Here we go again with another chapter of this story. I was doing some thinking, and internet browsing, and wow, almost no one really talks about Marcus or even Mercury's past. Of course there's a few fanfics here and there that feature the two characters, but I definitely hope that maybe I can put in some influence to make the Blacks family history a little more popular. Even if this is all just headcanon that I am making up completely.
Beta: CrowSkull
Destiny Fated Black
Chapter 8
Surprise, surprise… Should have expected it really, when a little birdy started becoming a thorn in my side…
Day's past ever since his sparring match against Cinder, and still he felt the burns of her attacks licking against his skin. The bruises were mostly gone, but the one on his chest stared back at him through the mirror with an almost taunting glare to it. It was slowly fading away, but it was certainly taking its damn time. Marcus scowled at himself in the mirror and pulled his shirt back down, and double-checked that all of the light tough leather armor pads stitched to his shirt were still in good enough shape. Once he felt satisfied, he let out a deep breath through his nose and turned around.
He felt his aura fill to the brim about a day ago. He could have regenerated it back faster, but he didn't trust the animals in the White Fang to actually give him proper treatment. So he let his body heal the old way, as an ex-assassin, he was trained to withstand pain so that he wouldn't be committed to a hospital. Because the moment he would get better there, he would be sent to the nearest maximum security prison. Or killed for his crimes, one of those was less intimidating than the other, and it just so happened to be the latter. One of the only things he was thankful for his dear late father teaching him was that. After a full day of letting his body rest and heal while staying hydrated. Despite some burning sensations in his muscles and the bruise on his chest, he would be okay to fight. Not necessarily at a hundred percent at the moment, but around ninety percent or so from what he could mentally gauge.
Which was good enough to deal with the above-average huntsman that might get in his way, and with Emerald by his side he could easily take on someone better. The only time it would become a problem is if there were too many of them, but he doubted that any gangs in this shithole city had anyone good enough to even stand up to a Beacon student. He could count on one and a half hands how many he knew of that could take on a Beacon student without any issue.
Today's hunt- oh, sorry, recruitment run, is for an actually okay named gang called 'The Black Withers'. He liked that name, and liked to think that it was named after him, no matter how overly optimistic that may be. The leader of this wonderfully named gang was a faunus woman named Tenne Venen, the first name which he thought could be pronounced like the number ten or like 'Ten-ay'. Ten was easier though, so he would go with that for now. From what Cinder told him, Tenne was the leader of one of the more powerful gangs, and the last one who wasn't roped into Roman's little group of fun. She had weapons, her men were disciplined, and she didn't take shit without giving some back herself. But the best thing — or worst, considering what their plans were — about her was that she seemed to actually have a brain in between those ears of hers.
Hopefully, that meant she wouldn't be like the last idiot who lost almost all of his best men trying to kill him and Emerald. Hah, he heard that sometimes during his recovery Cinder went to go pay the kid a visit, and once he realized that she was his boss he went down to his knees and pledged himself to her immediately. Rumour has it that Cinder was there to kill him and replace him with someone smarter, but after that little display she decided to give him another chance. Which was good, he figured.
He wasn't going to hold his breath though, and prepared for a fight just in case Tenne decided to be stupid. However, he would need to be a little more careful tonight. His face was known and at this point, Ozpin should definitely know that he is here back in Vale, and the old man wouldn't wait to see what he was going to do. The headmaster definitely had a least a few huntsman after him, and the police would keep an eye out for a head full of white hair.
Despite that, he needed to go out anyway. Since his contract was extended by an unknown amount of time, he would need to keep up this winning streak to stay on Cinder's good side. So when he saw the time tick down to one in the morning, he made his way to Emerald who was sitting down on her bed reading some stupid book she must have found in the trash somewhere and took it out of her hands.
"Hey! I was reading that asshole." Emerald complained when he threw it across the room.
"You can read that shit later, it's time to go for another moonlit stroll," Marcus replied, gesturing for her to go collect her weapons. Emerald did so without arguing once she realized that his interrupting was for a mission, but she made sure to glare at him for a few moments as she strapped her weapons to her lower back and filled up on ammo. He couldn't care less for it and leaned against a wall, waiting for her to finish preparing her gear and such.
"Where are we going then?" She asked finally once she loaded both of her weapons with live dust rounds.
Marcus looked to her from the corner of his eyes. "Bit of a trip tonight, we're going west between the central and industrial districts. Junior ever so helpfully provided me with an address, so that makes things easier for us. Let's see here…" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crumpled ball of paper, straightening it out obnoxiously as he tried to make out the worst. "134, Red street."
"Let's go then. I want to get back to that book, I just made it to a good part before you rudely interrupted me." Emerald said as she walked to the exit to the hideout they were held up in.
"Oh please, you'll have plenty of time to fantasize with whatever you're reading once you sneak your way into Beacon with Cinder," Marcus said as he pushed off the wall and left the building. "What are you reading anyway?"
Emerald refused to look at him.
"Wow, is it porn?"
"No!" Emerald snapped. "Ugh, if you must have more ammo to make fun of me with, I am reading an old fairy tale. It's called 'The Lady in the Tower'."
"Pfft," Out of the very small amount of respect he had for Emerald, he didn't let himself burst out with laughter. "Okay, not as embarrassing as I thought it'd be." He covered his mouth and disguised a chuckle for a cough.
"Shut up, damn old man..."
"For the record, I don't need ammo to make fun of you with," Marcus said as they disappeared into the darkness of the abandoned street where their hideout was located. "Remember that, Grass."
