"I honestly cannot believe that it's gone this far…" Weiss muttered, downcast.
Tentatively, Blake grasped Weiss's hand from across the Colosseum seat. Both girls had chosen to sit beside each other during the final round of the Vytal Festival Tournament. Inwardly, Blake recoiled at the sensation. Her hand still felt so dainty. Small in comparison to Blake's own hand. She was not a fan of intimate gestures. Or any gestures whatsoever, to be honest. The phantom sensation of feeling another on her skin was enough to give her goose-bumps. It reminded her all too much of the smothering presence of Adam Taurus.
Yet, she would sacrifice a small modicum of comfort if only to relieve the Schnee Heiress. Considering the life that the poor heiress had lived, partially a result of her own actions in the White Fang, it was the least she could do. Weiss deserved that much. With the heiress currently in the midst of brokering some military deal between the Atlesian Military and the Schnee Dust Company, the absolute last thing that Blake wanted to do was cause the girl any more unnecessary stress.
Besides. They had done this before. Holding hands was not a problem for her.
Heh. Blake almost chuckled at the thought. If someone were to have spoken to her several months ago to say that Blake would wind up willingly holding hands with the Schnee Heiress, she would have laughed uproariously at the sheer lunacy of such an idea ever occurring under any stretch of the imagination. And yet, here she was.
"At least we have each other."
How in the world could Blake have ever anticipated actually enjoying the company of Weiss Schnee? It was a small positive outcome amongst what felt like a sea of negativity swirling about in recent times. Yet, thanks to their mutually shared experiences with strange dreams and numerous investigations over the past few months, Blake had gotten to learn a staggeringly large amount of information about the white-haired girl.
The heiress smiled at her words, but it was a weak smile at best. Blake would have to have been blind to not be able to spot the hurt that had seemingly blossomed inside the white-haired trainee huntress, ever since Ruby had abandoned her at the end of the doubles match with Team SSSN. The reaction from their team leader had hit Weiss pretty badly, even if Ruby had tried her best to mend fences afterwards. Blake had been trying to help the heiress work through her pain, to a varying degree of success- yet it would still take some time.
Were it not for the sudden arrival of Winter Schnee, the older sister of her little heiress, Blake would have been stuck with a downcast Weiss for quite some time. Thankfully the older Schnee, an Atlesian Specialist of all things, had been able to talk some sense into Weiss and snap the girl out of her funk. For the most part. She hadn't heard much about what exactly Winter and Weiss had spoken about when alone- the heiress turning an interesting shade of embarrassed red when she asked, but Blake was satisfied just seeing Weiss acting even a little bit better.
Following Winter's arrival, Blake had been able to convince Weiss into telling her what was really bothering Weiss about the Vytal Festival.
Through the ice-blue lens of Weiss Schnee, Ruby's actions at the end of the doubles match had signified a turning point for Ruby Rose- where she had become so preoccupied with her thoughts that she had begun leaving her team behind, even during critical moments. Ruby's absence for the following two nights after the match had only rubbed salt in the wound. It had been made abundantly clear to Weiss where Ruby had been for those two nights.
From what Blake had been able to uncover, the diminutive leader of Team RWBY had eventually been to visit Weiss only after hearing about her condition from an automated scroll message of all things. After that, Ruby had been working hard to put her team first in any way possible- up to and including limiting her time with Kirakishou. Supposedly. The general consensus within their minds was that Ruby had simply neglected one girl for another. Such a thing could hardly be called growth- especially after everything they had discovered about Kirakishou.
It was clear that Ruby wasn't handling the stress of everything happening around her. That, more than anything, had upset the Schnee Heiress. Ruby's inability to accept help from anyone, instead favouring a vain attempt to shoulder all of the responsibility herself.
"...I just hope that when this damnable tournament is finally over, we can have some semblance of peace again. It pains me dearly to see her so stressed, Blake."
"One can only hope," she muttered, squeezing Weiss' fingers for reassurance. It was the least she could do in their current situation. Though, privately Blake held little faith that such a thing would ever occur. Both Yang and Blake believed that the only thing that would cause any actual positive change in Ruby would be a prolonged absence from Kirakishou.
The girl just had too much baggage. Too many issues. With the whole Laplace's Demon situation hanging over them like some kind of twisted spectre, there was an uncomfortably high possibility of real damage occurring if their leader continued to court Kirakishou. From what Blake had learned, both from interpreting Kirakishou's words and researching the phenomenon that the creature was named after, it was clear that the creature wasn't going to stop until Kirakishou actively participated in the Alice Game.
