I sort of stumbled upon it during the mission last week... Shtako, did I really never mention it?"
Emerald decided to answer for them all. "No, you didn't. We all sort of assumed you just turned out to be the type to get extreme results when put under extreme pressure."
Or, as Lee translated that, they thought he'd just suddenly decided to GiT GuD. Which... Wasn't entirely wrong, except in this case, GiT GuD had been more of a side effect than the objective. Needless to say, he couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. "Well, you're not wrong. That stunt with the steam? I was able to pull that off because I was experiencing time at a slower rate... Or, rather, I was thinking so fast that time seemed to be moving slower. And since infusing Dust into Aura and then using it offensively is largely a thought based process, I was able to use that speed to fine tune the process to make it more efficient. And, come to think of it, I suppose that means I also have Faunas-like reflexes while I'm actually using it, since I have more 'time' to process external stimuli before reacting..."
Lee couldn't help an ironic smile as he watched Emerald's jaw drop... And he could feel the way Neo was staring at him like he was the coolest thing on the planet at the moment. "C'mon, it's not as if it actually makes me any faster. Quit looking at me like that, your semblances are still cooler than mine."
"Yours is still over powered!"
"Says the girl who can manipulate minds! Jedi mind tricks for days!"
"Yeah, but... Okay, I'll give you that one. Also... What the hell is a Jed Eye?"
"It's from a movie series where I come from. Without going too much into detail, they basically run around with laser swords in an era where most people fight with laser guns, and can do things like shoot lightning, lift (small) space ships, and to an extent control other people's minds."
"Oh... I see."
Lee, of course, was too much of a gentleman to stick his tongue out at her... He totally didn't do that...
"Well," Mercury interjected as he sprang to his feet, causing Lee to gape at him incredulously, "As entertaining as this has been, I'm gonna catch me some shuteye."
"How are your legs not just tubes of pudding after today?!"
With a grin, Mercury just rolled up one of his pant legs... Promptly causing Lee to smack a palm into his own forehead. "I'm an idiot..."
Mercury had bionic legs. Which meant that while Lee had been pushing himself just to keep up in their workout, Merc had literally not even felt most of it, and had probably been resisting the urge to laugh at him the whole time. And what made it worse was that Lee had known him for five months now and never managed to figure that out... And they even shared a bedroom for Dust's sake!
That stiff drink was sounding better by the moment.
"Well played, Merc. Well played..."
Yeah... it took me nearly five months to finally realize just how much of an idiot I had become; between not noticing that Mercury has bionic legs, and somehow not expecting Cinder to target innocents in her machinations, it was pretty bad. Yet, despite it all, what choice did I have but to stick things out? Sure, I could have tried to leave, if the thought had occurred to me, but A: I was culpable in at least four cases of manslaughter by that point, of which one very well could be considered murder, and two of the others along with that one would have Junior Xiong looking to off me if ever learned that I had split from Cinder's group; and B: while I wasn't quite certain if Emerald or Neo would go along with it, I was damn sure that trying to run away from all of this now would put me at the top of Cinder's own hit list, me being her apprentice notwithstanding. And I held no illusions that I'd survive a serious fight against her. So like it or not, I was stuck... But at least the company was good when we weren't busy being miserable excuses for human beings, and it would be a couple of weeks before we set out on this newest mission...
So... Was not expecting Merc to have bionic legs, but oh goodness that made the whole leg day joke work so much better! xD Also, I hadn't really noticed it back in volume 1, but Cinder looks quite like Ada Wong with the short hair, yeah? ^_^ But, on a more serious note, now that we actually KNOW a little bit about Emerald and Mercury's backstories (beyond Merc's implication earlier in the season that his dad was an alcoholic), I'll be going back to edit certain details in previous chapters in order to fit what we've just learned. Shouldn't take too long, as the only scene that will majorly change should be Lee and Emerald talking about Merc's family in Networking, Part 4.
Update: Details in previous chapters have been rewritten to account for The Beginning of The End. Nothing too important changed, just a few details here and there that make the story compliant with canon so far. No need to really go back and reread if you read the old versions, just know the only thing major that changed was Lee's and Emerald's conversation back in Networking, Part 4, to make Mila Malachite her first kill, and to correct Merc's back story to what was shown in Beginning of the End. I've also shortened the amount of time pre-RWBY this is (3 years), as 5 years is too long for how old they all appeared to be in that episode. Until canon or Word of God says otherwise, I'm going to assume Emerald was approaching 16, Merc was a little older than that, and Cinder was in her early-mid twenties. Putting them at 17, 17, and 25ish now.
Also, I added a new choice to the poll. Current poll standings:
Professor Fall + CMSN: 19
FLME + CMMN: 9
FLME + CRLN: 4
Divide and Conquer (New Option): 0
I see people seem to like the idea of Professor Fall ^_^
