I'm not going to sugar-coat it. This is going to be a tough chapter for some of you to get through; hell, I wouldn't be surprised if some of you said you were going to drop this story because of this one. That said it does play an important role here. If you have the patient to stick through it, then thanks.

After this there's going to be a SHORT one update break. Based on the Poll that I posted, the winner is far and away 'Bloodedge of Fairy Tail.'

Let's get on to the review responses early like we've been doing.

Kamizuma: Sorry to disappoint. I'll get to SAO soon, I promise.

EpicLinkSam: Your return to my stories as well. Good to have ya back man.

BlitzNeutral69: Interesting Theory…

The Unplanner: The answer on that is coming very soon.

Felipe1402XZA: We've all been there at some point.

Zero: Exclamation mark indeed.

Negi Atsui: It's Cinder's current motivation in her current arc, and as stated above it does lead into something.

Flame-LoneWolf: Really? My Word does. As for the breakup, it's a good direction.

Wlyman2009: Yeah… her getting away with everything in the proper canon isn't helping much either.

Guest: Almost.

Draoog101: Well he needs something.

GM9000: Hmph, accurate.

Galiono: Heed the warning at the top.

P3R50N4: Yep, poor Ragna indeed.

Yuki: Time heals all wounds… most of the time.

Bismark Alexander: Interesting theory, but I'll neither confirm nor deny.

Thanks for the reviews everyone. I'd say enjoy but… well, read on.

Crimson XXVII: Gone

'And there it is…' Relius Clover thought with an annoyed grunt which became a low growl as he heard the repeated and unceasing knocking on his office door. He'd been expecting this visit and had a reasonable idea of who he might find on the other side. He considered if they were even worth entertaining at this point, only for the knocking to grow harder. Now certain of who he was dealing with, he quickly rose from his desk and proceeded to open the door before the student on the other side blasted it off its hinges. "Miss Xiao Long."

"Professor Clover," Yang said. Relius couldn't recall ever seeing the fellow blonde this serious in his class. "We need to talk."

"I know what you're here for, and I also know it would do you little good." Relius's words only caused Yang's features to tighten. Relius could practically taste the violently flickering of her Aura. "…But I suppose I also know how headstrong you'd be." Beckoning the aggressive student into his office, Relius closed the door behind them in anticipation of whatever outburst Yang was about to have. "You should know that he hasn't come to me personally."

"Why should he have to? Ragna's talked up how big of a genius you are, so you should know what's going on."

'Such a blazing gaze. But it seems to be burning a bit too wildly.' "Then let's entertain the notion that I agree with you; let's imagine that I thought that Ragna the Bloodedge had his work from this quarter deleted, stolen, at the very least tampered with. What am I supposed to do?"

"Find out who screwed him over! At the very least try and make sure that this can't happen to the other students!" Yang declared. "And if you can agree with me that much, then you already know who's responsible!"

"She's his own partner for one of those missing projects; wouldn't doing something like this only hinder her own progress?" the professor reminded. "Besides, it's not as if Ragna himself has a lack of… rivals here. Any of them would have the motivation and be just as suspect, likely moreso."

"And even if I'm wrong and it's not Cinder, do you think that means that we can just let whoever did this get away with it?" his student demanded. "Aren't teachers supposed to resolve this sort of incident?"

"I never saw 'Find friends for Ragna the Bloodedge' in my job description; it isn't my duty to keep him and his peers on good terms, and that would hardly be a fair task for me given how much he does to anger them on a daily basis. A list of those with motive to steal his work would include pages of the school roster. Do you really expect that the teachers would drop everything to interrogate students who may have had cause for this? The next quarter would be over before we got to the bottom of this mess, and I'm sure both the students and their families would air grievances about this and inflict damage to Beacon's name while the real criminal went free."

"So you're all just going to abandon Ragna for reputation, is that it?" Yang demanded again returning to the main point.

"What's there to abandon? He's already done the work," Relius noted. "He should already have those answers from what he's already researched the proper answer to each question and his team can help him to fill in the missing gaps. If anything, he's only missing three or four days, a week at the very most."

"A week if it didn't look like he was going to collapse again! I don't know what Cinder has been doing to him, but I'm worried if he can stay standing most of the time!" To say she was losing her patience was an understatement. "And even if he did, whoever did this would just hack him again!"

"Any of the students here hacking into his account is borderline impossible given our security; far more likely he left his belongings out and someone else took advantage. And now that he's left himself vulnerable, he'll know to keep additional back-ups. It may seem like a cruel lesson to your biased eyes, but it's not a breaking one and it's a necessary trial for anyone to overcome."

"I can't believe this," Yang growled. "You, Professor Goodwitch, Professor Port, Doctor Oobleck, even Ozpin… none of you are going to do anything?"

"No…" Relius said with a crushing weight to it. "Because, again, he hasn't come to any of us for help."

"And why should he have to?" the blonde shouted again as she came to her Reaper's defense. Relius briefly considered writing Yang up for her out of line behavior at yelling at a teacher and resolving this stand-off now… and frankly couldn't understand why he didn't. "There has to be some rule… something so that you need to help him!"

"You're grasping at straws that don't exist and you know that," the scientist said, his voice growing sterner now. "We have a doctor on site that is more than willing to look at Ragna's condition, but every time she's tried to he's been far from cooperative. He's done nothing to fix his situation or his abnormal fatigue… frankly I couldn't in a hundred, nay a thousand years see someone like that become a Huntsman."