The Alice Game… she scrunched up her face in disgust. What a horrid thing. What kind of person would force their own daughters to participate in something so… macabre? Killing each other over some twisted craving to bring back a first-born child. It doesn't make any sense.
If Kirakishou was capable of resurrecting a fallen loved one, even in the form of an artificial doll body, why couldn't she just resurrect this Alice figure? Would that not spell the end of the Alice Game and, thus, Laplace's influence? Would she even want to do such a thing? What would such a course of action even entail?
What was the cause of all of this madness? Eugh. It was horrible. Too many questions. Layers upon layers. It was a miracle that their team leader hadn't gone mad just trying to understand everything happening around her.
Were it not for their tentative peace with Kirakishou following the revelations about the Alice Game, Blake was certain that their poor team leader would have gone grey out of sheer stress alone. Thankfully, with everyone more or less committed to dealing with Laplace's Demon and its desire to continue the Alice Game, they had a mutual target to focus their actions. They had a plan. Finally. The last time Team RWBY had displayed any modicum of a unified plan had been in regards to the White Fang, before the moratorium on outside missions had inadvertently rendered all of their actions pointless.
Once the Vytal Festival was over, they could finally get this show on the road. Perhaps, then, Weiss and Blake would be able to speak with Yang and Ruby about their own… research. But, for now, it was better left unsaid. The last thing they wanted to do was cause any more arguments.
After. Blake decided, nodding to herself. After the Vytal Festival Tournament. Then I'll talk to Weiss about finally opening up to the rest of our team. I… I hope they understand. I really do. Yang should be fine, she'd understand- maybe even congratulate our hard work in her own way. Probably with a bunch of stupid jokes and innuendo… Ruby will be the difficult one.
"...I hope Ruby doesn't get chosen for the first round," Weiss spoke up, her voice barely audible over the roaring crowd. For the final round, Amity Colosseum had seen a massive turnout. She wouldn't be surprised if every seat in the entire Colosseum was filled, along with a great many standing up in the bleachers. "Even if it would mean that Ruby would finally get to fight and unleash her pent-up strength, if she did win then she'd have to fight the remaining contestants. The compounding fatigue would eventually get to her, medical assistance be damned. Laplace may consider that an opportunity to strike."
Blake understood what her partner was saying. Considering the sheer number of contestants that had participated in the Vytal Festival Tournaments, there were a grand total of eight finalists at the moment. Thus, the final round was a bit of a misnomer, as there were in fact multiple sub-rounds that would need to be completed until only two finalists remained.
Their only saving grace was that the entire final round would be completed during this single night, in a massive marathon event made possible through aura boosters, high-class medical service, and enough sponsors to have the entire festival streamed to every corner of the world with little fanfare at all. But all of the lien and medical services in the world could do little to stop mental exhaustion from kicking into overtime.
Suffice to say, the Vytal Festival Tournament would be ending tonight. The only question was how many fights their poor team leader would have to participate in until the inevitable deciding round finally arrived. With each consecutive match, there existed the possibility of Ruby losing against a stronger opponent which -if one considered Ruby's current volatile mindset- could cause all manner of problems for Team RWBY. The last thing they wanted to do was to run damage control.
Whether they liked it or not, Ruby Rose needed a win. Perhaps then, when Ruby was in good spirits, they could all work towards improving their team leader. One step at a time. Then, they could all figure out what they were going to do about Laplace's Demon and the Alice Game, before finally dealing with Kirakishou's influence over Ruby.
"...There's also the problem in that Pyrrha Nikos is also a finalist. If Ruby does succeed, inevitably Ruby is going to have to face her."
She could easily pinpoint the moment when that particular revelation struck Weiss, the heiress frowning in thought at the very idea. Pyrrha Nikos was regarded as the Invincible Girl for a reason, after all. Her success in various tournaments over the years was quite famous nowadays, the young redhead being heralded as a once-in-a-lifetime prodigy. Weiss and Blake could both attest to Pyrrha's skill first-hand, having witnessed her absolutely demolish any poor sap that was assigned to her in Professor Goodwitch's sparring class.
