Emerald raced into the room where she thought she'd seen Jett head into, stopping awkwardly as there was no sign of the woman, but instead the room was devoid of people and exhibits, save the man that she had once considered family standing near one of the walls that exited into a trophy hall. Mercury stared at the artwork on the wall as if it was speaking to him, lost in thought as he leaned a touch closer to it. Emerald wasn't even sure what the art was offhand, but she contemplated removing her weapon as she stepped towards him quietly. He was dangerous, and they weren't on the same side anymore, so what was stopping her?

"You don't remember this painting, do you?" Mercury asked her without looking at her. Emerald moved in even closer, still keeping on her guard as she joined him and looked it over. It was the school in all of its glory, including the cliffs and waterfalls. Emerald searched her memories for what he was talking about before telling him.

"What an ego," she replied, causing him to chuckle.

"Sometimes I wonder if Salem hated Oz more, or Cinder," Mercury jested. Emerald rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, okay," she sarcastically remarked. Another minute or two of silence passed and Mercury sighed.

"I miss moments like these," he told her.

"I'm not coming back," Emerald assured him. He nodded slowly.

"I know," he told her. Her eyes softened slightly and she turned quickly to look at him.

"Why don't you leave and join us?!" She blurted. He turned to her slowly, his tired eyes reading hers for a long moment.

"You know why," he insisted.

"I mean…" she rubbed the back of her neck. "You'd have to serve some time for sure, but I'm sure that I could talk to Coco… or someone else about getting a shorter sentence."

"Ha," he scoffed. "You were an accessory. I've killed people."

"It's never too late, Merc!" She told him.

"This isn't the same group you knew before," he explained. "There is no out now. I have word from Jett that Abigor is cleaning house soon to prepare for the next phase of his plan."

"Then get out now!" Emerald pled.

"It's not that simple!" He shouted.

"It wasn't before either! I was scared for my life defying Salem!" Emerald yelled back.

"The difference is that you're still alive," Mercury informed her. "Her court was smaller then. Do you really think they could protect me at Beacon from Blood? Jett? Abigor? Strakh? The list goes on, Em!"

"But! But…" She knew that she wasn't going to be able to talk him out of it, and despite all of this time apart, it hurt. He was like family to her and hadn't tried to manipulate her like Cinder had. She didn't want to fight him.

"Thanks for the reprieve," Mercury stated. "Usually I have to act like a badass all day. This was nice."

"You don't have to do this," Emerald insisted, taking a step back and placing her hands on her guns.

"I have no choice," Mercury claimed. Emerald shook her head, looking at the floor for a few seconds before looking back up at him.

"If I take you in, there will be no one to get you out this time," Emerald noted. "I won't let you do something you'll regret, or hurt these people." He snickered.

"It's a little late for the former," Mercury scoffed, taking up a battle stance.

"I'm sorry," Emerald apologized. He gritted his teeth.

"So am I," he replied.

Emerald ejected her blades from the end of her guns, both of them shooting past Mercury as he charged her, wondering how she could have missed him when there wasn't that great of a gap between them. Before he could reach her the blades planted as intended and she rocketed towards him, not giving him the time he needed to deflect her attack and he took her feet to the jaw. It sent him careening backward, forcing him to spring up off of his hands and once he was standing again she was pressing the attack, the blades reattached and her weapons in sickle form. He blocked them almost methodically and when she made an attempt to deflect an attack from his feet he managed to kick away one of the sickles.

"Looks like I still have the upper hand," he sneered.

"You tell yourself that," she informed him. Like clockwork, she blocked a flurry of shots from him until she found an opening and took back the offensive. They knew each other too well, and with only one of her guns it was going to prove far more difficult, not to mention the fact that despite how loud the party was, people would undoubtedly come and see what was happening in the next room with the gunshots and all. She was afraid that's what he wanted and he would just run again like he often did these days. She had to stop him from doing so. These people were depending on her.

"Already out of options," he chuckled.

"Hardly," she stated, using the flat of her blade to deflect a kick that caused her to slide backward. She smirked. All she needed was some space.