"That's not fair to him! Ragna was one of our strongest fighters before Cinder got involved! His Grimm hunting scores are through the roof! He's even gone out and survived the Outlands for years and literally made a name for himself out there! How can you look at all of that and tell me-?!"

"Because that is not what a Huntsman is!" Relius's raise of voice was enough to catch Yang off guard. "Prideful as I am, even I know to accept the rest of my team a unit, as a combined force. I don't give my trust lightly, but each and every person in my old group trusted each other with our lives. Meanwhile, he can't even trust his team to inform them on the specifics of his condition." Relius's mask now seemed to darken the room. "In fact… I would hazard to guess he doesn't even trust you fully."

"What the hell are you-!?"

"Has Ragna ever come forward with any of his supposed secrets or did someone in your group always have to wrest any answers and half-truths from him? More to the point, I can safely guess that you didn't hear about the missing work from him." Yang didn't say anything, but now her aura was out in full to reflect her anger. Relius was a master of observation, weak points especially. "And the only reason you don't go to him now is fear… of rejection."

"Ra… Ragna's not going to reject my help when I get to him," Yang said, her aura now quickly faded as did her resolve.

"He would, you won't, and you know perfectly well that I mean something else," Relius said as he passed her by and opened the door for her to leave. "Come back if you have an actual question on your assignment and leave your attitude elsewhere. I have no time to indulge baseless claims."

"…Fine."

That was it. Some anger, some disappoint… and more fear than she was willing to admit. Fine. Yang exited the room without so much as a glance back to the instruct she'd come seeking assistance from. Once she was out the door though, only one thought was hammered into her mind.

'Not another one… I'm not saying another goodbye.'

"What a stubborn girl," Relius muttered to himself as he returned to his work desk. "Maybe if she wasn't so hardheaded, she'd have noticed I never said I thought her observations of Cinder were wrong."

Meanwhile

"If looks could kill, I bet you'd get exactly what you wanted right now," Cinder said seriously, leaning against the wall and fighting off a victorious grin in her smugness. "Both of you."

"We just wanted to talk," Blake said, betrayed with yellow eyes narrowed into a harsh glare.

"No, you're both here to accuse me," she retorted with a shake of her head. "Don't go blaming me, I had nothing to do with Ragna losing his work. I'm just a victim now that his half of our project is gone."

"So that's what you call it," Weiss noted with an equally fierce scowl. She'd seen Blake guiding Cinder into an empty classroom and immediately knew what was happening… mostly because she was on her way to do as much herself. Blake hadn't denied her from assisting, so here they were trying to get answers straight from the source.

"Well I'm also doing my best to support him; he needs all of the help that he can get now that he's fallen so far behind. Managing to help him with his work when I've already got three other assignments to worry about is so difficult, but I'm putting my best foot forward to do the job. I owe him as much for all of the work he put in to help me get this far." 'So tempting to just drop the charade and expose everything to these two. I could have Emerald alter the proof in such twisted ways… but I already have a plan for today. And they'll see it soon enough. Just play the long game a little while longer.'

"If he needs so much help, then why not let us chip in as well?" Blake demanded. "You've been eating up all of his time and he has other projects to-"

"You're mistaken if you think that I'm the one that has been taking up all of his time. We haven't been meeting for nearly as long as we used to. He still has three other projects to work on after all. Yes I try to help him a bit with those when I can, but it's not like I'm hoarding all of his time for myself. As for you both helping, well…" She couldn't help but smirk. "He's asked that we study in private."

"Liar!" Weiss shouted. "You little-! There's absolutely no way that he would ask for that!"

"If you don't believe me, then you can ask Ragna yourself. It's not like he's trying to avoid you or anything… is it?" Silence gave Cinder an answer she already knew. "If you really want to help him; give him some space. Being so overbearing on him is going to do more harm than good."

"Says the one that kept him working ridiculous hours just so she could spend time with her crush," Blake retorted heatedly. Unable to help herself in the moment, she then turned spiteful. "Only to get rejected."

They expected her current opponent to break down into (false) tears, flinch from the attack, show some form of having her pride insulted. Cinder gave no such reaction. Her front remain as vigilant as ever.

"I was willing to put that behind me; but don't get me wrong. I'm not happy that I got turned down." 'Lie.' "It's not ideal to work with Ragna after it happened." 'It is.' "But all I want to do is help him so he no longer has to suffer." 'Ha!' "I'm trying to be mature about this, can't you see that?"

"But you-!"

"Or we could all bring this all up with Professor Goodwitch, but I don't think she'd like to hear how you both have been conducting yourselves around me. Maybe it's different to you both, but to me all this looks like aggression just because I'm spending time with a guy you happen to like."

It wasn't a threat, not exactly anyways. Cinder was just laying a few of her cards on the table. Showing the edge she still had over them and progress in asserting her dominance. Watching Weiss bite on her lip while Blake turned her more cat-like features just a bit more feral gave her a good deal of satisfaction. Smiling pleasantly, Cinder made her way to the classroom door before she came to a stop.

"I promise that I haven't done anything to take advantage of the situation, and neither has Ragna… I think." She didn't glance behind her, for there was no chance of covering this sadistic smile. "After all of the overworking he went through last night, he'd fallen dead asleep. His slouch landed his head squarely on my shoulder. I know he needed to focus on his work, but what kind of monster would I be if I roused him from his sleep when he looked so comfortable and at peace there?"