If Ruby were to face Pyrrha Nikos, things could get ugly. Weiss had spoken to her about how Ruby had acted during the fight with Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias. From what Blake had been told about the spectacle, Ruby had grown increasingly irate until eventually she had hatched a plan which ended up sending Weiss to the infirmary. While the Schnee Heiress had eventually recovered, it had surprised her just how far Ruby had been willing to go in order to secure a victory.
Considering everything she had noticed about Ruby's behaviour, Blake suspected that if Ruby was pushed into a corner during her fight with Pyrrha Nikos, there was a significant possibility that she could come up with some dangerous schemes. Possibly even at great risk to her own body.
There was also the nebulous factor of Kirakishou to consider. If the private suspicion of both Weiss and Blake was indeed correct, then Kirakishou may have given Ruby some kind of strategic advice to use on the battlefield. Or at the very least some kind of insider information into who exactly she would be facing in the finals. If such a thing was even possible.
Were it not for Ruby's uncanny accuracy in deducing the team they had faced in the qualifying round of the Vytal Festival Tournament, along with their skills and weaknesses in a fight, then such a suspicion wouldn't have occurred. But the information Ruby had provided had been just too accurate to be natural.
Kirakishou was practically the only person outside her team that Ruby ever spoke to these days. It would make sense. But was it possible? With the blonde's mysterious ability to teleport through water it made information gathering a significant possibility, but how could she have known who would be selected as their opponents? The entire process was random, for Oum's sake!
"Whatever happens, I hope Ruby knows what she's doing. There is too much potential for outside influence for anything to go down normally right now. Whether it be due to Laplace or someone else."
Weiss nodded curtly. "Yes, I agree. We will need to keep our eyes and ears open. Both in regards to the festival itself and any other… outliers."
Kirakishou stared deep into her mirror, ignoring the muffled cries and grunts from one of the soldiers pinned to the nearby wall via her pale vines. The sounds they emitted were but a distraction, one brought forth by the Headmaster of Beacon Academy after Qrow had relayed the information that he had been spoon-fed via Kirakishou herself.
An acceptable consequence of doing what her beloved had asked at the time, of course. Being the pure rose that she was, Kirakishou would continue to move forward regardless of how her little reaper unwittingly influenced those around her. In time, Ruby would learn of the grand scope of her view- the reach of her little silver eyes.
As Ruby herself had recently explained, her master did not feel comfortable with the idea of influencing those around her. It would make sense that her beloved would thus be uncertain of the consequences of her unknowing influence over the denizens of Vale proper. That, in deciding to have Kirakishou speak up about her past in an effort to bridge Team RWBY together, the knowledge would inevitably find itself in Ozpin's hands and force the man to act accordingly.
It was quite annoying how the outside weeds would form their own little hidden network, seemingly trying to hide away from her prying eye. She did not like it. Not one bit. Had it not been for Laplace invariably drawing her attention towards Ruby's enigmatic Uncle, she may never have learned all that she did. Of the roots hidden beneath the weeds.
While Ruby Rose may love Qrow Branwen, Kirakishou herself finds the aged huntsman to be rather repulsive. Were it not for his relation with Ruby, she would have enjoyed turning the man into nothing but a simple flower for her seedbed. If such a thing was even possible. She had found, much like Ozpin himself, that Qrow Branwen possessed a remarkably strong mind. Enough to resist her subtle pulls for the most part. A shame, too, considering the spark held within his body.
At the very least, she had been able to gather more memories of Summer Rose to add to her ever-growing collection. Little more than nostalgic events confined deep in a broken-down mind, yet conversely attached to such perplexing emotions. Once Summer was revived, it would hopefully make her beloved little Ruby smile again. She would like that. Very much. The smiles of her Master were something to be treasured.
Adding her newly-acquired memories to the current composite should prove to be quite the boon, moving forward. Until she could branch out and gather from the rarer sources, it would have to do for now. Hopefully her beloved would understand.
Hmm. It was just about time to begin resurrecting Summer, was it not? Why, in her excitement for the upcoming event, she had almost forgotten. While technically her dream for the future dictated reviving Summer at the precise moment, Kirakishou would have enjoyed having Summer awaken at this current time. If only to see the look on the good general's face moments before the mother of her master enacted her revenge. It was the least she could do after he had been kind enough to store the body for safekeeping, even if the man was a terrible host who enjoyed poking and prodding a little more than he should.
Perhaps she would repay him in the future.
"Mmmf! Mmmf!"