"Master!" Aurora yelled entering the room and sliding to a stop in a panic. He held up a hand to her behind him.

"I can handle this," Mercury insisted.

"Is that why you had her trap me in her mind last time?" Emerald laughed.

"I wanted to see if you had actually improved," Mercury grinned. Emerald glared at him. Oh, you don't even know the half of it.

"Please let me take her down, Master! I don't want you to get hurt!" Aurora yelled frantically.

"I can take care of this!" He asserted.

"This is cute and all…" Emerald began. Mercury raced forward towards her, sliding under her blade as she fired it at him and coming up feet first to blast her back, only to find it was an illusion. His eyes widened as Aurora cackled. "Pretty seamless, huh?" Aurora disappeared and Emerald completely blindsided Mercury, both chains wrapping around his arm as she had retrieved her lost weapon, and dragging him in with her heel meeting his chin, doing damage to his aura as she pulled on the tether to stop him from escaping, finding the strength to drag him off of his feet over her, and slamming him to the ground. Panic sat in as he made impact. Was this the same girl he used to train with?

"Seems you have a few tricks up your sleeve," Mercury noted as he finally freed himself from the chain and used a Gravity Dust blast to fire himself into the air. "But I have a few of my own too."

"Mercury!?" Coco shouted as she entered the room. Mercury landed a few feet from Emerald and shook his head.

"You think I'll fall for that twice in a row?" Mercury questioned.

"I don't really need you to fall for anything," Emerald stated. "Just need your mind distracted for a second." She managed to get the jump on him a second time, though he partially blocked it, stomping on her foot and icing her to the floor with Dust before nailing her square in the chest with his boot. She broke free, but her aura suffered a major hit and she slid back, blocking with both blades as he wouldn't let up, each Gravity boosted kick nearly breaking her defense.

"Come on, Em," he grunted. "Thought you didn't want to hurt me."

"Have to keep you from doing something stupid," she seethed back as she pushed him back from her.

"You know you don't owe them anything," he grumbled.

"They gave me a second chance," Emerald argued.

"You gave yourself a second chance, don't give them so much credit," Mercury countered. "These people are the same as us, stumbling through life just doing the best they can. Don't put them on a pedestal."

"I'm not. But they care about me, so I'm returning the favor," she explained.

"They're using you!" Mercury exclaimed, getting a clean kick in and forcing her away again.

"They aren't like that!" Emerald denied. Mercury smirked, he knew he was getting to her.

"Like I said. I'm glad you got out and I'm not here to change your mind, but these people have their demons too," Mercury noted.

"I'm done talking," Emerald claimed. She replicated herself in his mind, five of her moved slowly in, prepared to strike. Mercury had seen this before, it was nothing new, but unlike Yang, he wasn't an idiot. Emerald hadn't gotten that strong. He knew her tactics… for the most part… Was she getting to him? No! That was absurd, he'd always been stronger. Besides, he just needed to buy Aurora another minute or two.

"You've always had a tell when you do this," Mercury informed her. "And besides, this is nothing." He unleashed his whirlwind attack, the blasts of Wind Dust swirled around him and he launched them away from him through her decoys. He glanced around, unable to find her. She wouldn't have left… unless she had seen Aurora, but Jett was supposed to make sure that didn't happen, even though Mercury had yet to speak with Jett that night.

She really was in his head, wasn't she? Mercury slowly circled, on his guard, ready for an attack to come when Emerald and Aurora crashed into the room through the wall where the painting had been.

"You were supposed to keep her busy!" Aurora shouted at him. Emerald blasted the smaller girl away from her and ran for her with her sickles. Mercury panicked before realizing a minor detail that Emerald's illusion was missing.

"Nice try," Mercury sneered, "but I guess you haven't seen her yet tonight, have you?"

"Not falling for it anymore, huh?" She asked behind him. Her chains wrapped around each of his arms and she pulled him in, her feet landing square in the small of his back as she leapt up and kicked him. "You always were better than me, I'll admit that. But it sounds like where you've become complacent, I've found a reason to fight other than survival."

