Chapter 32
Year 3 Month 11 Day 21
The Mistral empire was beset on all sides by enemies. Grimm had returned to Mistral, and they fought the Alliance. Emperor Sym hired an elite assassin to take down enemy leaders.
Echo watched as the Ninth got ready to go on her new assignment. He wasn't sure that he would see her again.
"Remember, Emperor Sym hired you. If you fail him, it will look bad on all of us." Echo said
"Fourth, you are too careful." Ninth said.
"Ninth, if you fail, you might as well kill yourself." Echo said. Ninth stopped for a second.
"That has never been a requirement before." Ninth said
"You've never been on a mission of this importance." Echo said.
"Trying to help your apprentice?"
Echo was next to her in an instant. He had a needle next to her throat. "Don't get cocky." Echo put the needle away. Ninth felt fear.
Ninth knew her targets. She was off.
Month 11 Day 23
Ninth's first target was a simple one. A Captain who was going to be meeting with a higher up later. She had to get him right after the meeting. She stalked her target all the way to Atlas. He was nothing special. It would be a simple kill for her. She sat in a tree a kilometer away, with the patience of an animal seeking its next meal. The meeting thankfully didn't take long. In half an hour the meeting ended. Ninth decided to start to follow him. He went to a bar after the meeting.
She entered the bar a few minutes after him. He was unmarried, and with the information she had, He had a weakness for the fairer sex. She went close to him, but not next to him. She ordered a drink.
She took everything in around her. A pool table, a dart board, sports betting tables, poker tables, and other types of gambling. She could see why so many people would want to come here to hide and get a drink. The cybernetics flashed at least ten people in this bar with bounties on them. None of them big enough for her to care. She watched her target carefully. Using her charms to get his attention. Soon he walked towards her. Her cybernetic hid itself. He took a seat next to her.
"Hey, can I get you a drink?" He asked. She got him.
She played along with him for the rest of the time that he was at the bar. A few hours later, he was very drunk. She stole the information a while ago. Now she just had to kill him. They went to his home. He laid down on his bed and started to disrobe. Ninth pulled out her pistol and shot him in the heart. She watched his dead body for a moment and fired a second round. She started pouring as much gas as the house had around. After the house was covered, she found a cigar.
She heard the target gasping for life. She lit the cigar, took a puff, and threw it on the ground. She left the house and watched as the house caught on fire. Her target list came up. She marked off the first one and moved onto the second one. This time, she was authorized to use bullets that had the poison dust inside of them.
Month 11 Day 28
She was going to menagerie this time, to hopefully slow down the alliance in their project there. She was safely able to get to Menagerie, using a lot of her favors. Even though the Alliance was easier to move across, it was hard still. When she landed, she had to do a few of her best tricks to get out of a sticky situation with her ID. She was just barely able to get past the guards, but she was able.
Her target would be hard to get to. She was one of the founders of the red fang. In fact, she was the current leader of it. Ninth knew this would be difficult, but not the most difficult one on her list.
She had gotten used to these harder missions. But the kill was the hard part about this one. With the info gathered from her previous kill, she had everything she needed to track her prey. The information she stole had the schedules for several people, including all her targets.
Sienna Khan waited patiently for the meeting to start, but even after nearly an hour of waiting, she was about to walk out. Thankfully the Belladonnas finally arrived. She sat back down in her seat, until she noticed that there were quite a few more people coming into the room.
"What is this?" She asked.
"We've got word that the empire has hired an assassin to kill you, so we brought in a few allies to guard us." Ghira said. Team RWBY and Team CFVY, alongside Vuren entered the room.
"Jedi, hunters… Is this Salem?"
"She may have a tie to this. We know one assassin's coming, but there may be more sent by her." Ghira said, grabbing a glass.
"Salem has been stopping our efforts to make the desert green. We're having heavy resistance at the Nixen valley. Especially at the base of the Vajon river. It seems so strange. Why that place out of all places on Remnant?"
"She's probably hiding something there." Vuren said
"What would she hide there?" Sienna asked
"No idea, but it has to be import…"
Vuren pulled out her lightsaber and intercepted a bullet. It imbedded itself into a wooden pillar. It was going straight for Sienna. Ruby and Yang pulled out their lightsabers. Vuren felt something was about to happen. The lightbulbs in the room all burst. Yang used the force to send the glass to a place where it would be harmless. A bullet was fired in the dark.