"…Get …Out."

Weiss's voice was sharper than any blade and colder than any ice.

"Of course, you were the ones who kidnapped me and-"

"You heard her. Out."

Pretending to give a tired sigh, Cinder headed out of the classroom and closed the door behind her. Already she had a giddiness to her and it wasn't even her main event for the day. Back inside the room, the two teammates were left in ire so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"And she's still sinking her claws into him," Weiss seethed as she came to Ragna's defense… before taking a moment to look apologetically at Blake. "Sorry, is that in poor taste for you?"

"Not in this context, and it's a good description," the cat Faunus tried to appreciate her friend's willingness to learn the proper ways of talking to her race, but Cinder's verbal attack had left too much of an impact on them. "It's so wrong… and what are we supposed to do about it? This is one fight that Ragna's losing fast. He needs help from someone."

"And I'm not about to leave it to anyone else, especially not that witch," Weiss said with a determine cross of her arms. "Say whatever you want about Ragna's hardheadedness, I can be pretty stubborn when I want to be. And this is something I'm putting my foot down on!"

"Even if he did say he wanted to study with Cinder in private, we'll have to figure something else out." Blake dearly hoped that Cinder hadn't been telling the truth, but there was a part of her that worried Ragna had started to avoid them. "She… made that up, right?"

"…I hope so," Weiss admitted less than confidently, knowing what had happened with her own partner. Pushing those thoughts aside as harshly as she could, the young heiress changed subjects. "Just what is that she wants with him? This goes way beyond any level of curiosity or even infatuation. Is this… actually love?" Blake gave Weiss the peak oddest of looks. "I-I'm serious! But with whatever sick sadism she has to go along with it!"

"Oh… that." Blake was silent for a long moment. "It's sadism alright… but I can confidently say it's not sadistic love."

"Really? How can you be so sure?" Weiss had to ask.

"I have… experience with it," she admitted darkly. "My last boyfriend was… someone I'm trying to forget about."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," her friend tried to apologize for bring up a painful past.

"Don't be, I'm just doing my best to work through it," Blake assured. 'And with Ragna's help… I think I was starting to make some actual progress.' "Maybe it's some perverse form of ownership? Like she's trying to treat Ragna like her possession and have complete control of him as a result."

"That's not her main goal, I know because I've had enough dealing with that my whole life," Weiss argued. Blake looked more than a touch horrified.

"Who…?"

"My father," Weiss said plainly. "But no matter how much he thinks he already has me in his pocket, he's both deluded and wrong. I'm my own person out here and he can't influence me now." She was practically radiating her own confidence. 'And to a very special someone… I'm their Empress.'

"Whoa…" Blake was at a loss for how to comment on this, so she changed subjects again and got them back on track. "Back to what Cinder would want with Ragna, what is her real reason? Why is she after him so badly? The only thing that could possibly come to my mind is that she's just trying to cause Ragna all the pain that she can, and even that doesn't make a lot of sense."

"Right, she's been doing this from the start so why would she hate him so much starting off? Does she have some kind of history with him?"

"Ragna hasn't told us anything like that," Blake answered, before realizing how that sounded. "But we haven't asked him anything like that to be fair."

"Either way, we need to get to the bottom of this mess one way or another," Weiss decided and her teammate nodded in agreement. "But for now we should head to the mock fights; we can't help him if we're in detention for cutting class."

At that Moment -Team JNPR's Room-

"I've done my best to give you distance these last couple of days, but do you think you're up for talking about Ragna now?" Pyrrha asked Ruby gently.

"I think I'm okay," Ruby said as she tried to put on a brave face. "I just don't know where to start. Whenever I try to get my thoughts together about him it's always just a jumbled mess. And that's before I found out what he's going through now. There's just… so much to think about."

"Maybe it would help if you tried to vocalize what you were thinking?" she offered, not unlike an older sibling. "Just tell me the parts that you're comfortable talking about and I'll try to help you make sense of it. We have some time before we need to leave for class at least."

"I guess it could help," Ruby hesitantly agreed as she tried to think of where to start… before deciding it might as well be the beginning. "Remember when I first met Ragna, how things were between us back then? Even back from the start, he was always super open with me and willing to talk."

"You mean willing to listen?" Pyrrha asked, more of a question and less of a correction.

"No, he… actually talked to me a little bit about himself the first time. Let me know that he knew my uncle, even let me get a good look at his weapon. In fact he even went so far to transform it for me. Back then, he was a pretty open guy to me and that's what's kind of weird in hindsight."

"Is it really so strange, he opened up to everyone else in your group didn't he?" she reminded.

"I used to think that too, but then I took a serious look back and realized something. The big reason why was because he had such a large problem with his own team at the time. Even back when we all gathered in the library for the first time, it was because he didn't want to have to work with his assigned group."

"And he was clear about that with everyone, wasn't he?" Pyrrha asked. "And that was just him starting off. What about when he helped Jaune get started in his training or when he had to take care of Blake on Grimm's Night?"

"He helped Jaune because I asked him to, and was even pretty reluctant to at first. Blake I… don't really know everything that happened. But whenever it comes up in discussions she seems to freeze." Ruby was silent as she continued to think it over. "I'm not trying to say that Ragna's never done anything good; I still 100% believe that he's a good person somewhere in there. But whenever he helps someone he seems to either be going with the flow, or dragged into it, while with me it me it feels like he'll go out of his way."

