Hello everyone. This one's a touch earlier than usual – I'll be leaving on a trip tomorrow, and I don't know if I'd have time tomorrow. I had the week off, and spent the majority of the time doing absolutely nothing. It was fantastic, and as always, it's going far too fast. Well, at least I have a couple more days before it's over.

To AxDevilman, I think the main problem with Cinder in the show is A: they've let her past and her motives remain a mystery for way too long, and B: they haven't given her any meaningful choices to make. All this time, she's just been Salem's pawn, following orders to the letter and doing little else. I'm hoping to fix those problems.

Thanks again for the comments, kudos, etc. I hope you enjoy the next step in Cinder's maniacal machinations.

Chapter Thirty: Fixed Odds

This time, there was no little slip of paper in Cinder's fluid, angular handwriting giving away his opponents. There was only the wait, waiting through a half-hearted breakfast of toast and jam with Cinder's eyes fixed on him, waiting in line to catch a Bullhead to Amity Colosseum with Cinder watching him from behind, waiting in his seat, watching the battles unfold below him, watching out of the corner of his eye as Cinder kept her attention solely on him.

Pyrrha and Jaune were first to go, squared off against a team from Mistral. Pyrrha could have ended it with a wave of her hand, but instead, she hung back in a fighting stance while Jaune confronted them both. They tried attacking him from both sides, but shield and sword of Croeca Mors lashed out with lances of light. His Aura was still in the green when both opponents were forced to surrender.

Yang and Weiss went up near the middle of the day. Though they were pitted against the lowest seeded Atlas team still in the running, they nearly choked. Yang's punches broke nothing but air as a girl on roller skates zipped around her, while a man with a trumpet quartet zoned Weiss out with sonar shockwaves. When Weiss was beaten down near the red, the trumpeter turned to unleash a full salvo at Yang. Weiss tried to stop him, but the half-hearted shove only threw his aim off a touch. Yang was knocked near the edge of the arena, and roller blades went for her exposed gut. At the last second, Yang grabbed the other girl by the ankles, and they both tumbled off the edge.

It had seemed a hopeless fight for Weiss, considering her inability to close on the trumpeter, but a sloppy mistake from her opponent when he aimed in completely the wrong direction gave her the opening she needed to zip forward with her glyphs and strike dead-on with her rapier. He seemed shocked when he saw the weapon soaring towards him, though he was looking right at her as she formed her glyphs.

The battle between Team CFVY and Penny Polendina's Team PINC caught Cardin's eye, though the match was over within five minutes. Yatsuhashi rushed towards Penny, trying to close in before she got her blades out, but within moments, a flurry of slashes from the floating swords hacked his Aura to pieces. All the while, Coco kept her distance, flanking Penny with her machine bun handbag, but Penny ignored the rounds as they ricocheted off her Aura. With a flick of her hand, the swords converged on Coco. She beat them back with her handbag, but assaulted from all directions, Coco eventually fell under the onslaught.

As the day grew longer and longer, Cardin grew more uncomfortably aware that Cinder's team had yet to enter the ring. When the penultimate matchup came onto the board, Cardin knew his fate was sealed. She was watching him, watching to see if he would run, or panic, or make last-minute arrangements to have one of his teammates take his place.

His hand went to the three Dust phials strapped to his belt. They were carefully sealed in opaque metal casings, so no one could tell what types they were, but the notches at the caps told him which two were Fire, and which was the Gravity Dust Ironwood had given him yesterday.

"So, we're going up against Cinder," Sky said.

"Looks like it."

"Any chance she'll go easy on us?"

Cardin's eyes strayed back to Cinder. Her expression didn't change a flicker.

"Better tell my dad who your next of kin is."

Sky went pale and shivered. "Please don't joke about that."

Cardin watched the match below, but his concentration wandered. Odds were, it'd be Mercury down there, and Cinder wouldn't want herself directly implicated in a 'battlefield accident'. Either Emerald or Nelly, then.