"Ugh…"
Sneaking their way through the alleys and old hidden passageways that Marcus knew about, the short journey to Red Street wasn't all that concerning. The cops weren't looking in the right places, and with Emeralds semblance she was able to hide his head of white hair by making some of the cops looking at them see a head of black hair instead, or whatever color that she actually used. Could have been a hot pink for all he knew. Though her semblance had limits, limits that forced her to only be able to use it on one person at a time. It would have been so much more convenient if those limits could be improved or broken through, but alas, they had to make do with what they had. Luckily she only had to use it a few times, and only because Marcus decided that they would take a few risky shortcuts. Though he argued that trough most of them there was a bird cawing at them as they invaded its supposed territory.
And a few risky shortcuts later, here they were walking on the darker side of the road on the sidewalk. Calmly making their way to where the Black Withers were holding up in.
"You know," Marcus started after looking around the street. "For a road called Red Street, there's much red to be seen."
"Is that seriously what is at the front of your mind right now?" Emerald asked, clearly annoyed.
"Sure," Marcus shrugged, not seeing any issue with his habits. "Not like it's hard to talk to these gangs anyway. I was sort of in a secret underground assassin organization too. So keep in mind that I might have some knowledge on how to talk and deal with people."
"And yet you failed to win Rox over without terrorizing him." Emerald sniped.
"That is how you deal with the arrogant and annoying types," Marcus argued. "We would have been there all night trying to get the idiot to see reason, that is if he didn't try to kill us before we could anyway. Trust me, we saved a lot of time by doing what we did."
"Whatever you say," Emerald said, clearly showing just how unconvinced she really was. "We're close, just a few more buildings down and we're there."
"Fun," Marcus said unenthusiastically as he took his hands out of his pockets. A small gesture to the average eye, and probably unimportant. But Emerald knew that it meant that he was readying himself just in case things headed south like it did at Rox's place. The man was as dangerous unarmed as he was with a knife after all. Sometimes she wondered why he even used a knife when he was that good close quarters, and the one time she actually asked, he told her that the most dangerous weapon is the one you don't see coming. Which made sense, or would have made sense if Marcus actually tried to hide his knives. The old man practically had it on display for all to see if one simply looked for them.
"Hey there!" Marcus called out as a pair of men, one human and the other obviously faunus, both dressed in black and brown matching outfits came out of the building marked with 134. The two men both looked to each other then back to Marcus. Their clothing wasn't too glamorous, but it looked better than most other gangs. At least it wasn't the idiotic wear that Junior's goons wore all the time. "Just in time too, I was just thinking about knocking on that door you just came out of."
"Can we help you, sir?" One of the men asked, his reptilian scaled face shifting as he turned his head to directly face Marcus.
"Yes, yes you can," Marcus said, all smiles and friendly vibes. Completely uncharacteristic in Emerald's eyes. "You see, we have an appointment for the woman in charge, if you catch my drift." He winked at them. "Mind showing us the way? I easily get lost sometimes."
The two men eyed both Marcus and Emerald up and down, then leaned toward each other to conversate. Marcus focused his hearing forward to try and hear what they were mumbling, but even then he could only hear so much. All he could hear from them was something about Roman sending them a message about their arrival earlier, just like Marcus asked of him before he got ready to get here.
"He's Marcus Black?" The faunus man asked his co-worker, who nodded his head in nervous confirmation. Marcus raised an eyebrow, apparently his fame has stretched even here as well. Even the gangs wanted to watch out for him.
"Yes, you two do seem to have an appointment with our leader." The faunus started as his partner spoke into a scroll a few feet behind him. "If you could follow me, I'll take you right to her."
Marcus hummed an impressed tone. That was certainly a turn of events he didn't entirely expect. Actually being let in right away? Cinder's information was right, these guys were definitely the smarter ones of the bunch. So far at least. It wasn't like they had a whole lot of competition when it came to Rox and Junior as their only challengers.
"Awesome, c'mon Grass, let's go say hi to Miss Venen shall we?" Marcus said as he followed the faunus inside, keeping an eye on the human as he stayed behind and continued muttering into his scroll. He was telling the entire hive about their arrival, which could be safely assumed. Just in case, Marcus crossed his arms as they walked, letting one of his hands rest on the hilt of a knife in a holster on his upper left lat.
Emerald didn't even react to her little nickname this time, she has since gotten used — or at least over the name that Marcus called her by from time to time, and instead, she focused on the same thing he was currently doing. Which was watching for any potential escapes routes or vantage points. Anyway they could use to get out of there just in case things did get messy. As they walked by, they saw how this faux disguise of a hotel building was really an operational base for The Black Withers. Every room had a few men in it, and there were even some civilians in there as well, helping themselves to what had to be either really expensive or really cheap rooms. Every few doors or so, banging and moaning could be heard through one of the doors. Which was just delightful.
They were being watched with their every step, and when there wasn't a naked eye watching, there were cameras keeping track of them. The reptile faunus kept on leading them until they got to an elevator that brought them up to the top floor, the one directly below the roof itself and into the staff only area. Here was where things got a little more 'gang' like. Some rooms were filled with all kinds of drugs, and some were storage for lien and stolen goods. Others had kitchens and washrooms. One thing was for sure, these people were well organized, pretty much on par with Roman's people. Marcus hasn't been at one of his hideouts for a long time, but he knew that it had to be like this, or better. The Black Withers were doing really well at hiding in plain sight.
"Right this way, Mister Black." The black wither before him directed, standing in front of a door with two guards stationed in front of it. "Miss Venen is right through there, she has been expecting your arrival."
"Cool." Marcus nodded his head, looking to Emerald from the corner of his eye. She nodded back to him. They were both ready. "We can go right in?"