She glanced over to the captive guards, giggling lightly and shaking her head. Silly boys did not know how to remain quiet. Deep within, she felt a stirring desire to erase the two guards herself, but decided against such an action. It would do little good to tarnish a place where she had personally crafted a great many memories with Ruby Rose.
Instead, she would let Cinder do it. If there was one thing that Kirakishou disliked, it was toys that would not behave. Having two mutually useless toys smash each other to bits seemed poetic, in a sense. Well, it made sense to her and Kirakishou would be the only one to witness the event. Thus, it was alright. Once Cinder lost her use, it could be done. Until then, she was stuck with them.
A shame, however. Had she the time, she would have enjoyed viewing their memories. Piece by piece, year by year. It would have been quite the boon to learn more about Beacon Academy through the eyes of two staff members, in order to further appeal to her beloved Rose. Not to mention the potential benefit of having her darling little seedbed expand once more.
Not that such a course of action was even possible for this human. Neither of the two possessed an unlocked aura and their natural reserves were already quite low. Completely useless, in other words. Worth even less than a Master from Jun's aura-less worlds. Their passing would not be mourned, be it by Kirakishou herself or her greedy little Palace of Beginnings. The memories of a soon-to-be-forgotten place would fade away to dust, giving space for new memories of a brighter future.
An ephemeral life.
She smiled. Oh well. Nothing lost in the end.
Headmaster Ozpin would eventually grow suspicious of the continued disappearance of both the escorting guards and Kirakishou herself. From what she had been able to glean through her viewings of the academy proper, the headmaster wished to speak to her personally- likely in regards to some perceived inaccuracy in her current story. But, by the time he decided to investigate her disappearance, it would be far too late. At that point, the final round of the Vytal Festival Tournament would already have concluded.
Visiting Ozpin would have to wait until the right time. The opportune moment.
Turning back to the mirror, she pulled deeply on her N-Field, distorting the reflection as her singular eye sought out a singular instrument. A singular instrument that was responsible for beginning the randomised selection of finalists in Ruby's little Vytal Festival Tournament. Her intention was to change the outcome of the device to her own personal preference. While previously she had desired to allow the randomisation process to play its little game, barring her beloved of course, the actions of Ozpin's little spy Qrow Branwen had unfortunately forced her to push her plans forward a bit.
As Laplace-no-ma had once said to her little reaper so long ago, it was time for the Alice Game to begin again. However, for this little iteration of the game, she was planning on winning. No longer would the likes of Sakurada Jun, Shinku, Suigintou, or even Laplace-no-ma get in the way of her desired outcome. The Alice Game was beginning to awaken, after sleeping for so very long. She would endeavour to turn this dream of her silly Father into her dream.
Finally, after all of this time, she would be free. What would she do when she was free? There were so many options that would be available, many more than simply taking a stroll through Beacon Academy's courtyard or visiting Vale with her beloved. Ah, but perhaps she was getting ahead of herself. She needed to focus now, on her darling rose. All she had to do was push the correct pieces into place.
"... contestants for this match are... Ruby Rose and... Penny Polendina!"
From the centre of the arena where all of the qualifying finalists were held, Ruby's eyes widened in surprise at the reveal of her opponent in the final round shown on the screen, her mind going a mile a minute while the announcers began speaking about their respective pasts in Beacon and Atlas Academy.
Not only was she to be the first fight in the finals round, but it was against HER.
Penny Polendina. The niece of General James Ironwood. The quirky ginger-haired girl had first introduced herself to Ruby by the manner of just randomly bumping into her when Ruby was escorting Kirakishou from the docks to Beacon Academy. Soon after, they had met again when Blake went missing and Penny had been all too willing to join everyone in searching for the missing raven-haired girl. Because she had wanted to.
From what Ruby could remember at the time, she had been overjoyed to have someone nearby that had wanted to help out of their own free will. Out of their own desire to be nice. Penny had assisted Ruby in finding Blake not out of some hidden nebulous motive, but out of a simple desire to help out and be a good friend. She was an excitable girl with a vivid outlook on life that had brightened up a gloomy atmosphere through her mere presence alone.
It had only been following that moment that Ruby had seen Penny being put to the test. Once they had arrived on the docks in search of Blake Belladonna after hearing an errant explosion, Penny had selflessly jumped into the middle of a White Fang incursion in order to protect her. What kind of girl did such a thing? A hero, that's who. Penny Polendina was a hero in her eyes. Fighting alongside both Penny Polendina and her resurrected mother had been one of the first times that Ruby had ever felt comfortable in her decision to become a student of Beacon Academy.