Velvet jumped up to where the bullet was fired from. She kicked the assassin into the wall. Since she was a Faunus, she was able to see in the dark.
"It's her!" She yelled. The assassin threw a knife, cutting Velvet's cheek.
Vuren moved towards Sienna Khan. She was hit by the bullet, and she was bleeding.
Vuren put one of her lightsabers away and grabbed onto Khan. She started to move Khan away to a safe room when she heard death cries around her. She saw, through the force, black fang fighting the red fang. She saw one of them wielding a lightsaber. Another had a sword. He took down four red fang guards. Vuren used the force to open the door to another room.
Sienna gripped Vuren's arm. Vuren took her into the empty room. She knelt and heard what Sienna said. Sienna passed Vuren her scroll, and a ring. Vuren tried to keep the black fang from getting into the room. Sienna looked at the door as the ancient Sith broke it open. She closed her eyes and let out her final breath.
Blake took down a Grimm that entered the room when she saw her worst nightmare.
Adam was leading the attack. He looked over at her.
"Blake. I didn't think this day could get much better, getting sent here to destroy the traitorous red fang, or your coward of a father, but now…" He said. Weiss came from behind and tried to get the drop on him, but he spun around, and went to stab Weiss.
Yang sent a force blast and sent Adam to the wall. He got back up. He looked around for Ruby.
"If I remember correctly, there was a red one." Adam said. He heard the activation of a lightsaber from above him. He jumped out of the way. Team RWBY had him surrounded.
"Looks like I need some backup." Adam created a portal next to him. Uriel Ventris came out with a red lightsaber. Yang lowered her guard
"Master?" Yang said. Uriel didn't say anything. He dashed towards her. It was all she could do to block it. Ruby went to go help her sister. Blake and Weiss were all that was left. Weiss snapped, and created the bubble. She also twisted her hand and sent glyphs around this arena. They got ready to fight.
After missing his shot Sixth tried to get away from the compound. He'd slipped away when the Black fang arrived and hadn't run into anyone yet. He got to a good place to rest and waited for his next assignment to appear. He heard footsteps approach, so he got up.
"So, you finally got back here. Too many Jedi to kill Khan, but I can get the next target for sure." Sixth said. One he turned he saw about the worst person to say what he said to. Master Roni was there. She closed her scroll and took out her lightsabers.
"I guess it was a good thing I was running late."
Sixth quickly pulled out a pistol and fired. Roni blocked the shot and reached out her hand. Sixth was frozen in place and she walked close to him. She grabbed his scroll and let him go. He reached into his coat and fired at her one more time.
Roni blocked the attack and threw her second lightsaber into Sixth's chest. She used the force to bring the lightsaber back to her. Sixth falls down dead.
"Send a squad to this location. Then send more troops to the red fang compound. I think they're under attack." Roni hurried to the compound.
Team CFVY were chasing the assassin. Velvet wanted her dead the most. Yatsuhashi was doing his best to lead her to the Forest by creating the wall. Once they got to the forest multiple giant Grimm appeared. Twin Geists took over several boulders. Fox and Yatsuhashi were cut off from Coco and Velvet.
"Things are still going according to plan." Coco said.
"I know. Now we have to do our part."
Vuren took out her lightsabers and fought the ancient Sith. She didn't have to be careful anymore with Sienna dead. She just hoped she could avoid that same fate. She quickly blocked the attacks, and parried. She couldn't make a hit, but neither was he. But being stuck in this room, with little room, she was at the disadvantage, and she needed to get out of here.
After the Sith made a mistake in his swing, Vuren used the force to push him back. She rolled underneath him and made it into the hallway. She was running towards the bar that was connected to the compound. A few black fang troops got in her way, but she swatted them away. She saw the Sith following her. He sent a blast of force lightning. She turned around and blocked with her lightsabers. She was pushed back, but then she shoved the power back at the Sith. He got hit by his own lightning, but he wasn't dead yet. She rushed forward and jumped over him. He'd just gotten up when Vuren turned around, slashing through him twice. He fell to the ground and started to fade away. Vuren picked up his lightsaber and hung it to her belt. She saw Ruby and Yang losing against another Sith in the courtyard. She used the force to break the window next to her, and she jumped to join in on the fight. She threw her first lightsaber, but the Sith used the force to stop it and tossed it to the side. Vuren landed and took out the Sith's lightsaber. The red and green blades met in an X blocking a downward strike. Ruby rushed, but the Sith broke the lock to block the attack. He reached out his hand and took Vuren's lightsaber.