The match dragged on for almost an hour as a monkey Faunus Cardin vaguely recognized danced and leapt around two aggressors from Beacon. Once in a while, glowing golden copies darted out from him and struck when his opponents let their guard down. Eventually, two got a hold of one of them, and the real Faunus kicked him off the stage. Once it was down to one, the battle quickly ended as the Faunus went in with his nunchaku, firing shotgun rounds from the ends in rapid bursts until his opponent ran out of Aura.

Port and Oobleck announced the Teams, no roulette required, taking care to highlight each fighter that went out on the field. Cardin's was called first, and Sky followed after him like a whipped dog. Once he made it to the bottom, he watched the overhead display and waited for his fate to be sealed.

Mercury, and Emerald. Good. At least he had some idea of how she fought from the prelims. The two sauntered down the steps, though they kept a wary distance from one another. Once they were on center stage, the randomizer went up, giving Cardin a stage that was half chest-high grass, and half exploding craters. Plenty of space for Emerald and Mercury to lay an ambush and leverage their ranged capabilities, and a perfect field for an 'accident' to occur.

Emerald smiled at him, not saying a word, but Mercury gave him a friendly wave and said, "No hard feelings, yeah?"

Cardin returned a smile that he didn't feel. "No hard feelings."

When the match started, Emerald and Mercury backed away into the grass, letting it envelop him. Sky glanced anxiously at the grass, and at Cardin. "What now?"

"No way in hell we're going in there. Stay sharp, and be ready for whatever they throw at us."

Neither he nor Sky were ready for the curved emerald blade that snaked out of the grass, hooked Sky by the neck, and wrenched him forward. His Aura broke within a couple seconds, and he was thrown, groaning, over the edge.

As Port and Oobleck mourned the sudden loss of a Beacon student, Cardin backed away from the grass, heart pounding, not daring to look backwards to avoid the smoldering craters behind him.

The grass rustled, and Cardin raised his weapon. Emerald and Mercury walked out into the open, weapons lowered, casually sizing him up. With a nod from Emerald, Mercury stepped forward and raised his fists.

Cardin's mind raced. If he stayed here, all it'd take is a well-timed strike to nullify his Aura, right over a Dust explosion. He'd be charbroiled before he could smell it. Of course, in the grass, the cameras wouldn't see Mercury choke the life out of him. The center was too small for him to hold, even with his chain out, and his two opponents could force him back into bad terrain.

His hand went to the Dust vials, and he watched Mercury carefully, keeping his eyes up, but studying the legs. He had one shot. With Mercury out of the picture, he could deal with Emerald. Maybe.

Mercury watched as Cardin opened the Dust phial and emptied it into his mace. Red flames crackled on Cardin's weapon as he hefted it.

"Really? You think I'm scared of a little fire?"

Mercury walked forward, slowly, inviting Cardin to attack. Cardin waited, step by patient step, for him to slip within range. When Mercury's shoe scraped against the chipped gray stone of the crater field, Cardin lunged, lashing out with the mace at Mercury's head. Mercury nimbly leapt back, but on the backswing, Cardin unfurled the chain and pushed his Semblance into it. The ball lurched forward, sinking as it pulled the chain taut.

For a moment, Cardin's heart sank. Mercury had retreated farther than he expected. The chain hadn't gone far enough to wrap around Mercury's legs.

But the ball did go far enough to hit Mercury in the knee.

With Cardin's strength and Semblance behind the blow, the ball of metal slammed into Mercury's metal kneecap with a cringe-inducing squeal of torn metal. The ball tore through the first leg, sending it skittering across the mine field, and crumpled the other leg.

Mercury went down with a scream, grabbing at his left thigh. His crumpled leg twitched sporadically, and the torn one hissed and crackled as sparks flew from the cracked Dust engine housed in his metallic lower thigh.

The crowd, and the commentators with them, gasped in horror. It was Oobleck that first noticed Mercury's legs weren't real.

"Well I'll be, Mercury Black's legs are prosthetics! Aura doesn't cover inorganic parts of the body, so naturally, Cardin's attack destroyed them! While Mercury still retains all his Aura, it would appear that he may be already out of the fight."

Cardin retracted the chain and braced himself for an attack. Emerald looked ready to leap at him, but a horn blared, and medical staff rushed onto the field. Two white-clad staff stood by each of the contestants, urging them to back away, while the rest converged around Mercury.