"You can. Miss Venen was quite clear on her orders. She only wants to speak to you." The faunus corrected.
Marcus narrowed his eyes at the man, clearly showing his distrust. Behind him, Emerald shifted uncomfortably, suddenly feeling like she was being watched to an even more uncomfortable degree.
"She comes with me." Marcus pushed.
"Our leader will refuse to speak to you unless you are alone. She is alone in there as well, she wishes to speak to you without any need to keep things hidden." The faunus flicked his chin toward Emerald. Who looked even more nervous. "I promise you that she will not be touched."
"Your promises mean shit to me," Marcus replied. "My boss gave me the unfortunate responsibility of having to deal with her green-haired ass, and I'll be damned before I come out that door and see her not where I left her. It wouldn't be good for business you see."
"Just go," Emerald said before the faunus could say anything in return. "I'll be fine. If they try anything, you know what to do."
Marcus looked into the girl's red eyes, and after a few seconds, he sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Sure, just don't haunt me if they end up slitting your throat." He said as he walked up to the two guards. They stood in his way for a moment, but a voice on the other side of the door told them to let him in. So they stepped aside and let him through.
"Well, well, well," Marcus snickered as soon as he opened the door. "I can already see why you're the boss."
The door shut behind him, and Emerald was left alone. She looked around for a few moments, then opted to move to the wall and put her back to it. That way she wouldn't have anyone coming for her from behind.
"Charming fellow, is he?" The same faunus from before asked her, taking the spot beside her.
Emerald sighed, obviously agitated. But if he wanted to potentially try to distract her, she would let him play that game and think he was in control.
"Not even close…"
"Marcus Black himself," The snake faunus greeted him with a fanged smile and while dragging her S's out like how a snake would hiss. Her skin was a light green shade in color and looked shiny with each scale that protruded through her skin, with yellow reptilian slit eyes to match. She was wearing a similar outfit to the rest of her gang. Though hers was different. Tenne had a brown corset that reached around her neck and exposed her shoulders, and her pants were pitch black but ripped in places where the scales on her legs cut through the threads. She had two silver bracelets on each wrist and a black necklace with an upside-down cross hanging from it. To complete her look, she had long black hair that flowed down over her shoulders and covered part of her face. "What a delight to finally meet you. I have heard that you have been quite busy in these past few months. How has that been for you?" As Tenne spoke her thin pink tongue slithered out each time she said a word that had an S in it. Marcus raised an eyebrow once he noticed that, but wasn't too bothered by it. Sure, it was a little nasty, but at least she wasn't trying to kill him.
"Ah, you know. Business as usual." He replied, helping himself to the extra seat that was placed across from Tenne's. There was a desk in the corner of the room, and a bed in the other. So this must have been where the leader of the Black Wither's primarily worked from. Interesting, Marcus would have to remember that.
"It seems so. Your reputation precedes you, I can certainly tell just by looking at you that you are a dangerous man. But I would ask you to please let go of your knife." Marcus widened his eyes, he could have sworn he was being sneaky there. Sitting down with his arms crossed and one leg raised over the other. "I would not have let you get this far if I intended to do you any harm."
"Funny, that's almost the same thing the last guy told me." Marcus lied, but referred to Rox nonetheless.
"As confident as I am in my own abilities to stand against huntsman if I have too, I am not very confident in fighting you one on one." Tenne chuckled. "I won't make the same mistake that fool Rox of the Rock Hard Gunners made. Unlike him, I value the lives of my men, as well as my own."
"Hmph." Marcus resigned and took his arms away from his chest. Letting them rest on the armrests beside him and letting Tenne get what she wanted. That little tongue of hers must have been made out of silver, because she successfully managed to convince him that she wasn't going to try and attack him.
"Great," Tenne leaned forward, resting her hands on one knee as she raised a leg over the other, mirroring his sitting posture. "Let's get right to business, shall we? I assume you, or your boss, wants our assistance in whatever it is you are planning?"
"That's why I'm here," Marcus confirmed. "Your people are smart, and they have a smart leader. Having you on our side would make things go more smoothly for both sides."
"And if I agree to your terms, what would your boss have need of me?" Tenne asked.
So she also knew that there was someone else pulling the strings behind the scenes. Interesting. "Your forces most likely. You're well organized, and you could probably organize hits and finish them with all your men escaping before the police even knew what was happening. That, and your resources. I assume you know that we are working with the White Fang as well."
"Ah, yes, the White Fang." Tenne smirked as she leaned back in her chair. "I used to be a part of them when they were non-violent. I left before Sienna Khan took over as leader."
Marcus narrowed his eyes slightly, but forced himself to relax. "And you don't have any plans of returning?"
"I see no reason too. I have both humans and faunus working for me, so as far as my battle for revolution for equality goes I have already won that war. Going back to them would be pointless, leaving everything behind would be stupid. I am happy where I am now, but I wouldn't say no with working with them temporarily." Tenne explained.
This is going relatively well so far. Marcus thought to himself. "Good to hear."
"I do have some questions however, I am not entirely against joining up with you and your large coalition. But before I do agree with anything, I must know what your end goal is."
And there it was. The catch to all this going smoothly. Of course, Marcus couldn't tell the truth and say that Cinder wanted to bring ruin to the city as a distraction for Beacon so she can sneak in there and steal back some magical ancient power that literally came straight out of a fairy tale. He could tell that Tenne wouldn't be the kind of person to be okay with that, just like most of the gangs. Which is why they were forced or scared into joining them. The Black Withers, however, wouldn't be so easy to scare into working with them. If they started to try, an all-out gang war would incite and spread across Vale. Attracting the attention of the police, and the huntsman. For once, violence wasn't the answer to this getting this gang to work with Cinder. He would need to use his skills of diplomacy. And lies mixed with truths.