"Again with that compassion nonsense," Mercury groaned. He gripped the restraints and pulled her over his head this time, forcing her to release them as she flew through the air over him, landing on her feet, though now she was weaponless. "Sometimes just trying to survive is enough."

Emerald's chest heaved. She knew that Mercury's aura had to be close to breaking, but no matter what she did, it didn't seem like she could get the upper hand. Not completely. How much did she have left in her? Now that he had her weapons, things were completely in his favor, and there was no illusion to get her out of it this time.

"I'm not going to kill you, and you can't beat me without these so… it looks like I've won," Mercury pointed out.

"I know I might not have been great at hand to hand when we used to practice," Emerald reminded him as if he didn't already know. "But I've learned a thing or two from these people aside from caring about others."

"As if," Mercury scoffed. Wasn't Aurora ready yet? What was taking her so long?! Emerald rushed in, dodging a few gunshots with the assistance of her semblance, reaching him much more quickly than he would have hoped.

"You would have been better off using your own weapon," Emerald informed him.

"Would I have?" He questioned as she attempted to grapple hers away from him. He head butt her, leaping and attempting a kick when her chains wrapped around his leg and she gripped the restraint. She shrugged.

"I guess the Gravity Dust in my weapon reacted to the Gravity Dust in your boots," she smirked. With a sound blast, she took both of the legs clean off, leaving Mercury lying on the floor as she drove him into it with a kick. "Guess you'll have to stay here until the police come."

"You're just going to leave me here?!" Mercury shouted.

"If you're really as worried about Salem as you say, you shouldn't mind staying safe in a cell," Emerald claimed. Mercury twisted his body to glare at her. Dammit Aurora, hurry up!

"Then the past meant nothing!?" He questioned. "All that time we spent together?! Aren't we family?!"

"My, my. You're either extremely brave or utterly stupid," Salem noted as Mercury stood between her and Emerald.

"Merc…" Emerald stammered.

"She's doing her best," Mercury claimed. "If you want to take out your anger for her failings, take it out on me." Salem looked at him for a long time, amused, before shaking her head and chuckling.

"Perhaps it's both…"

"I appreciate everything you did for me," Emerald told him. "But I have a job to do, and this is the best way for me to keep you safe." Emerald began walking away.

"Em!" He shouted out but she ignored him.

"You have the right to remain silent!" She yelled back, still sauntering away, her heart pounding. Her scroll began ringing and she removed it from her pocket, noting that she also had several texts from Coco as well. She had completely forgotten that she'd turned off her earpiece before the fight.

"Coco?" Emerald asked over the scroll.

"Where are you!?" Coco yelled, panicked.

"I was fighting Mercury," Emerald explained.

"We have a situation in the Great Hall," Coco began.

And then the lights went out…

Sterling led Luna to an area of the floor that was far busier than where they'd met, his display had been set up as close to the main stage as they'd let him, and he was quite proud of the fact, as it seemed people were huddled around the bullet in the glass case, murmuring to each other over the ethics of such an item existing. Should such a bullet be allowed to exist? How were they making something that was able to ignore Aura? They weren't planning on mass-producing it, were they? Stratford had really gone off the deep end if this was his idea of keeping the peace in Mistral and making sure that the underworld didn't step out of line, even if it was nothing more than a scare tactic. How was he planning on showing off how this bullet worked? Despite the fact that most of the questions elicited a range of negative responses and emotions, he basked in their glow. Truly an impressive feat regardless.

"This must be yours then?" Luna asked as the two of them first forced their way through the crowd to get a closer look before the mass parted. Luna exuded enough radiance without him that she caught everyone's eye, but having Stratford with her was almost larger than life. Vale's cherished model, with Mistral's leader, and possibly strongest and best strategist of all time. The conversations died almost instantly, no one could bring themselves to ask the questions they wanted the answers for but were hopeful that Luna might get them out of him for them. "A bullet that ignores Aura." She was silent for a long moment before staring at him, her eyes unnerving him. "What a horrifying notion."