To fill up the lull in the action caused by the medical staff, Oobleck and Port continued their commentary. Up on the Dust displays, they replayed the moment Cardin broke Mercury's legs, with special attention paid to the unfurling of his weapon."

"Why, I thought so!" Oobleck said. "It would appear that there's more to Mr. Winchester's weapon than meets the eye!"

"All of the manliest weapons get longer. It's a real hit with the ladies. Why, I have a telescoping barrel on my battleaxe, and it's never failed to impress."

"Well, axes aside, I don't even think that chain is on his student record. He's never even used it in class, so one must wonder how, or if at all, Cardin managed to acquire the skills needed to use such a complicated weapon."

After some back and forth conversation between an EMT and Mercury, they folded up their stretcher and left. Mercury, though white-faced, was keeping himself from screaming through sheer force of will.

"It would appear that Mercury has chosen to remain on the field!" Port called out. "A man after my own heart he is, fighting to the very last." His voice dropped, but his side-comment of "If only he was one of our students" came loud and clear over the speakers.

Once the field was clear, Cardin took up a fighting stance on the edge of the crater field, while Emerald crouched just in front of the grass. Mercury crawled, leaving bits of metal in his wake, to the edge of the two biomes and propped himself up on his elbows. Cardin checked the Dust in his weapon, only to find the last of the embers guttering out. With a silent curse, he opened the weapon and let the spent, blackened ashes fall to the ground.

The moment the horn blared to start the match again, Emerald opened fire. Cardin raised his arms over his eyes, letting the bullets skitter off his gauntlets and chestplate. He could hear Emerald's feet scuff the ground in front of him, racing to his right to flank him. Cardin swung out and unfurled the chain, swinging in a wide arc. Emerald skidded to a stop and slid down, underneath the chain. Swearing under his breath, Cardin stepped forward, meeting Emerald's attack head-on. He caught both blades on his left gauntlet and brought the butt of his mace into Emerald's jaw.

She staggered back, rubbing at a fresh bruise below her lip. While she was on the back foot, Cardin pulled the chain back, letting it snag one of Emerald's feet. She hopped out of it before he could tighten its grip, sprinted back, and fired another volley. Cardin was too slow to bring up his arms and took a few bullets to the cheek, but none had hit his nose. He cursed himself for not thinking to wear a helmet.

One of Emerald's weapons flew towards him, with a thin chain trailing behind it. Cardin brought out his own and swung it up in front of him, tangling the two weapons. With a heave, he yanked Emerald forward, but she nimbly dodged his left-handed punch and brought her other blade down into Cardin's shoulder. Gritting his teeth, Cardin wrenched aside and swung the chain at Emerald's eyes. With a hiss, Emerald yanked her weapon out and slashed him across the face. The blade caught him at the bridge of his nose, at the highest point his Aura couldn't reach. Blood dribbled down his fake nose and filled Cardin's mouth with a bitter, metallic taste.

Oobleck's voice boomed out of the speakers lining the stands. "Ooh, speaking of inorganic parts, it would appear that Cardin's nose is something of a weak spot as well." It was muted by distance, no doubt intentionally so the students wouldn't be distracted, but there was only so much good acoustic design could do when a commentator's voice had to be heard by tens of thousands noisy, whispering people. "If it breaks again, he may be forced to forfeit for his own safety."

That right there was meant for Cardin to hear, a hidden message to keep his nose safe or risk losing. Considering that Emerald may try to kill him through that nose, it was excellent advice. He swore at himself for not thinking of it earlier, it'd be all too easy to dismiss it as an accident if his Aura didn't work properly.

The moment Oobleck's warning came over the speakers, Emerald shifted her attacks. She made a few feints at his head, but every blow that connected was aimed no higher than his shoulders. Bullets hit him even lower, in the gut or legs. The interval between attacks to the face grew longer, but she still tested him, seeing if he'd lower his guard.

Being forced to protect his face while Emerald hammered at his chest and legs, Cardin lost ground foot by foot. He tried turning to keep them fighting in the middle ground, but Emerald's two blades hemmed him in on either side, forcing him into a straight retreat to broken ground.