"Maybe you're imagining that, it could be some form of bias," Pyrrha said as a suggestion. She then remembered another detail of when they had first met. "What about your eyes?"

"My eyes? …Right." It had been so long since she'd used them, she almost forgot how easily Ragna seemed to cave to her plans whenever she stared him down with her eyes in a pleading way. It had been what had convinced the Reaper to train Jaune in the first place. As time went on Ragna seemed to go along with her plans without needing that particular method. "Wonder if they'd even work now…"

"You could use them to get some answers from him, just a suggestion."

'Would I even get a truthful answer after last time?' "I guess I could… but Ragna's already swamped with work and-"

"And you need to take some time to start prioritizing Ruby," the celebrity student said as more of an order. "If you're really worried about interrupting his work, then promise to talk to him on the camping trip."

"Jeeze, that's right. With everything else I completely forgot about the trip…" Ruby sighed. "But Ragna needs help now."

"Then help him tonight and talk to him about the more personal stuff on the trip, it isn't that difficult," Pyrrha tried to tell her. "If you need me to, I can be there when you talk to him."

"I… I'll see how I'm feeling about it when the time comes," Ruby promised. "I appreciate the offer, but this is really something that I should do myself. If several people come at Ragna at once, it's just going to unfairly overwhelm him."

"I understand, but it'd be better than holding it off at least," Pyrrha explained before rising from her bedside. "Let's head to class, and try to put this out of your mind if you're ever called in for a mock battle."

"Right," Ruby said as she too stood up, before a thought entered her mind. "Do you mind if I ask you something personal?"

"Considering how much we've been talking about your personal life, it'd be pretty unfair if I said no without hearing you out at least," the school champion agreed. "What's on your mind?"

"How are… how are things between you and Jaune?" the scythe wielder said. "From a… relationship point of view?"

'Does everyone need to start asking that now?' Pyrrha couldn't help but think after a previous lecture with Nora. She then considered that Ruby was only asking because she was trying to find how her own relationship stood so she decided that her friend could have the truth. "There hasn't really been any kind of development since last quarter. During the break I left with him to visit his family, but we've been too busy with projects for anything substantial to happen since then."

"But… do you at least know how things are between you?" Ruby asked, trying to get to the source of her questioning.

"I do; he's my team leader and my friend. He's someone very dependable even if he doesn't know it just yet. He'll work the hardest out of anyone here and won't give up. There's a strong respect between us… and that's good enough for me."

"Um…" Ruby began, tapping the points of her index fingers together in her nervousness. "…Was that last part a lie?"

"…I guess it's not that hard to see through me after all," Pyrrha admitted bittersweetly. "Relationships are complicated Ruby."

"Like I hadn't noticed that already," the young student said with a sulk.

Later -Goodwitch's Class-

'How is he even sitting upright? He looks like he's about to topple over' Ruby thought to herself with worry as she observed Ragna, currently ignoring the mock fight in progress. Her best friend had arrived almost late and had purposefully secluded himself in the upper corner of the stands away from her team, his own team, and even Cinder's team. She couldn't even feel at ease with that last fact as she observed her friend's situation. 'Has he really gotten this bad?'

Papers were strewn around Ragna as he appeared to be frantically reading through the textbooks he'd brought along, not giving any care to the fight currently in progress. That last part was significant as it was his partner Tsubaki who was fighting and she seemed to have plenty of ire herself. That was affecting her combat situation in a big way, and it seemed like she was struggling to fight with the grace and precision that she was usually known for in these fights. On the stands, Noel herself seemed slightly more tired than usual herself and even Azrael was napping through these fights… or was that usual for him with fights that didn't interest him? The only person who for certain was in fine form was Cinder, in fact she even looked better than usual.

Hearing a metallic weapon clatter to the ground, Ruby turned her attention back to the fights and saw that Tsubaki had just been disarmed by Sun Wukong. On top of everything else today, Ragna's partner had just been given a rather decisive loss that wouldn't reflect well on his team. Earlier that session though, Jaune had managed to score a strong win against another student (this one nameless). Ruby had done her best to feel happy for her other friend in the situation given his recent growth, but Ragna remained ever pressing on her mind.

"And that leads us to our final match," Goodwitch announced as Tsubaki and Sun made their way back to their seats. Ragna's partner had remained a good sport in losing, but it was clear that she was still plenty upset with so much on her mind. "Now, we'll be starting our last random match for today. The results are…" The screen behind her cycled through the students. "Mercury Black and…" She hesitated, showing an odd distaste for the situation. "…Ragna the Bloodedge."

"She might as well just disqualify him now," one of the students from behind Ruby said under their breath. They even seemed happy about it. Ruby did her best not to give them any attention, not that she needed to as she could tell her sister was glaring plenty for the both of them.

Mercury got a few supportive calls as he headed down to the ring, but did nothing to acknowledge them save for smirking cockily. Or rather… he'd already been doing that since their names had been announced. As for Ragna, he only gave a low growl as he put away the few notes he'd managed to take in that short period. No one said a word in Ragna's favor, despite the fact that he was technically the 'home team' here. Ragna was fighting not to look weak as he headed down the steps, but he already knew… this wasn't a fight he was likely to win.

"C-Come on Ragna!" Ruby tried to call in support. Her friend didn't bother to acknowledge her, but she wasn't sure if it was from the shame or his earlier rejection or if he was so out of it that he hadn't heard her. Neither option boded well.