Yang punched at Uriel. He took the hits and moved back. He threw Vuren's lightsaber back at her. She got it back and put it back on her belt.
"Yang, I'm not controlling my body. I'm sorry."
Another portal opened. Cinder walked through.
"Don't apologize Love. It's time to leave. We've won."
Yang rushed forward. Cinder took out her black lightsaber and blocked the hit. She used force lightning and hit Yang. She flew back. Uriel and Cinder went back into the portal. Ruby went to her sister and Vuren looked around to see if any more enemies were around. She heard a ship approaching.
Adam was beating Weiss and Blake, but not by much. He didn't even notice when Salem's dark armor covered him. He only noticed when Weiss and Blake got their armor. He noticed his forces were quickly being beaten back. That didn't matter. All he needed to do was kill his targets. He just needed a distraction.
Weiss made a glyph behind Adam, not giving himself to much time to react. He spun around and slashed the glyph. His sword absorbed the energy. Blake was about to stab him, but he jumped over her. He was about to bring the sword down when Ghira charged at him. He tackled Adam out of the bubble. Adam was holding onto Ghira's arms, trying to stop him from killing him.
"Don't you dare touch my daughter!" He roared.
"She's not my target." The bubble fell. Blake screamed out.
Ghira turned around and saw Adam's sword hanging out of Kali.
"Mom!" Blake yelled.
Kali saw the sword rise off the ground and threw herself in front of it. Weiss tried to stop her, but she wasn't fast enough to stop her. The sword was coming towards Ghira. Kali fell to the ground, with Blake catching her. She couldn't say anything, but she was able to smile before she passed.
Ghira slammed his fist into what he thought was Adam. It turned out to be a random Black fang troop. Adam was appeared behind Kali's body and ripped the sword out of her. Some of her blood flicked on Blake's face. She couldn't move.
"Kali! Blake!" Ghira cried out. He rushed over towards Adam and grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against a wall.
"I'll rip you apart!" Ghira Cried out. Adam's hand went to his neck. Adam dropped his sword. He kneed Ghira, but he didn't let go.
"I can't believe I have to bail you out" Hazel said. Weiss summoned her knight, only for him to take the hit. He gripped the blade and broke it. Hazel threw the sword up and punched the knight. It went backwards and fell.
Hazel rushed over to Ghira and tackled him. Ghira dropped Adam, and quickly threw Hazel off him. Weiss tried to get over to fight but couldn't hit Hazel without risking Ghira. Adam used the confusion to Kick Weiss across the room into Blake, who was still holding her mother's body. She fell forward into the ground, but she didn't care. Ghira threw Hazel off him and quickly got up. He turned around and felt Adam's sword enter his body. Ghira looked down and felt the pain. He grimaced and fell to his knees. Adam struck him in the lung. Once the sword was gone, his lung would soon fill up with his blood and drown him. Adam pulled the sword out and looked at Ghira.
"Look at what you built your entire life. You failed to keep it all together, and now, this little segment, this small splitter is all that's left. With no one to lead it. It will soon collapse." Adam got in closer.
"You started me down this path. Everything you've done, gone. You are a failure." Adam was about to open a portal when Ghira coughed. He turned around.
"My mistake was… getting attached to you…" He tried to get up and fell to one knee. If Adam was still alive, he might have felt pity. He looked over at Hazel, holding back to two huntresses.
"Attached? Don't give me that garbage."
"I never should.. have…" Ghira was struggling to his feet. "Given up… on you." Ghira was on his own two feet." His vision was getting blurry. He would die very soon, leaving his daughter alone. "But I leave… behind my… greatest work. She will correct… my mistake."
Adam turned and entered the portal. Hazel left as well.
Blake rushed over to her father, his blood covering him.
"You look just like your mother." Ghira said, standing on his own two feet. He closed his eyes, and his knees buckled under his weight. He fell into Blake. She caught him. His blood covering her just like her mother's did. He was gone.