"I can tell you some of it, but obviously I can't tell you all of it." Marcus started.
"Naturally." Tenne nodded her head in understanding and waved for Marcus to continue.
"Right off the bat, it does involve Beacon. Nothing too serious though, Cinder, my boss, wants something from them. Let's just call it… an invaluable artifact of sorts." And then here came the lies. "She wants the gangs all rallied up to form raids all around Vale, raids on banks, stores, restaurants. Pretty much she wants to use you all as one major distraction and cause chaos in the city to get Beacon mostly emptied out to try and deal with the issue."
"I see," Tenne said, deep in thought. "This would be bad for business, however, I trust in my men's ability to do what they must, but to cause untold damage to the city would make many of my other businesses lose customers."
"We know. Which is why we don't want you guys to actually do a whole lot of damage." Marcus countered. "Just to terrorize a whole shit ton of people. Get a little violent without the violence if you get what I mean. Of course, accidents happen and people are bound to get hurt here and there trying to be heroes like the idiots they are. But in the end, most everyone should get away with it. And let's say some of your customers are affected by these raids. They might be able to rely on you for some help, indebting themselves to you. Hell, if you're as good as Roman is you might be able to make yourself look like the heroes. Once we get what we want you guys are pretty much free to go and do whatever you want. Everyone gets what they want in the end."
"And what do you get out of it?" Tenne asked next.
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"I am asking what the great assassin Marcus Black gets out of all of this." Tenne clarified, leaning forward again and staring straight into his black eyes. "I have heard much about you. The killer of huntsman, betrayer of Beacon, kin slayer," She smirked when Marcus stopped smiling and darkened his glare. "And, of course, the most popular title: Master assassin. After all the money you must have gained, and your presumed freedom from the organization you worked with. What could a man like you possibly want from all this?"
"Freedom," Marcus answered without a second thought. And was quick to explain. "I am going to be stuck with my contractor for a while after our little Beacon heist. But after that, the organization, Beacon, anyone that may want me dead. I'm getting away from it all."
"Hah, the assassin getting sick of all the killing?" Tenne laughed. "How ironic."
Marcus shrugged, not caring for her words. "See it however you want. I may not look it, but I am getting old. One day I won't be able to move as fast or be as strong, and it could get me killed. Maybe I'll go dye my hair and change my name and live somewhere. Or maybe I'll go retire to Vacuo."
"No one cares to look for a person in Vacuo." Tenne said for him.
Marcus' smirk came back. "Exactly. So in a way, you're right. I am a little sick of this shit." He looked up to the ceiling and briefly reminisced in his past. "After reaching the top, there's nowhere else to climb. Y'know? I don't want to be one of the idiots who loses their balance and eventually falls off all the way down to hell."
"I see. A basic desire and one that I admit does surprise me but also something that I can understand." Tenne stood up, gesturing for Marcus to do the same and walked around the small table that was placed in between them to get to him. "Tell Miss Cinder that The Black Withers will do what she wants, as long as we get a fair cut."
Marcus held out a hand, not even bothering to try and make up a lie that would cover up the fact that Tenne and her gang wasn't going to be getting a cut of anything after they were done in Vale. "Then we can consider ourselves partners in crime?" He asked.
Tenne's scale-covered green hand slithered into his offered hand. It felt cold to the touch. "You can." She said, smiling up at him.
That was easy enough. Marcus thought to himself as they shook hands. There was no fighting, no killing, no reckless violence and some guy pissing his pants and begging to be spared. It seemed like he was worried about nothing. Now all that was left was going back to Cinder to tell her about yet another success, and for once he was proud of one of his accomplishments for her.
Destiny had something else in mind, however.
It happened in slow motion as one of the windows broke inward as something crashed through it. He was able to watch as Tenne's snake-like eyes widened with shock as Marcus yanked her forward and threw her toward the door he just came through, and tightened his eyes closed as tight as he possibly could as a loud bang and a flash of white filled up the entirety of the room.
"Fuck!" Marcus groaned as he rubbed at his eyes, his vision was full of blinding white light and he couldn't blink it away for the life of him, and on top of that his ears was ringing like a doorbell. But he found himself moving anyway, and a cold hand that was wrapped around his wrist and forearm and the next thing he knew he was crashing down to the floor to avoid gunfire.
"It's the police!" Marcus was somehow able to hear.
"How did they find us!?" Another shouted out.
Slowly Marcus was able to recover his eyesight and the blaring ringing in his ears began to subside. He pushed himself into cover and took out his pistol, covering his body with aura as a barrage of bullets flew over his head and all around him as a gunfight broke out suddenly.
"Marcus!" Emerald was at his side suddenly. "Can you see?"
Marcus opened his eyes, they were dilated but he could finally see again. Even though the ringing was still disorienting him somewhat. "Yeah, what the hell is happening Grass?" He asked as he looked around at the sudden display of carnage. He aimed his hand cannon at a lens flare through the doorway, killing a man as his bullet went straight through his eye. He took cover immediately after as bullets started flying to him the second the dead man's body hit the ground. "Were we being tailed?"
"Not that I know of," Emerald said as she took cover beside him.
"You weren't," The snake faunus called out to them from the other side of the hallway. The doors were literally ripped off their hinges and being used as covers. Apparently being made out of bulletproof material. "I had my men check while we were speaking, no one should have known you were going to be here tonight."
"Then how the fuck are we being shot at right now?" Marcus called back as he fired back at the intruders, who were now rappelling into the room he was just in with Tenne just a few moments ago. The entire hive was awake at this point, and there wasn't a second that went by where a gun wasn't fired.