Together, they had kicked butt and taken names. Had it not been for the chaos that ensued after the three girls had cleaned up, Ruby would have loved to have spent some more time with the quirky ginger-haired girl. Never in a million years would she imagined that the time she would spend would be in the finals round of the Vytal Festival Tournament. Considering the girl's relation to General James Ironwood of the Atlesian Military, there was a significant possibility that the outcome of this fight may seriously affect how the grizzled military general handles her. And her Mother's body, which was supposedly still in her possession.
But what could she do?
Following the interrogation of Penny by the VPD in regards to the White Fang incursion, Ruby had seen neither hide nor hair of the freckled girl with floating swords after that- at least not until she had bumped into her one day.
It had been before Kirakishou got confined inside her dorm room. Ruby had gone with Weiss in order to try and use the heiress's political connections to try and learn more about why the White Fang and Roman Torchwick were working together. She had bumped into Kirakishou and, soon after, Penny Polendina as well.
What was that term that Kirakishou had first used to describe Penny Polendina…? An interesting little flower? That was it. Yes, from what she could remember the ginger-haired girl had been one of the few people that had caught Kirakishou's eye. It had bothered her… a lot more than she would like to admit.
Huh. So I was already getting protective over Kira that early on in our relationship? Guess while some things change, others stay the same… Though I doubt there's a strong enough force in the whole world that would ever make me feel comfortable with having Kirakishou around other people. They… there's no way they would ever truly understand her beauty. Her heart. Her soul. Not like how I do. Penny would have been the same, I bet, had she the chance.
Perhaps it was fate, then, that she was chosen to fight this girl. This stranger from Atlas. She had been there for Ruby when Blake had disappeared, but during Ruby's budding relationship with Kirakishou, she had inadvertently isolated herself from Penny. Was this how the world showed what the result of her actions was?
Would she end up the same as Sun Wukong? Just another ghost from Ruby's recent time in Beacon Academy to be forgotten? A person that, at a time, she had enjoyed hanging out with, only for her entire perception of the person to change? Was this the result of her changes? Her decisions?
Shouldn't she be happy? Why isn't she happy?
"G-Guess we're fighting each other, huh?" a nervous voice spoke up, the speaker tentatively poking her fingers together in an apparent display of hesitation.
Penny… I know I have to fight you… but why does it hurt to imagine it? Why does it hurt you as well?
She hated that voice. She hated the way it made her feel. She just wanted to go back to before the whole damn Vytal Festival Tournament ever started, when she didn't have to worry about things like this. When she could just hang out with Kirakishou -without being confined to her room- and enjoy the presence of her doll.
"Yes," Ruby spoke up. Her voice sounded cold. Unforgiving. But it was all a lie. A lie that she couldn't stop, even if she wanted to. "I suppose we are."
A sad smile was her opponent's response. Forgiving, compassionate, empathetic. It hurt to see in the eyes of a girl she had long since forgotten. The girl that, apparently, had just seen right through her strong facade.
"...Perhaps after this, we can go out and consume edible frozen treats again?"
She sounded so desperate. So lonely. How long had it been, since Ruby's own voice had held a similar echo within? How had she not noticed Penny's emotions the first time? Hadn't she been getting better at reading people? What had gone wrong?
No. There… there was just too much going on. Too many people. Too many things. I don't know Penny that well, Ruby's mind reminded her. She grimaced. But even still… why does it hurt?
"Y-Yes. Of course," Ruby cursed her voice for cracking, loud enough to draw the attention of several onlooking contestants. There was no doubt in her mind that they would see it as a moment of weakness to capitalise on in a fight. Probably tease her about it. Then Yang would go about consoling her in all the wrong ways.
Eugh. She hated this. Too many people.
"...Sensational…" Penny whispered, sounding glad. Relieved. A toothy grin appeared on her face, bright and filled with a renewed joy. It pained her heart something fierce. "I really wanted to talk to you about some stuff, but it'll have to wait until after the match. Judging by the sound of the crowd around us and the frown on the referee over there, I do believe that it's time to go out and participate, friend Ruby. Are you ready?"
A hand was extended her way. She flinched.
"Guess I'll have to be."
She walked forwards, intentionally brushing past Penny and refusing to hold the girl's hand as she moved to her side of the field. The last thing she wanted to do was hold that hand, the offered hand of an old friend as Kirakishou had put it.