Soon after Yang, Ruby, and Vuren entered the room. Blake stood there, quiet with tears running down her face. She fell to her knees and put her head into her father's chest. A scream of Agony rang out even after reinforcements arrived.
Coco took cover as the assassin was firing at her. Velvet used Blake's weapon to latch onto a tree and swung around to kick the assassin off the tree. She fell to the ground with a thud.
Ninth knew her cybernetics were severely damaged and that she couldn't rely on them now.
She also couldn't run away. He leg was bleeding, and she was sure that something was broken. But she wasn't the only one hurt. The rabbit got hit more than once. But her aura took care of most of the work. The other one was much harder to see, let alone get a hit on. She struggled more than she thought she would. The rabbit kicked her backwards. She smelt something and felt wet. She realized it was gasoline.
She heard ropes moving and quickly found that her leg was wrapped. She was dragged out from where she was and felt more rope wrap around her. Soon, her entire body was covered by rope. They pulled her to a wide-open area, and felt more gasoline cover her. The two girls came out and stood in front of her. The rabbit grabbed the part of her ear that Nine cut off all that time ago. Nine struggled to reach for her pistols when the rabbit came up behind her and broke each of her fingers individually. Nine screamed out in pain.
"I told you I was going to kill you. I keep my promises."
Velvet pulled out a cigarette and gave it to Coco. Coco lit it and handed it back to Velvet. Velvet took a puff of it and blew the smoke in Nine's face. Nine trashed trying to get free, but she couldn't. Velvet threw the cigarette on Nine and started to walk away.
They heard the screams from nine for a while afterwards.
"There we have it, revenge." Coco said.
Velvet shook her head. Coco stopped her. "How do you feel?" She asked.
Velvet felt tears coming and could only shake her head. Coco put her hand on Velvet's shoulder, and Velvet turned to face her. She hugged Coco and they both fell to the ground.
Coco gave reassuring words till Velvet calmed down.
Velvet looked in Coco's eyes and kissed her.
Blake felt empty inside. She looked at her parents one last time as the medics placed their bodies in body bags. She found out that Khan also died from Vuren, but that didn't matter to her. She was alone again.
Yang reached her hand out to Blake but stopped.
"Blake…?"
Blake didn't say anything, couldn't say anything. She just looked down at her hands, covered with her mother's blood, and at her shirt, covered with her father's blood. She felt so cold.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Yang asked.
Blake shook her head. No words could come to mind. Why wasn't she able to move? Why couldn't see just fight Adam?
Adam. She clenched her fists, and her jaw. Her hands began to shake. "That Bastard Adam did this. He has to pay." Blake said.
Yang felt the dark side roll of Blake. Ruby could see it too. She could almost see it in a literal sense.
"Blake… We need you to calm down." Vuren said. Her hand were already on her lightsabers.
Blake stood up
"Calm down! What are you…" Blake was going to continue until her necklace glowed the darkness disappeared.
Blake fell to her knees. She felt sick.
Yang caught her.
Blake cried more.
Year 4 Month 0 Day 06
Echo was at the meeting this time. Four assassin's dead in less than a month, As Third now, after killing the previous third, Echo entered the true inner circle. Second in line to lead the order, but maybe it was at the least opportune time. Twelfth challenged Jet and lost shortly after Echo killed third. But in the field where disaster struck. Ninth and Sixth were both killed, thought Ninth and Sixth did succeed in their last missions, they were of no use anymore.
Jet moved up four seats, making her the new ninth, but she became even more of a target. And he himself put a target on his back. Echo had to watch out for Second trying to take him out now.
"It wasn't your fault that the mission failed entirely, and in a sense, it failing helped us greatly, but this does reflect poorly on you." Emperor Sym said. "I will pay your usual fee this time, but It will decrease next time I call upon you." The call ended. Everyone left except for Echo and Jet.
"Do you have a question?" Echo asked
"Yes. How did the Alliance know our moves?"
Echo asked himself the same thing
Emperor Sym knew what went wrong. There was a leak, but this to leak out was very disturbing. It meant that the Alliance has, and even maybe has had for the entire war, had a mole in the higher ups. Echo proved all that time ago he could get moles to expose themselves, but if they were this high up, not even he might be enough. Sym called all the Sith in a council.