"I'd like to say nothing personal, but I think I'm allowed to be a little aggressive here after you went and broke my team leader's heart," Mercury said, only to continue and paint Ragna as the villain.

"I didn't think you were the type to care." 'In fact, I'm pretty damn sure you're not.' Ragna brandished his large blade with a scowl. "Didn't Cinder say to put that mess behind us?"

(Cue Kingdom Hearts 3 L'Impeto Oscuro)

"…Never got the memo," Mercury said snidely as he got into a fighting position as the timer finally finished counting down.

Impatient and trying to finish the match in the first few minutes if he could, Ragna took the initial lunge forward. His smirk never vanishing, Mercury had to merely shift his body slightly to avoid the powerful thrust forward. As Ragna made a wild swing to the side, he only needed to lean back to dodge the blade limbo style. The Reaper brought the weapon back for a lower slash to finally catch his opponent, but Mercury merely backflipped both to give himself some additional room and to deliver a clean kick to Ragna's face. The Reaper grunted as he lurched back; a nasty bruise already showing itself on his right cheek.

'Did his aura even dampen that blow? I think I struck him dead on,' Mercury noted as he continued to wait for Ragna to make the next move. He was rewarded as the Reaper lunged forward in a similar approach to last attempt, which he easily dodged again, only this time Ragna passed by and attempted to strike with a much quicker backhand which Mercury only bothered to guard against easily. 'And that's the hardest he's hitting? Don't the rumors usually have him putting people through walls?'

Mercury stepped back to avoid Ragna as his opponent tried to grab for him before sweeping with his leg and forcing Ragna to step back. The Reaper tried to catch his opponent (in an admittedly brutal blow) by swinging his sword down, but Mercury leaped back in time and the blade barely caused the floor to crack. As Ragna then drew Clarent with his other hand and thrust forward with a follow up stab, Mercury got a good look at his scowling and still bruised face.

'Even my little love tap from earlier isn't healing? His aura really is out of commission,' Mercury thought to himself right as he sidestepped the attack. 'Which means…' When Ragna went for a side swipe with his longsword, Mercury managed to deflect the attack with nothing more than a simple kick. When Ragna tried to counter with the Aramasa from the other side, Mercury managed to leaned under the attack before swinging into a kick. The antagonist couldn't help but smirk as he felt ribs crack as his attack cleanly struck the Reaper's side. 'Every bit of damage I do here is going to stick.'

"Mr. Bloodedge! You're already injured!" the instructor quickly took note of. "This match is-!"

"Can it! I'm not done here!" Ragna shouted. "I've haven't even started on this asshole yet!"

"Pretty brave words," Mercury said smugly. "If he wants to keep going I'm not about to stop him. Guys like him just don't see reason."

"Shut up!" Ragna shouted as he rushed forward with a wide swing. Goodwitch knew it was her duty as the teacher to stop the fight here in his condition, but according to the charts his aura had barely fallen and technically this meant Ragna was still combat viable. Calibrating Ragna's aura to the systems were already a challenge on the best of days, so there was no telling just how low the trouble student's aura had gotten. Despite this though... Goodwitch let the fight continue. She'd given Ragna a chance like this in the past and he'd proven himself, he would have to do the same here.

Despite Ragna's boasting, from his perspective this match had already become borderline torture and the few snide remarks he could hear from the onlookers weren't doing anything to help his mental state. Swiping with the Aramasa again just to get Mercury to back off, he shifted Clarent to its rifle form and fired the powerful weapon. At the very least his aim with the weapon was still decent, but after each shot he felt the pushback on the shot more than ever and the large gap between bursts gave Mercury plenty of time to dodge the fire.

'This is the guy that tore an entire forest to the ground when we fought?' Azrael thought with a snarl of displeasure after awakening from his map to only find disappointment. It wasn't out of concern for his team leader, not by a long shot. If anything, he hated the fact that someone like Ragna could even consider letting himself get so weak. Right now it looked like Ragna was fighting in slow motion as Mercury weaved around his rifle shots with ease and style. 'This whole thing better be worth if this is what I'm stuck with in the meantime. Looks like I'll need a new hunt after all.'

Meanwhile in the fight itself, Mercury seemed to have had enough of outperforming Ragna's aim with his own agility and was now rushing forward. Ragna tried to get one last shot off to force his opponent to get him some room, but was only rewarded with a hollow click from the sword-rifle. He'd lost count of his ammo in the middle of a fight; yet another low in what already felt like an abyss of sloppiness. Ragna tried to move into something, but before he could Clarent was kicked out of his hands. Barely able to keep his footing, he was then thrown off his feet by Mercury's follow-up kick to the Aramasa's blunt end. Mercury jumped up into the air, bringing his foot down in a powerful axe kick that would end the fight then and there… had it not been the glowing barrier that formed between the two. Kicking off and flipping back, Mercury noticed how heavy Ragna was already breathing.

"You're busting out your Semblance already? Come on man, I didn't think we were fighting for real yet," Mercury taunted, only causing Ragna's frustrations to grow. "Then again if this is some call to turn up the heat THEN FINE BY ME!"

'Since Mercury 'hasn't' brought out his own Semblance, this goes to show how much weaker Ragna is in his current state,' Emerald thought to herself as she observed the fight. Mercury had already closed the distance between the two, delivering a roundhouse kick to Ragna's guard. 'Not that he'd need it anyways, but it's important to make this message stick quickly enough.' Diverting her eyes from the match, they landed on the fight's timer. 'At this rate… he's not going to last much longer.'