"We will figure that out later!" Tenne shouted back. Two more hostiles moved around the corner with bulletproof riot shields, with other men behind them shooting over them. "For now, we shall retreat and abandon this building. There is little reason for us to fight for it, I have other bases scattered throughout the city. Everyone! Focus on covering the retreat now!" The leader of the Black Withers unveiled her weapon, which was a collapsible green spear with two blades on each end of the staff. She was trained to fight, that much was obvious to see as she deflected a barrage of bullets. "Marcus Black, will you and your ally assist me?"
"This would all be a waste of time if I said no…" Marcus said as he mentally cursed his luck. "C'mon Grass, let's show these idiots who's boss."
"I can't show myself." Emerald reminded him, hiding away in a separate room shrouded with darkness. "They can't find out who I am and that I'm working with you, I am supposed to infiltrate Beacon soon remember?" She whispered harshly at him.
"Shit… Okay, I have an idea then. But you are going to have to act really scared in order for it to work…"
"I already don't like this, but at this point I am down for anything."
Minutes passed, and the chaotic gunfight continued on nearly all floors. Marcus and Tenne sprinted down flights of stairs while holding back armored officers after giving Emerald a mask and sending her down a hidden path with a tracker that pointed to Marcus' scroll. They took the most obvious route themselves, which was down the most simple and busy flight of stairs that went all the way down to the ground floor. A whole squad of Vale's most experienced peacekeepers chased down after them. Not giving them a moments rest as they descended down the stairs. Despite the amount of bodies that must have been littering the stairs every time one of them tried to challenge Marcus, they just kept coming. They've been preparing for this for a long time evidently, and of course, they had to attack at the very night that Marcus and Emerald went to go for another midnight walk. Damn his luck...
"How many damn stairs does this fucking place have!?" Marcus asked Tenne as they kept moving. He could have sworn that this place wasn't built as high as these stairs suggested.
"We must keep moving Mister Black." Tenne replied as she descended halfway down the next flight of stairs before shooting back up, pushing the white-haired man back just before another hail fire bullets could rain down on them. "Damn, they attacked from the top and bottom of the building at the same time."
"Then let's get somewhere where we won't be pinched," Marcus said as he forced open a locked door by kicking it open.
"Wait! In there is-" He didn't listen to the snake faunus and dragged her into the room with him the moment he saw a man with kevlar plating and a helmet run up the last of the stairs looking him in the eyes for a moment before Marcus slammed the door shut. Watching as the lock hinged back into place just as one of the officers tried to stop the door before it could shut completely.
Many more sounds of bashing was heard on the other side of the door, followed by voices as they agreed to let someone else do the breaking and entering. Marcus didn't know who they were, but now wasn't the time to wait and see what awaited them on the other side of that door. "Where do we go now?" He asked as he started running around the complex he had just brought them too.
"I tried to warn you," Tenne said as she kicked a table over, and then shattered all of the windows in the room to let down a hidden curtain. "This floor only has two ways down, back through there down the stairs, or out the window down the fire escape."
"What kind of bullshit design is that?" Marcus cursed himself for not listening to her mentally, but couldn't help but question the interesting design choices of this building.
"Don't ask me, I wasn't even born when this building was first built." Tenne replied.
Damn it. Marcus followed her lead and prepared themselves for a last stand. They weren't stupid, the windows were probably being watched by snipers and spotters. Outside, they could hear a helicopter flying around as well, with a spotlight that shined light through the curtains. The curtains were thick and dark, however, and didn't reveal their position in the room. But in the worst-case scenario, they would have to jump out through the window in a last-ditch effort to escape.
He couldn't get caught her, if he did, he doubted that he would even make it to the court. If there even was one. He's killed so many people that these guys would probably try and kill him on sight. As for Tenne, she might get lucky to get a plea deal for a lighter sentence. But was almost guaranteed life in prison.
"We hold here. I will trust in my subordinates to get out of this building themselves. We will have to take care of ourselves, where is your ally? The one with the green hair?" Tenne asked as she pushed cover closer to the door that was still being bashed on, the metal contorting and twisting as the battering ram slammed into it over and over again.
"She should be around here somewhere," Marcus said as he looked around the room. "I told her to keep up with us. She's a sneaky little bitch, unless they have some sharp eyes I don't think they'll be able to catch her."
"Is it safe to assume that she has already left the building?" Tenne asked, suspecting the worst.
Marcus felt like he should maybe defend the partner that he has been running around with lately, but in all honesty, Emerald wasn't all that important to him. "Probably." He sighed, accepting that he and Tenne were most likely on their own here.
"Then for what it's worth, I look forward to seeing your skills in person." Tenne smirked at him as she twirled her spear, getting ready to strike the moment the door was completely battered through.
"Sure," Marcus loaded his hand cannon, and then took aim toward the door with his knife holding hand being used to help steady his firearm. He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders with narrowed black eyes, waiting for the moment those men with death wishes made it through the door. "You'll get a front-row seat…"
The door was broken open and fell off of one of its hinges. The man holding the battering ram fell backward as a bullet hole exploded through his chest. One man foolishly tried to charge in, but his shield was pierced straight through by Tenne's spear. The tip cutting a deep slash across his neck that had the man falling to the ground gurgling on his own blood. The next one to try and challenge them simply held the doorway, holding out his riot shield and slowly pushed forward as a man with two revolvers shot over his head. Marcus cursed and jumped over his cover. These guys couldn't be allowed in their floor so easily. He dove into the adjacent room and smashed a hole in the drywall so that he could more easily shoot at the ones entering the room. Tenne quickly followed his lead, not entering the other room itself but more like preventing anyone else from getting through to them directly. She didn't have a gun herself, but proved herself efficient enough with her double-sided spear as she cut down men and held others at bay.