"I have grave news. The Alliance has a spy among our ranks, and someone high up." Sym said
"How do you know?" Lord Watu asked.
"Well, the Alliance was able to respond quickly to our assassinations" Lady Culls said.
"That is suspicious but not guaranteed" Watu said
"I think we can say it is more than suspicious" Soule said.
"We are accusing one of our top operatives of conspiracy." Lady Amona. She was a human Sith lord. She oversaw gathering the many force sensitives in the empire to train them to be Sith
"I wouldn't make such a claim if we had no basis. In fact, I have evidence that we have a mole." A hologram of the world appeared.
"Between the time it took to create the list of those who I wanted dead, and the time of this incident there were many transmissions sent out of the capital. Now watch." Hundreds of lines came from the capital going all over world. Then all the lines that stayed in the empire disappeared. That made a large portion of the messages vanish.
"Those that went to the alliance anywhere were gathered and read. Most were simply to family members from our citizens. We these were also much more public so we are disqualifying them."
More lines vanished, leaving now less than ten lines.
"These lines contain our mole. Two of these decided to jump all over. Probably to keep themselves hidden, but they were made they day before the attack, so they wouldn't be the ones we need to look after." They disappeared.
"We also checked with all the others. With the help of one of our double agents, we gathered the key to unlock this puzzle." Four messages stayed on. They were blinking red.
"These were sent from here. They all went to Vale. Our mole has a connection to someone who's in Vale. Now this would be hard to figure out, because it would mean an extensive, and loud, background check on all our operatives." Sym punched a few buttons and soon all the messages came up.
"We still don't know the sender, or the receiver. Find one, and we find the other." Soule said.
"Exactly, so now we need bait." Sym said.
"What do you mean?"
"I'd be more than willing to lose a battle that means little in the wide scale of things here, but I can't stand a rat" Sym said
Cobe sat at his desk, going over documents like he had been for what seemed like years. With his job now being more about the big picture, he lost the ability to personally see the troops off. A blessing in disguise for him. It gave him all the time he needed. He was certain his computer was the best he was going to get it. Besides, he hadn't been caught yet. He got so good at sending the documents to Bora that he made it completely unnoticeable to anyone being nosy. His girlfriend, someone who was in the white fang during the battle like him, brought him a cup of coffee.
"Thanks babe" Cobe said.
"What are we doing for lunch?"
"Do we still have those leftovers?" Cobe asked.
"Didn't you finish those for breakfast?" She said
"Oh yeah, why not get some…" He got a call. "It's the captain." He sighed.
"Don't worry. I'll let you go back to your job." She left. Cobe picked up the phone.
While he was talking, he was able to send Bora the report for a battle in the next week.
Little did he know that the trap was about to be sprung. That report was given to only a select few. It would send a bug to the sender, which would be able to direct itself back to the original file. The file secretly saved itself to the computer, deep inside. It was a sleeping bug, only to wake up when it was sent to an unknown receiver.
Bora went to one of the computers in their house. She got a notification that Cobe sent her a new message.
She was about to click the document when she heard Jade crying. She got up and went to her. Roni was over the house having tea with Karel and Rouge.
Bora put Jade back to bed and went to the computer. She clicked the document and deciphered it. She was glad Roni was here. She printed it out and gave it to Roni. She went to exit out of the document, but something happened. The computer froze. Then a message popped up.
"Sending location"
Karel came over to look at it when it left.
"What does that mean?" Karel asked.
"I have a bad feeling." Bora said. She almost called Cobe, but she didn't know if it was worth the risk.
"It may just be a pop up." Karel said, unconvincingly.
Bora made the call.
"Hey Alice, is it important?" Cobe said Alice was her code name. She got the idea that there was someone nearby.
"I think we got bedbugs, so do you know where I can get a good mattress." It was code for a bug that could expose them.
"Well, your going to need to get rid of it, I think I can get you a new one. Was that it?" A superior was around, and he needed to get off.
They ended the call.
"Damnit."
Karel knew the story already.
Vox got the information she needed. Sym entered the room.
"We got a bite. Bring in Soule and Zia."
"Why them?" Sym asked.
"They'll enjoy this." Vox said looking at the answer.
Shortly after Soule and Zia entered the room.
"This better be good. We're wasting good training time." Soule said
"We found where the rat sleeps. Can you guess where?" Vox asked with a wicked smile on her face.