Lunging forward, Mercury flipped into a heavy forward that again slammed into Ragna's quickly formed barrier. Going in a roundhouse kick (something that Ragna could easily recognize), Ragna actually drop the barrier and managed to duck the attack. Swiping upward with his sword, the Reaper didn't hit Mercury but he at least managed to get him off balance in the sudden attack. Roaring, Ragna managed to bring his blade up and swung down as hard as he could to finally end this shit show.

"…Missed."

Mercury had not only somehow managed to avoid the attack, but had also landed on the blunt end of Ragna's sword and used his additional weight to keep the weapon where it was in Ragna's weakened state. Smirking, he went for another roundhouse kick straight for Ragna's head.

"Did I?"

"Huh!?"

Somehow despite Cinder's best and constant efforts, Ragna had managed to hold onto more of his ability than Mercury had anticipated. Catching Mercury's kick with his land hand Ragna gave a nasty smirk as he swung his opponent in an arc before throwing him into the air. Gripping his sword with both hands, Ragna roared as he swung into a powerful swing with the blunt side of his blade. Mercury's still strong aura managed to absorb most of the blow, but the left over damage still gave him a nasty hit and sent him flying into the far wall.

'Okay, he got me that time,' Mercury internally admitted as he came out of the crater. Noticing Ragna's previously disarmed sword beside him before glancing at the timer, he knew what it was time for. Getting a crick out of his neck gave the visual that even after all of that he was still only getting warmed up, but in this instance it also served as a signal. Walking over to Clarent, he grabbed the sword off the ground. "You think I could pass as a swordsman?"

"Not a chance," the Reaper growled. "Now stop wasting my time and let's end this bullshit."

"My thoughts exactly."

Throwing his opponent's secondary sword spinning into the air, Mercury gave the pommel a perfectly aimed kick and sent it flying towards Ragna and the Reaper deflected his own sword with ease. Taking the chance to close the distance, Mercury's axe kick again landed on Ragna's sword. Trying to swipe his leg into follow-up, Mercury suddenly lost his footing as he got blasted back by a sudden force.

'Did he just-!?'

Looking as he flew back, he saw Ragna's sword extending before the metal arced and a blaze of dark energy came out to form his signature scythe. Ragna's face was a dark scowl as he wasn't used to bringing this move out, especially not in this sort of setting. Rushing forward, Mercury leaped back and dodged the deadly attack by mere inches.

'What the hell!? Is he trying to kill me!?' he though before backflipping to avoid the follow up swing. The third swing though he wasn't going to be able to dodge… not that he needed to. 'NOW!'

(End theme)

On Ragna's end, it looked like he'd finally caught his opponent for a hard fought win. This fight shouldn't have gone on for as long as it did and his failing condition was growing even more worrisome, but it was still a win. Ragna roared as he came close to making contact… only for the scene to seemingly fade before him. It all happened so fast, Ragna couldn't even question it.

"Pay…"

A specter… A phantom… A ghost. What it was called didn't matter, one manifested in the void Ragna found himself in all the same. It was a woman in a kimono, the material of the dress was torn and rotting as was her skin. Long pale white and messy hair with blood splatters on it. Her eyes were inverted with white irises and black scleras (the part that's supposed to be white). She was crying tears of bloods and her decomposing mouth hung disturbingly open to show broken and rotting teeth. The real horror though was what she had in her hands… two decapitated and familiar heads on each side held by their different colored hair.

"PAY FOR YOUR SINS!"

Ragna's scream didn't even last a half second before he was struck in the face by Mercury's boot. To everyone else his shift into a fearful scream looked almost instantaneous, but to his opponent it had been a perfect window of opportunity. Ragna had finally lost his grip on his weapon as the transformed weapon clattered to the ground, its black flames halting abruptly as it unceremoniously transformed back into a sword. Ragna's battered body sailed high into the air before crashing painfully to the ground with an impact that echoed across the hall.

'No way,' Weiss thought to herself with wide eyes as she stared at Ragna's battered and seemingly unconscious form on the ground. 'He… he was about to win that.'

"I… It seems like that match goes to Mr. Mercury," Goodwitch said before looking towards some of the students with a scowl. "I'd like remind you all that you're allowed to record these fights for research purposes. Keep any petty squabbles outside this classroom."

'At least she's somewhat taking Ragna's side,' Blake thought to herself, before glaring at a few of the recording students that were enemies of the Reaper… and enemies of hers via extension. 'Not that it's helping.'

'I still had to put in a decent effort towards the end there, and there's no telling what would've happened to me if I'd gotten hit by that damn scythe,' Mercury thought to himself, though outwardly he remained smirking confidently. 'Maybe he can still be a solid threat, but…' He glanced over to Cinder who only looked too pleased. 'I doubt she's going to listen at this point.'

'What's going on? He… isn't getting up," Yang thought as she remembered their final underground fight where Ragna had only pretended to lose. 'Is it really just Cinder's fault? What's happening to him!?'

Jin himself said nothing at his brother's failure in battle, simply standing with an annoyed look on his face as he walked out of the mock battle room. The man was no fool; it was easily apparent to him that someone (likely Cinder) was interfering with his brother's ability. What he didn't know was how, and that was keeping him from acting with complete confidence. Any confrontation now would likely only make the situation worse. Even helping his brother seemed unlikely seeing his attitude so far. For the first time since the Kisaragi heir could remember he felt completely… lost.