Another man with a shield stepped through next, and charged straight towards the snake faunus. Tenne tried to stab through his shield like she was before, but widened her eyes as she started to be pushed back instead, the tip of her spear bouncing off the shield rather than going through it. Marcus cursed and shot a round into the guy's body, but blue aura flared and instead of getting his leg blown off his aura bounced the bullet away. He did fall to one knee however, giving Tenne the advantage she needed to jump backward and kick the man away with an aura enhanced kick.
"I have you Verdant!" The other shield-bearer exclaimed as he dragged the other man back, holding his shield out to block Marcus hail fire of powerful dust rounds that dented and cracked his shield with each bullet.
Marcus gave up on shooting at the shield and turned his eyes to look at the other men still entering the room, noting that some of these men had aura. About four of them were aiming fully automatic rifles at him. "Shit." He cursed as he dove across the room and covered his head. Flaring his aura as the wall he was hiding behind was becoming filled with holes. The assassin sprinted forward and charged into a different room. Tenne quickly following behind him into the darker room.
"Cobra squad, don't try to fight either of them by yourself!" The presumed commanding officer ordered. Marcus was able to hear his voice through the thin walls. "Especially the one with white hair, that ones Marcus Black, only try to get close to him in a group, and if we can leave him to the huntress or huntsman with us."
"Understood Seth!" The officers all chattered back.
"They're after me…" Marcus realized as he gingerly crept around the room.
"And they have hunters here as well." Tenne pointed out, sticking close to him. "They planned this, somehow they knew that you would be here tonight. You were either followed, which unless you count a flock of birds you were not. Or you have a mole in your forces."
"I made sure no one was tailing us every minute," Marcus growled. "No, I know what happened here, and I was followed."
"Are you sure?" Tenne asked. "It could be possible that perhaps that Emerald girl planned this as well."
"Not possible," Marcus said right away. "The girl is obsessed with making our boss love her, she's too loyal to try and out me like this. I'm still needed, and will be for a long time."
"Then what do you think happened?" Tenne asked in a whisper as she stalked up to the next room, shutting off the light the moment she entered to give them more cover of darkness. This floor must have been a storage deck that hasn't been used to its fullest yet. Most of the rooms were empty or had a very small amount of things in it while others had cover all over the place.
Marcus hardened his glare as he closed the door behind him. "You said there were a flock of birds, right?"
"I did."
"Then I know how they found us… Get ready for a fight." Marcus holstered his gun and unsheathed his larger knife. "Things are going to get a little more bloody."
Cobra Squad apparently split into two groups to look for them. Clearing out each room violently, shooting first and looking around later. Marcus and Tenne noted that eventually they were going to do that to their room as well, and they were quickly running out of space to hide.
When they lit up the room adjacent to theirs, Marcus listened to their footsteps as they walked in. From the amount of beats he was able to feel and hear through the walls and floor, there were about four people in there. Four people to kill before they could sound off the alarm or fire their weapons. He held up four fingers to Tenne, and she nodded her head, understanding what he was trying to tell her. The two of them took position at the next door, and once they heard someone step up their door, they burst through.
Tenne's spear found one's brain, and she tore it out to stab the other end into the gut of the next man. One instantly dead, and the other dying quickly. Marcus silenced the last man who was about to scream by clasping his hand around his mouth and pushing him up against the wall while stabbing him multiple times in the chest through his armor at an upward angle, finally finding purchase in his heart. Finally, the last one stared back at him with red eyes as she quickly found herself pinned up against the wall by a spear with a knife threatening to cut through her stomach.
Before Marcus could end her life, however, he recognized the head of green hair. He removed his hand from her mouth and told Tenne to back down. Letting Emerald catch her breath as the staff of Tenne's fear was pulled away from her neck.
"The hell are you still doing here Emerald?!" Marcus whisper screamed at the younger girl. "What happened to the plan?"
Emerald coughed, but still made motion to explain herself. "There was too many of them, I had to pretend that I was a victim. I had that guy from earlier tie my hands together and gag me before he ran off somewhere. When they found me, I gave them a story on how I was a huntress in training from Mistral visiting Vale for the upcoming festival."
"And those fuckers believed you?" Marcus snickered quietly.
"I have official records, they looked it up and it came through." Ah, right. The headmaster of Haven was roped into all this as well. That made sense. Marcus nodded his head in understanding. "Since I wasn't injured, I decided to play along with them and pretend to be a huntress. Sorry, but I had to take down some of your men."
"Did you kill them?" Tenne asked.
"I didn't."
"Then you are forgiven."
"That's great and all, but now you're stuck here with us and your squad here is dead." Marcus pointed out. "You know what that means, right?"
Emerald groaned lightly in irritation. "Just try not to accidentally kill me, alright?" She said as she through one of her weapons to the side, and the other stabbed into the wall.
Marcus made no promises, but he didn't tell her that. Tenne knew what was about to happen and prepared herself to act along with their plan.
"Over here! Agh!" Emerald cried out as Marcus smashed his fist into Emerald's stomach, then grabbed her by the back of her head and smashed it against the wall. He needed to make it convincing, and there was no better way to do it then to drain all of her aura and beat the shit out of her until she was all bloodied up. Emerald put up a faux defense, but let all of Marcus' attacks land. And every one of those strikes made something bleed. Quickly, her aura shattered as it hit down to zero, and just in time as well. Emerald was barely able to stand, her stomach was bruised and she was bleeding from her nose and mouth. Marcus held an arm around her neck and used her as a body shield as the same two men from earlier with the powerful shield barged in from both of the entrances into the room, along with a few more armed men and their commanding officer. Who ordered them not to shoot as he entered the room last. His eyes narrowing as he saw the mess that was the 'huntress in training' that he let fight with them.