"I have no idea." Zia said
"The home of Commander Karel Allusis and Bora Lone." Vox said
Soule almost laughed. So, the traitor was giving them their precious secrets. Bold, very bold.
"And we were able to download all files from the sender. We can confirm that the traitor was there since the beginning. And they were the same one who betrayed them just days ago.
They were down to the last few candidates. All once trusted, but now all under suspicion. They were wondering how much longer it would take for the last few names to be crossed off.
Cobe had to spend the rest of the day pretending he wasn't afraid for his life. It was so much harder than it looked. If he was able to go home, maybe this would all blow over. Lord Watu came to talk to him about getting him a squad of highly skilled troops for him. He was always scared around Watu. But Cobe was the person to talk to if you wanted to create a new battalion.
He felt Watu stare into his soul. It was hard to tell what Watu was looking for.
Cobe could imagine a rope wrapping around his neck.
Thankfully that was his only encounter with the Sith for the rest of his day. Everyone else was easy to deal with, but not them. He walked back to his home. He texted his girlfriend, but she didn't answer. He unlocked his door and opened it. He placed his stuff down and noticed something was off. He quickly reach for his pistol and fired it. A hand came up and blocked the shots. He turned a light on, and saw it was Empress Vox.
"I'm so sorry my empress." He knelt.
"For what? Attacking me?"
"I am so sorry. I didn't know it was you." He said
Vox looked at a picture of a baby on the wall. She opened the frame and looked at the back.
"Jade Lone. Do you know anyone by that name? Or perhaps her mother, Bora Lone?" She already knew the answer, but she was curious what he would say.
"She's the second in command to the 122nd alliance legion." Cobe started to sweat. Then he got worried.
"Excuse me your excellence, but has Lacey come back? Did she let you in?" He felt as thought his heart was about to burst.
"You know more about Bora Lone don't you. I can tell." She ignored his question.
"She used to take care of me when I was younger." Cobe knew telling the truth was his only option.
"Finally, some truth. I was able to tell that you had a deeper connection with her by this picture. It's of her baby." Vox's tone grew sterner. The environment grew heavier if that was possible.
"She's like a sister to me." Cobe said "But I haven't seen her in a long time." He added. It was true at least.
"I am sure you know that we hired an assassin recently to kill a VIP of the alliance, but they somehow learned that we were coming."
Cobe remembered sending the document.
"I heard that your excellence."
"But did you hear that we have a spy?" Vox pulled out a glass from his cupboard and pulled out a red wine. She poured it and gave it to Cobe.
"Drink it." She said
"It would not be right to drink before you." He said
"I will not be having a drink. I am here to tell you we found the spy."
Cobe didn't know if he should feel relieved or terrified. He grabbed the glass of wine and took a sip.
"We know that you are the traitor." Vox said. She was turned around. Cobe went for his door. When he opened it, Lord Watu was standing there. Cobe turned around and saw Vox shaking her head.
"You betrayed the empire. You know what that means don't you?" Watu slammed his head against the table.
Vox grabbed his scroll and opened it up. She placed it down and made a hologram of Bora appear.
Bora picked up the call and saw that Cobe's head was pushed against a table.
"What's going on?" Bora asked
"Is that the woman who's been stealing our secrets?" Bora recognized the voice. Cobe had been caught. Karel went to her side when he saw the image pop up.
"And I see the Commander is here as well. Tell them Cobe what's going on." Vox demanded.
Cobe tried to stop it, but he couldn't.
"I was caught." He said.
"Please don't hurt him" Bora said
"Alright." Watu let go of Cobe, then he got his lightsaber and slashed Cobe across the back.
Cobe fell out of frame.
"No" she said
Karel clenched his fist
"Sith Scum!" he yelled
"I did what you asked. He felt no pain."
"You monster." Bora said. The call ended, and Bora started to cry into Karel's chest.
Vox kicked the body when she was leaving the house. She ordered the house be burned down, and for it to look like an accident.
"That's what happens to spies." Vox said, as the flame started.
Author's Notes: This was a darker chapter. A lot of major character deaths. Hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed writing it.
What did you think of episode 9?
There's not to much more to say, so I'll end it here
May the Force be With you
-Dragonzlayerx12
P.S. welcome to a new decade.