An old friend that she would have to mercilessly crush in front of ten of thousands of cheering onlookers in order to make her Mom proud. A Mom that was, at this point in time, currently being inspected piece by piece by the Uncle of the old friend from which Ruby herself had to fight. How horrid. She laughed bitterly. Fate had been rather cruel to her.
Unlike previous matches, she would be taking no pleasure out of this fight. It would be a cold affair, ending poorly for her no matter what she did. Ruby knew that, deep within her heart. Perhaps it was for the best in that sense, if only to show her what it meant to be a huntress. Not that such thoughts did anything to soothe her troubled mind.
Why did it hurt? Why did it trouble her so? What was it about Penny Polendina, where the idea of fighting her in this precise time caused her stomach to turn? Why was she so worried? So anxious?
She didn't understand. It was all wrong. Everything was all wrong.
"Hereeeee we have it, folks! The first qualifying round in the Vytal Festival Tournament's Finale! Ruby Rose of Beacon Academy, versing Penny Polendina of Atlas Academy! Now is the moment you've all been waiting for! The one-on-one finals!"
"Why-it-is-looking-like-a-fine-match-today!"
The announcers. The first had been the tell-tale booming voice of Peter Port, while the speedy delivery of the second voice could be none other than Doctor Oobleck. Both were Beacon Academy staff members and, in Ruby's eyes, fellow teachers.
"Would all other combatants please leave the stage?"
She eyed the departing students deftly, solemnly, wishing it had been one of them that she would be facing at the moment. Anyone would be better than Penny Polendina, the interesting little flower that had captured her pure doll's interest during one Fall afternoon. She hated the feeling, the guilt in her body that made her question why she hadn't spoken to the excitable little ginger-haired girl after Penny had fought for her and involuntarily revealed her connection to General James Ironwood of the Atlesian Military.
It wasn't like her. Ruby would never leave a friend hanging. But, something about Penny and her supposed connection with Kirakishou had rubbed her the wrong way and she had discarded the girl like a bad memory. She had felt horrible. Wrong. Twisted. Corrupt. Any of those words. It was the first time ever since meeting Kirakishou that Ruby had ever felt any sense of trepidation for the subtle changes that had been occurring inside her. So why had she ignored a friend in need?
…Weiss didn't count. She had just forgotten. It was a bad mistake at a bad time.
But this one… this one hurt something fierce. More than she could have ever imagined.
In the nearby stands reserved for the teams of participating finalists, Ruby could just barely make out the faces of her teammates. Blake and Weiss were sitting together, eyeing her with concern and speaking in what appeared to be hushed tones. Yang was just walking up to the two girls, seemingly having arrived late. Yang spotted her looking and waved, a reassuring smile on her face.
She waved back, but she didn't smile. She couldn't smile. How could she smile? Oum, she wanted to smile right now, so badly.
"Three…." Professor Port's voice boomed across the stadium, "...two… one… FIGHT!"
Cinder Fall smirked triumphantly from her position within the stands, glad to see that her plan was paying off. It was about time that something was happening in her favour for once. One small little bonus of her forced alterations to the original plan had been requiring her to attend the event personally. She would admit to finding a certain degree of pleasure in personally witnessing the dawning horror growing on the expressions of two little trainee huntresses that were clearly in over their heads.
"Is everyone in position?" she voiced, drawing an odd look from the girl sitting beside her. Some dreary-eyed second or third-year Beacon student eating a kind of fluffy snow cone treat that she didn't recognise. Rolling her eyes in annoyance, Cinder blatantly pointed to the earpiece nestled in her left ear. The overly-nosy eavesdropping spectator blushed prettily, silently mouthing an apology.
Frowning at the interruption, Cinder refocused her thoughts on the task at hand as she waited for her various associates to sound off over the comms.
Previously, this current stage of the plan had only required that Cinder remains within communication with all parties that were participating in the upcoming event, along with ensuring that her Loki virus remained connected to the Amity Colosseum communication system- so as to be able to speak up at the proper time and drive the spectators into a mass panic. It had made sense in theory. It kept her safe and secure during a pivotal moment- free from any immediate retaliation courtesy of Ozpin and Ironwood.
"Ready for the big showdown, boss-lady."