"Damn it, I knew I should have let her come with us." Seth, Marcus remembered, holstered his two revolvers and kept his hands visible. "Damn hunters, thinking you're all-powerful and can't be stopped."
"As you can probably assume, a deal has to be made here or else this girl is going to die at an unfortunately young age," Marcus said as he aimed his pistol toward the man before him. "That would suck you know, I doubt she has even lost her V-card yet."
The girl in his arms groaned painfully. Though to Marcus, he assumed that it translated to 'go fuck yourself.'
"You would really kill a girl just to escape?" Seth asked, holding his hands up. "She has nothing to do with you, let her go."
"Yeah, I don't think you know who you're talking to. Seth, is it?" Marcus grinned cruelly at the man. "Let me let you in on a little secret, I've killed for less."
"That's… not really a secret man." Seth pointed out.
Marcus shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe not, but my position stands. The only way this innocent little grassy haired girl is going to live is if me and this snake woman here get a five-minute head start."
The officer grimaced and lowered his hands slightly closer to his revolvers.
Marcus, in turn, pressed the edge of his knife tight against Emerald's neck. Seth stopped and raised his hands back up. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. You wouldn't want to have this girls blood on your hands, right?"
"You really are like what the huntsman told us." Seth glared at him. "You're a psychopath."
"Eh, more of a sociopath in my opinion," Marcus replied. "My terms are set, and tell those two shield guys to back up before I change my mind and kill everyone in this room."
Seth didn't know if he could actually go through with that, but he didn't want to wait and see to call his bluff. "Mackie, Verdant, back up. That's an order."
The shield bearers did what they were told reluctantly, as did the other officers who were pointing their weapons at him. Leaving just Marcus, Tenne behind him, a bloodied Emerald and the commanding officer standing off against all of them by himself.
"I'm giving you the chance to surrender peacefully now. If you do, you will receive a lighter sentence."
Marcus laughed at the offer. "Yeah, I've heard that one before.
"Damn it, there's no getting through to you is there. Where's the huntsman?" Seth asked one of the other officers. Marcus narrowed his eyes and backed away closer to the window.
"Right here." A very familiar voice answered him. Behind one of the shield bearers, presumably the one he'd shot. A man close to his own age stepped out and into the room. His weapon was a long thick and wide sword, which collapsed into a firearm in his hand as he watched Marcus with red eyes. Marcus stared back, a smile creeping up from his lips as he recognized the other man as Qrow Branwen, another relic from his past.
Qrow stepped in front of Seth, and promptly did not hold up his hands, and instead pointed his mecha-shifted gun at him. Marcus didn't react externally. "All these deaths…" Qrow started, looking around for a moment to see all of the dead bodies that were still bleeding on the floor in that room. "What are you doing back here, Marcus?"
"Ah, Qrow. You always did suck at saying hello." Marcus greeted back. "How long has it been, a few months? Yeah, the last time we saw each other was when you failed at protecting one of my targets. Man, I remember that like it was just yesterday."
"You have no idea what you started that day." Qrow groaned, and refrained from getting angry and losing his cool. Just by looking at him, Qrow wanted to pound his face into the dirt until there was nothing left to grab hold of. "Why are you doing this Black? What is the point of all this? I didn't know you were the kind of person to start gang wars."
"Why? Let me answer that question with another question," Marcus snickered. "Why not? I mean, it's not like I have anything better to do. After contract after contract, kill after kill, I got a little bored. There's just not much to go for when you're at the top you know."
"You could have been so much better!" Qrow shouted back, unable to hide his boiling anger. "You were so much better. The path you are going down now can only end one way. With your death."
"Coming from the guy who hasn't put down a bottle in twenty years."
"This isn't about me," Qrow continued. "I have my faults, I'll be the first to admit that. But you never bothered to worry about your own. So when it came down to it, you tucked your cowardly tail between your legs and ran away."
"And you all kept trying to find me," Marcus said, his face darkening as unpleasant memories kept emerging from deep in the back of his mind. "What about now? Is this another one of Ozpin's attempts to drag me back into his little circle of fuck buddies? You all still want to become buddy-buddy again? Be honest and I might think about it, scouts promise-"
"You lost that chance when you murdered her!" Qrow spat. His head shaking as he continued to look him in the eyes. "Summer looked for you, Ozpin sent her to find you. She never stopped caring for you, even after everything. Even during a time when she had two little girls to take care of, she still wanted to find her friend and bring him back to the light. To make him a better man,"
Marcus didn't say anything. His face was unreadable, and everyone around the two acknowledged that they were listening to something very personal between these two men. They were speaking like they were the only ones in that room.
"And you killed her anyway," Qrow growled, his muscles tense and his teeth gritted against each other. "Why?"
Marcus refused to explain himself.
"I guess I'll never know." Qrow nodded his head, holding on to the tilted cross necklace, a gift from the partner he lost, while still aiming his weapon at the white-haired man. "After all these years, I don't think I'll ever know. There is no good reason you could spit out that could-"
"She became a target." Marcus suddenly said, letting Emerald drop to the floor. By the time Qrow looked back up, the snake faunus behind him was already out the window. His eyes widened with hatred. "And I had a perfect record to keep clean."
Marcus crossed his arms as Qrow fired his shotgun. The pellets slammed against his arms and he forced his aura to defend his body. It flared bright white and he was sent flying out of the window behind him. Qrow knew that the blast and the fall wouldn't be enough to kill the man, and jumped out onto the fire escape to try and find him.