Also silent was Ruby, who didn't say anything as students were already leaving the battle room even while Ragna remained unconscious. Looking to her team, there was some sort of unspoken message between the four of them as they got up from the seats and went to check on him. While Ruby stood over the man himself to check him over, Weiss went to grab Clarent while Blake dragged the Aramasa back to him. Yang meanwhile stood with Ragna along with her, but her goal was to keep up as fiery of a complexion as she could so that people would keep their comments to themselves and (more importantly) Cinder wouldn't take the chance to step in. Noel, Tsubaki, Jaune, and the rest of team JNPR looked like they wanted to help as well, but decided to leave this to the four of them.

Ten minutes later and those five were still there, the Mock Battle room otherwise empty.

"Ugh…" came a low groan from Ragna's limp body.

"Looks like he's finally coming to," Ruby said, stating the obvious. Slowly, Ragna's mismatched eyes opened. "Hey. Are you-?"

At once the Reaper was on his feet. Breathing heavily, sweating, his eye darting across the room in a clear panic. His hand immediately went for his weapon, only to find that he didn't have it on him. It took him a few moments to calm down, understand his surrounding, and the concern that his friends were clearly showing. Gritting his teeth, he roughly took his weapons back and placed them on his belts.

"…What are you still doing here?"

"Don't give us that! You know that we're worried about you!" Weiss shouted to finally call him out. "This isn't just some stupid exhaustion! Something's clearly wrong with you!"

"Tch, thanks," he muttered back.

"Ragna, don't just try to play this off," Blake said, trying to keep him serious. "We need to take you to a doctor; the fact that you haven't already gone to see one is really concerning."

"Not happening. And mind your own business."

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" To say Yang's approach was more forceful was an understatement. "YOU JUST GOT YOUR ASS HANDED TO YOU AND YOU CAN'T ADMIT SOMETHING'S WRONG!? AND WHY THE HELL ARE YOU PUSHING US AWAY! YOU'LL NEED OUR HELP TO-!"

"WOULD YOU BACK OFF ALREADY!?" Ragna's words weren't all that stopped them cold. From his unnatural arm, a black flame blazed violently and caused the four to step back. Ragna realized what was happening and fought to get it under control, but even when he did he was just further drained.

"Ragna…" Ruby began gently, not know what she could try to speak to the Reaper made only harder with her earlier rejection and lie.

"Seriously, lay off it," Ragna struggled to say as he gripped his arm. "If you keep this up I… I'm going to do something we'll all regret." Despite his warning, it didn't look like his message had landed with them. Swiping his arm like a wild animal, a slash of violent darkness formed between him and team RWBY, leaving a shallow gash in the floor. The four were mortified and frozen by his action. Growling he turned away, barely looking over his shoulder. "I gotta work on my own damn project. Maybe I'll see you around when this shitfest ends."

'He's… lying again,' Ruby knew. Even so she didn't stop Ragna as he left the room; none of them did. They weren't sure if they could even come up with a plan anymore, some way to stop him… something. Eventually the four decided to head out, the air of several defeats thick and heavy in the room. Ruby would have been the last one out, but realized something as she glanced back to the stands. 'He said he was leaving to work on the project… so why are all of his books still here?'

Later

'She's as giddy as ever,' Mercury thought as Cinder seemed to be typing something out on her scroll while she lay stomach down on her bed with her legs in the air like any other schoolgirl. He'd enjoyed his beatdown of Ragna, no point in lying there, but he couldn't help but feel that something about this still didn't feel right. Not morality-wise, he'd already tossed those to the wind long ago. There was something else here with Ragna, something off about the whole man himself. Hearing his leader giggle for the umpteenth time, he'd finally had enough. "Fine, I'll bite. Why are you in such a good mood over there?"

"Other than having all of our plans go through flawlessly? I just happened to make sure that Ragna's blundering performance at your feet managed to make its way into Torchwick's hands. He's pleased enough… though he's practically flattering me with how sadistic he thinks I am."

'The girl has issues.' How many times had the lone male of the group thought this? "And why does Torchwick care about that idiot being beaten?"

"A few nights ago, he somehow managed to take down one Torchwick's contacts in the city, costing him plenty of resources and more importantly time. This is just a little something to make sure that our little friend both gets his comeuppance and can't get in the way of further business… so if anything it makes my plan necessary."

"Like you needed to be validated. You even made sure Emerald could cram that entire horror scene down into an instant," Mercury said, earning only a modest shrug from Cinder. "So that's it then? Plans over? You've beaten Hazama and-"

"I decide when this is over; not you." It was all Cinder had to say to make sure her word was final. "But still… that vision Emerald showed him is going to be hard to top. I'll have to do a little more preparation first."

'You've gotta be kidding me,' the teen thought with ire. 'We're already back to square one. I was thinking that it would be the end of this.' Before he could protest though, the door was thrown open and in rushed Emerald and Neo. "Knock maybe?"

"We might have a problem," Emerald said as she promptly ignored her partner. "Do you know where Ragna is?"

"…Note to self; consider homing chip." Mercury couldn't find it in himself to be surprised with Cinder anymore. "But no I don't, why?"