Now, however, in thanks to a rather genius idea on her part, Cinder had decided that standing on the top of some dingy broken-down building in the ass-end of Mountain Glenn when the fun started was a decidedly stupid plan. One that was far more trouble than it was worth, even considering the relative safety of the area. The plan would have required her to say her piece and then immediately hop on a flight all the way from Mountain Glenn straight to Beacon Academy in order to hunt down the Fall Maiden.
"Here, boss."
Not only was such an idea laughably susceptible to even the slightest bit of meddling, but it would also have forced her into what would be in the very least a three-hour flight. At the hands of either the White Fang or Roman fucking Torchwick. Both sides despised the other. Tensions were high. And her little flight would be during an all-out grimm invasion.
Not a great plan.
"I'm ready when you are, Mistress. Just say the word."
The last thing she wanted to do at that stage of the plan was to be confined inside a bullhead with either of those two groups. Nuh-uh. The damn flight wouldn't even make it off the ground before she snapped and butchered everyone. And Cinder Fall knew in her oum-cursed luck that the Atlesian Military would notice one little ship flying in and decide to ignore everything going on and gun them out of the sky.
"Hn. Don't mess this up, human."
She was not going to have her plans ruined by some trigger-happy grunt in a military bullhead deciding to shoot her ship out of the sky, especially if said ship was captained by either a bunch of lunatic revolutionaries with their heads in the clouds or some hyped up thief that couldn't stop sassing the world if his life depended on it.
As such, Cinder was going to attend the damn event herself. Thankfully, Adam Taurus had returned from his little dinner date with Sienna Khan, in quite the foul mood to boot. However, he had managed to whip up his radicalised sect of the White Fang in record time and get everything loaded and ready for his part of the plan alongside Torchwick.
Which in turn allowed Cinder to journey to Vale and attend the final round of Amity Colosseum in relative peace. A shame that she would not be allowing the matches to trickle through until the final one-on-one match with her two subjects, but the possibility of one of the subjects getting eliminated early on was too great to accept. Pyrrha Nikos was also a finalist and, given enough time, would likely be paired up against Ironwood's poor defenseless robot girl. The resulting slaughter admittedly would appear quite gruesome, but it didn't have the absolute horror of using Ruby Rose instead.
Plus she was impatient. Plus her associates had a hate-on for the Rose girl. Plus she was impatient.
"Emerald," she voiced into the earpiece, just soft enough not to attract any more attention from any potential eavesdropping spectators. "Your target is little red, understand?"
"Ruby?" the rebuttal sounded more than a little surprised. "You're using her? She's the one? I thought it was-"
"What is it, Ems? Don't you find it fitting?" Mercury's voice interrupted over the network. Cinder blinked. She hadn't believed it was even possible to interrupt over the system they were all using. But, she supposed that perhaps Mercury's special blend of assholery could not be denied even by the finest of technology. "Seems fitting to me that the girl who started all of this nonsense with her blonde-haired psycho is also the one to deliver the killing blow to this stupid ass festival."
Cinder chuckled approvingly. "Well said, Mercury," she shook her head in amusement. Trust the son of Marcus Black to understand the concept of good-old-fashioned ironic revenge. After Kirakishou had supposedly admitted to Mercury about her knowledge of Mercury's status as a self-made orphan, the boy had been desperately calling for a chance to kill her off.
"I get that," Emerald stressed over the comms. Her voice sounded a touch indignant. It was a rather curious change from her typically subservient approach to Cinder's commands. Why, Cinder had been all but convinced that if she asked, Emerald would be more than willing to do practically anything to appease her. Emerald's little infatuation with her rang strong, far stronger than she had thought possible for a former street rat. "I just think it's a bit dangerous. If Kirakishou catches on to what's happening, then she may decide to ignore Ozpin's house arrest and try to stop us. And if she moves away from her room…"
"Then your big master plan to blow her to kingdom come goes up in not-so-literal flames," Torchwick's amused voice finished for them. "This girl seems like quite the piece if she's causing this amount of worry from your subordinate, Cinder. No wonder little Neo's been rambling on about her non-stop. Well, figuratively rambling at least. You know how she is."
"...I take it you have a solution to this?" Adam's voice spoke up, several octaves lower than before.
Cinder sighed, suddenly wishing that she'd purchased an extra-large drink rather than going for the regular size. Something to take the edge off would be quite the bonus right about now.
"We needn't bother. Kirakishou's room possesses no screens with which to view the Vytal Festival Tournament. She doesn't even have any furniture in there. Even if she wanted to view the match featuring her… paramour, there's no way of it- save for a scroll."