When he jumped out, Marcus was already up on top of the building adjacent to the one they had just raided. He looked down at him, a blank expression on his face. Qrow glared back, taking aim once more.
Marcus waved at him with two fingers, and dashed backward before Qrow could take the shot. He very desperately wanted to go after him, but going after Marcus by himself when the assassin even had someone on his side to help him was a death wish. He wasn't going to fall for that trick. Cursing mentally, he stepped back in and helped pick the green-haired girl up back to her feet.
"He got away?" Seth asked him.
"Yeah, don't try and find him," Qrow replied. "He'll just kill whoever goes after him."
"Got it." The officer sighed, obviously displeased with losing their primary target. But on the bright side, they had successfully raided this Black Wither base and apprehended a few dozen criminals, and saved the life of a huntress in training in the process. All in all, this was a great victory for the special forces of Vale.
Qrow carried the unconscious girl in his arms, she was pretty brave to try and stand up to him. But was also pretty stupid in doing so.
I almost lost another one… His mind cursed him.
Qrow ignored that thought and went on to bring the girl to get medical attention. She is going to need it.
"It was a fuck fest, but I was able to get her out," Marcus told Cinder as Tenne looked around the abandoned warehouse that has yet to be found by the authorities. "Emerald's cover is still in effect, and if anything it has been solidified. Once she gets out of Beacon's infirmary, she might even have somewhere to stay within Beacon itself."
"I see." Cinder said, taking in all the information that was just told to her in a manner of minutes. "It seems that Qrow Branwen has once again entered the fray. That will make things more difficult, that ability to turn into a bird is ever annoying." She turned to face the yellow-eyed faunus. "And you, Miss Venen, how many men and resources will you still be able to provide?"
Tenne bowed her head toward Cinder as she replied. "I will not sugar coat it and lie, The Black Withers have lost a large portion of our resources, and a few dozen of our men were arrested, and more were killed in the raid. But I still have other bases throughout the city. Once they hear that I am alive and well, they will rally to me. Our alliance will still be functional."
Cinder smirked. "I see, it seems that even when the rest of the world might think you failed you are able to succeed. Interesting." She said as she looked to Marcus, the back to Tenne. "Do what you must and rally your forces, go speak with Roman and he will give you the locations and contact information should you need to ask more questions. I look forward to our continued relationship."
"I as well." Tenne smiled and made to leave. Stopping next to Marcus to place a grateful gesture on his shoulder. "Thank you for helping me escape, I am indebted to you, Marcus Black."
"I'll cash in on that soon enough then," Marcus replied.
The snake faunus chuckled and slithered away to go do her business. Marcus wondered if he was going to ever be able to cash in on that debt anytime soon. But now, he had bigger things to worry about.
Cinder once again caressed his cheek with a hot hand. It felt comfortable, but it still made Marcus uncomfortable at the same time. He wanted to pull away. "You have been very successful lately." She cooed as she rubbed his cheek almost lovingly. "Keep it up and I'll have to reward you."
She took her hand away and dragged it across his shoulder as she walked past him, her hips swaying left and right. Knowing that Marcus' gaze was on her until she disappeared further into the warehouse.
Now alone, Marcus went back into his room. The room he used to share with Emerald. In a few days, he'd probably hear from her, but for now it seemed that he was going to be working by himself. Ignoring Roman's call for him, he stepped in and locked the door behind him.
His back slid down the door until his butt hit the ground. His hands grabbed his head and he finally let out a pained groan as his mind raced with memories he'd thought he condemned to forget.
He remembered them, he always did. As hard as he tried he could never truly forget them, only try to push them deep in the inner depths of his mind. Team STRQ was always a part of his life, just like his own team was.
A particular scene went through his mind. A scene that happened many years ago in the same year that he would graduate Beacon in. Despite his many efforts to push this memory away, it flooded through his mind like a floodgate being forced open.
There he was, a much younger and a much happier Marcus Black sitting at a lunch table next to his partner, Roman Torchwick. And to his side, his two other teammates. Maddox and Emma. Team MBTE, or Mobster, which was the name that they accepted years ago after their initiation. Across from them sat another team, with a pair of black-haired red-eyed twins that constantly bickered argued with each other over which one is stronger than the other just as they have been doing for the longest time. While their two other teammates, a blonde guy and a girl with a flowing white cloak tried to calm them down.
And once they finally did, the leader of Team STRQ finally turned to look at him. "Ugh… how did you manage being a leader for so many years?" She asked him, looking at him with those pure silver eyes of hers, the same color as Maddox's hair.
"No idea," The younger Marcus replied. "But maybe I am just that much better than you."
"Hey! Just because we're best buds doesn't mean that you can say those things to me!" Summer pouted.
Marcus forced himself to stop thinking about it. But no matter how hard he tried, after his encounter with Qrow earlier that night all he could think about was his past.
"Well," his younger self said. The past couldn't be changed. "I get a free pass this year, I won't be able to flaunt my superiority over you as much when we graduate, so I'll take what I can get now."
The flashback continued to haunt him in his dreams. Along with the smile of the woman he'd killed, the one who once called him one of her best friends.
Well, that was a long and important chapter. Many things were revealed here, and yet many more questions were created as well. This is quite the fast-paced story, and now that I think about it I think I could have started it off much better than the way I did before. However, just like I wrote earlier, the past can't be changed.
Oh, who am I kidding. I can totally re-write the first chapter if I want to.
Also yes, in this story. Marcus was the one who killed Summer Rose.
Please review and let me know what you think of the story so far.