"No one's seen him since after class ended," the green haired girl explained. "A few of the teams that were close to him are out looking for the guy around the school now; Team RWBY included. He's nowhere to be found around the campus."

"So you managed to drive him out of Beacon; is this part of your plan?" Mercury had to ask.

"No… but I still see this as an absolute win," Cinder said with a continued smile. "What better way than to prove things to Hazama?"

'If it means an end to this and we can get back on track, then I genuinely hope we don't find him,' Mercury thought to himself.

"What's with you?" Emerald asked, finally paying her partner some mind. "You've been acting weird ever since that fight ended."

"I dunno," he admitted, revealing himself to be less confident than he usually was. "Something about that guy just… it still feels off. Even after all of the exhaustion he's been put through, he shouldn't be that weak compared to the stuff he was doing to show off just last quarter, so what gives? Even his semblance and drive abilities barely work. I was up against a shell of a fighter and towards the end he still put up a halfway decent fight."

"You're think about it too much; besides he's already gone," Cinder said with a harsh smirk. "I've already won and gotten away with it. End of story."

'I have to hope she's right,' he finally decided.

"And he manages to drag his way back? Then heaven help him."

Meanwhile -Vale City-

'Shit,' Ragna thought to himself for then umpteenth time since he'd left campus.

It was the only thing that he could confidently think to himself after the day he'd had. So far behind in his project that he didn't know where to start, his body itself failing him, any trust between him and his friends gone, and that image he'd seen… oh god that image.

'At this point it barely matters where it came from; not when I can't even do a damn thing about it,' he thought darkly to himself. Those graphically decapitated heads had belonged to Team RWBY alright, it made his blood cold just thinking about it. 'As I am now, there's no point going back to Beacon. But what am I supposed to do when…?'

Shaking his head, Ragna kept walking forward.

'Shit.'

Not much time had passed since his match with Mercury and his 'falling out' with RWBY. He'd moved fast to get out of that school, and was walking quickly to get out of the town itself.

'And even could go back stronger, there's what Rachel said. Is it really… Shit.'

"GOOD GUY!"

Too slow to react and too weak to remain standing, Ragna toppled over with a profane shout as Tao tackled into him. She'd been smiling when run into her (meal ticket) best friend, but after knocking him cleanly off his feet she was growing reasonably concerned.

"Meow? What's wrong good guy? Most of the time you're able to catch Tao," she said in her usual voice, not moving from where she laid on Ragna. Thankfully for the two, no one else was around to see this rather compromising position.

"Get off," he grumbled, only to be halfway surprised when Tao did so without reservation. "What are you still doing here? Shouldn't you have gotten back to Tora after that shit at the port?"

"Tao did go back to see big sis! Honest!" the cat affirmed. "But it turns out that Tora still needed Tao to keep her eyes out fur something else to do with White Fang."

"Still? Any idea-?" Ragna had been about to ask before he stopped himself. 'Like I'm in any place to help right now. Besides, Tao's probably got this just fine.'

"But right neow, Tao's more worried about Good Guy. He looks super sick." Even Tao's ears were dropping slightly to show her concern. "What happened to ya Good Guy? Did you eat some super bad food?"

'I honestly can't confidently say if Noel's cooking could even do this to me,' Ragna thought to himself darkly. "It's a lot of stuff Tao, a lot of stuff. But… I'm gonna head out and try to fix this. Just gotta do the usual method and I should be fine."

"Meow, but shouldn't Good Guy have been doing that already?" Tao had to ask. "You usually hold off on eating before that's done if it's bad enough."

"I know that, but it's been… tough," Ragna said, before considering something. "Hey, can you do something for me. I need a favor. A REALLY big one."

"Meow… Okay. Tao will even do this favor free of charge." That much managed to surprise the Reaper; normally Tao would ask for an outrageous amount of food from him and that without a favor on top. "Watcha need good guy?"

"I need you to go back to the Academy, Beacon Academy. You know that girl I was with last time? The one with the black cat ears?" She nodded. "I need you to let her and the rest of her team know that… just let them know that I'm sorry and I'll be back to classes in a bit. I just gotta try and get some shit taken care of."

"Meow… Tao can tell them that, but is Good Guy telling the truth?" Of course she had to ask that. "Are you coming back?"

"I… Yeah, I'm pretty sure that I am," Ragna said, trying to sound confident. "In fact I'll make a point to."

"…Meow."

Taokaka had known Ragna for longer than most and despite not being the fastest on the uptake, she was confident that she him pretty well at least. That coupled with the fact that Ragna was a terrible liar made it concerning that she couldn't tell that he was lying… but she couldn't claim confidently that he was telling the truth either.

"I'm really counting on you here Tao," he tried to tell her again. "Make sure they get the message right away, okay?"

"A… Alright," Tao said though she didn't sound too happy about it.

"Oh and one more thing. Just make a point to also say it'll be good for me to get away from Cinder for a bit." 'If that won't put them at ease, then nothing will.'

"Meow? Tao doesn't know anything about this Cinder? Is she someone you need Tao to beat up?" she asked, sounding a little more excited as she punched the air a few times.

"Tao…" Ragna said seriously, trying to keep her on track.

"Alright, alright, Tao's off!" she declared while bounding down the street. It didn't take long for her to get completely out of sight.

"This…" Ragna began heavily, even if he was the only one that could here. It needed to be said, a promise to hold himself to. "This is my last chance."

'…SHIT.'

Next Time: Event Horizon