"...Do I need to be the one to say it?" Torchwick's voice spoke up hesitantly after the silence that had ensued following her statement. "Huh. Guess so. What if, oh glorious boss, that Neo's flame happens to possess a scroll? You know? Those little devices that anybody who's anybody has in their possession? I mean, Oum-forbid that a teenage girl possesses a scroll! How positively scandalous!"
Mercury's snort of amusement, specifically broadcast over his earpiece, did little in the way of alleviating her growing headache. Did quite the opposite in fact, which was probably the reason why he did it in the first place.
"R-Ruby has been texting a lot in class, Mistress," Emerald supplied hesitantly. "Given her current status as a social pariah following her actions in the second round, there's only a single person I can think of that would probably want to talk to her, especially during class when most students are occupied."
She did not want this. She did not need this. Discussing the texting habits of a teenage girl had not been the aim of introducing earpiece communication to her associates.
"It's fine," Cinder paused to take a swig of her drink, "we have dealt with that possibility, Emerald. As it would appear, network connectivity around Beacon Academy has taken a rather poor turn as of late. Quite the unfortunate coincidence, wouldn't you agree?"
"Right," Mercury snorted, "coincidence. Totally had nothing to do with that job you had me do yesterday. Wait, didn't I already tell you about this before, Em? You know, when you asked me to go and get some of that stupid cereal you like."
"...I wasn't listening. And you still haven't got that damn cereal, you know."
Cinder groaned heavily, drawing yet another queer look from the girl beside her. She shook her head, mouthing work troubles to the girl and garnering an understanding nod.
"How could you NOT be listening?"
"Can we get back on track?! You can talk about your bloody cereal or whatever later," Cinder bit out before the argument could escalate into full-blown bickering. The last thing any of them wanted to hear at the moment was the bickering of Emerald and Mercury.
"...Right, sorry boss. Won't happen again. Probably."
"My apologies, Mistress. I won't get distracted again."
"See to it that it doesn't," Cinder hissed, "now, back on track. Torchwick, Adam, is the package ready for delivery?"
"Do you mean the giant bomb, the train, or the other giant bombs in the train?"
Cinder rubbed her head, "...The latter two, Torchwick. I know the other one has been set. I dealt with that weeks ago, remember?"
"Wasn't listening," he retorted smartly. Her eyes flared hatefully. Thankfully after pausing for the ensuing obligatory snort of amusement from Mercury, the crime thief continued. "Anywho, the train is all loaded up. Been throwing shade at Adam's boys all afternoon, so they're pretty riled up to attract the grimm when the time comes. The bomb carriages are all set to detach at the proper intervals and Adam's boys are ready and all loaded up in the Paladins."
"My brothers and sisters," Adam corrected harshly, his voice a low growl of displeasure, "are all ready. Just ensure you do your proper part and keep your humans under control."
"And the microphone device?"
This prompted a longer pause from Torchwick, as was expected. It had been a last-minute addition to the plan, so as to save her the need of having to personally vocalise her little 'breaking speech' to the audience of Amity Colosseum. Doing such a thing while easily recognisable by her voice in the audience itself would have been a hilariously terrible idea.
Thus, Mercury had suggested a simple recording to be played at the proper time. Nice and easy. Best damn suggestion that the boy had given since she met him.
"It's in place. Connected to your little Loki virus or whatever. Weirdly good connection with the Amity Colosseum communication system as well, considering the distance and my own little Torchwick-brand of fuckery. But, hey, I ain't complaining. Just let me know and I'll start broadcasting, boss-lady."
Cinder smirked. It was all coming together.
"Emerald. It's your turn. Do me proud."
"Y-Yes, Mistress."
A/N:
Wow. First of all, a big welcome to all the new followers and reviewers. Thank you for your interest in my story thus far!
So, a question, who were you thinking would be the one to go up against Ruby? Did anybody think it would be Penny Polendina? I certainly didn't. Not when I was first starting to think about writing the Vytal Festival Tournament. But, here we are.
Penny Polendina has always been a nice little character. Quirky, excitable, full of that early-season charm. Plus her fighting style is quite fun. But... up against Ruby Rose? How would that go down, I wonder?
Guess we'll all have to wait and see.
Once more, thank you all for supporting my story. Please let me know what you thought of the developments in this story, and what you think might happen next!
Until next time!~