"That's what everyone gets wrong," he explained. He cleared his throat and looked at the mob around them. "If everyone would be so kind as to take a step away from us, I will gladly explain how the bullet works, and field any questions that you might have about it." They moved as one, not about to argue with the man, and watched closely as he looked upon it with pride, lifting the glass case slowly and carefully as Siobhan arrived, glaring across the room to ensure that no one approached during the process. Everything appeared to be going cleanly, maybe Emerald had already found Stardust and was dealing with them. "You see, the bullet doesn't ignore Aura. Aura ignores the bullet!" Another murmur filled the crowd as he was reached for it, but was stopped short by ear-splitting microphone feedback.

"Hello?" A voice echoed through the building, forcing them to all turn their attention to the stage.

"Isn't that Aurora? One of Mercury's?" Siobhan asked Sterling as he closed the lid and watched the small girl on stage.

"What an amazing turnout!" She declared as she looked into the sea of scientists and celebrities. "I have to say, you guys must have a lot of faith in Vale and its Huntsmen, with us declaring that we'd attack tonight and them insisting on not changing the date. I guess that's neither here nor there. Did you know that they only have one person here tonight on security?"

"She's not alone," Sterling's voice thundered. Aurora smirked.

"Wow, a few big shots are here too!? Exciting! I'd love to pick your brains, but Master is fighting in the next room over to buy me some time, so I guess now's a good time to make our announcement," Aurora informed them. "The children of Salem also wanted to take part in tonight's show, so we have a little update for you! We just have a few kinks left with Dread before we go public!"

"Public?!" Someone yelled in disbelief. "Nobody wants your aggression-inducing hallucination drug!"

"You misunderstand, sir. Those are the kinks!" Aurora noted. "The true purpose of the drug is to boost the user's Aura, and by association, their semblance for a period of time! Think of it as a steroid for your abilities if you will! I can start a sign-up list now if you'd all like!"

"We still don't want it!" Siobhan added. Aurora chuckled and shook her head.

"That's the problem with you do-gooders, but I guess it won't really matter when all of Salem's followers have a steady supply of the stuff and you all refuse to take it," Aurora explained. "It just means you'll all be easier to take down."

"Enough of this," Sterling declared, moving around his display and making his way to the stage.

"You didn't even let me demonstrate yet!" Aurora announced in a panic.

"We've seen enough," he assured her. She smiled and her face darkened.

"Have you?" She pondered. "We've pulled out a few of our best vials of Dread and they are available for trial in the backroom! But that's not what I'm really here to talk about, is it? Despite everything that we've done up to this point, and even with the Dread, you all think that we can still be stopped!" She cackled. "It's time to prove you all wrong. We can't be stopped and you should be worried. But how about we let our actions speak for themselves! Right now all of you are in an illusion, courtesy of yours truly!"

"All of us?" Luna questioned.

"Thanks to the Dread…" Aurora lowered her voice. "But I'm sure you'll all be fine without it." Sterling glanced at Siobhan. The entire room in an illusion? It was more potent than they thought. "And once it lifts, you're all in for a long night."

"What do you mean?" Luna replied. Aurora laughed and skipped away.

"You'll see!" She informed them. The other shoe dropped, she disappeared, and the slightly stunned silence that filled the hall was replaced with the blaring of an alarm, a red light flashing and filling the room on occasion.

"Sterling!" Siobhan yelled. The case behind him was shattered and the bullet was missing.

"No!" Sterling shouted. He made a once over of the room looking for Aurora.

And then the lights went out…

Hope you all enjoyed this week's chapter! This is usually the part where I summarize everything, but this week I want to let you all know that we've caught up to what was prewritten. I've been struggling with anxiety for the last year or so and once I start taking these meds more consistently I anticipate getting ahead again. That being said, I'm going to do my damndest to have a chapter out every weekend still. Next week, Chapter 40: Proving!

A big thank you to AG_Nonsuch, Helihi, Cadhla182, Carlomontie, Nliast, Y8ay8a, Sa-Dui, Diyaru4500, Demize00Zero, TheCipherNine, SketchHungry, Ookaminoki, Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Dishwasher1910. The artwork can be found at Deviantart, you can search Silent-Celica and under my favorites tab, I have a collection for NITE.

Until next week, stay classy!