He felt rock crunch beneath his boots, felt the sudden slope of a nearby crater, and skirted around it. When Emerald glanced down to place her feet, Cardin turned and ran, hopping over craters and circling towards flat ground. Emerald went back to stable ground and rushed to cut him off, but he leapt, planted his feet, and blocked two blades aimed at his head. Twisting his weapon, he shoved her back and followed up with an overhead slam. Emerald rolled out of the way, kept rolling, until she vanished in the grass.

Gunshots rang out, and bullets zinged off his Aura and armor. Cardin scrambled across the field, keeping an arm in front of her face, but there was no cover and nowhere to hide, not the grass, and definitely not in a crater.

The crater. An idea lit up in his head as he sprinted towards the flickering, orange glow smoldering in a crater. He dipped his mace inside, shook it around until it came up with fiery hot motes. He sprinted towards the grass and set his mace at the foot of the long, dry strands. Within seconds, the grass caught, and fire raced with a palpable shockwave of hot air and a crackling roar.

Emerald leapt out of the grass, just seconds ahead of the fire, and rolled to her feet. Cardin flung out the ball and chain, catching Emerald on the shoulder. She rolled with the blow, came up, and fired at Cardin. With his head tucked in a gauntlet, Cardin spun, retracting and uncoiling the chain so it spun in a tight circle and lashed back out. She dodged the ball, but the flickering flames left in its wake singed her arm.

Cardin retracted the chain, but Emerald was on him before he had the ball back. Green blades bit into his chestplate and gauntlet as Cardin struggled to keep the recoiling chain from flying out of his fingers. When the ball came back, Cardin lashed out, but Emerald was already out of reach, firing more bullets.

Hiding his eyes behind his gauntlets, Cardin studied the overhead display. He was still in the green, and Emerald had dipped into the yellow. He could try to lose, take hits on his Aura instead of his armor. It might stop Emerald from killing him, but Cinder would have plenty of other ways. He had to win, had to be Vale's champion. Would that still protect him? If Cinder had the Dukes in hand, she'd have the press, and if he turned up dead, it'd be too easy for them to blame the White Fang.

A flash of green brought him back to his senses, and he was just fast enough to block the first blade. Her second swept under his chestplate, gouging through his Aura and knocking the wind from his lungs. Wheezing, Cardin backed away, mace raised, watching his Aura dribble down to the yellow. Emerald followed up on the opening with ruthless precision, blades dipping in and out through his guard. Cardin retreated blindly, relying on instincts honed against Gideon's twin axes, a duck here, a parry there, forming a shell of steel against the worst of the storm. Before he knew it, his boots crunched on brittle rock, and he was back among the craters. He let the lay of the land shape his retreat, angling his steps down slopes and around craters.

He couldn't see the display, but he could sense the trembling in his arms, a cold ache that marked the steady drain of Aura away from his extremities. Even with his weapon and armor protecting him, plenty of Emerald's attacks slipped towards skin, each one burning its way across.

If he wanted to win, he had to stop retreating and hit back. If she moved too fast, he'd have to move faster.

The tingling bordered on pain as he focused on making everything lighter, forced his Semblance to turn inward, to flesh and bone. His head spun as blood rushed into his head, expanded inside of him as his heart found less mass to resist its beating. The world dimmed to a hazy blur of grays and blacks, and a tan-colored blob struck sharp green flashes.

He leaned back so far he nearly fell over, and as he righted himself, he barreled into Emerald. Moving fast as he was, he caught Emerald completely by surprise, but he didn't have the mass to bowl her over. He released his Semblance, and his vision snapped back to razor focus, to Emerald's furious, horrified expression as he grappled her, left hand grabbing a spot that made Professor Port howl with laughter and ramble on about how he had been that daring, all those years ago.

"I was hoping for a better handhold," Cardin said. "Maybe you should try a padded bra, might catch Cinder's eye that way."

Her red eyes boiled. She snarled and kicked and clawed at him, but Cardin dropped his mace and brought up his head and slammed it down, hard.

As he went in for a second headbutt, flames sprouted in front of him. He reared back, but in a flash, the flames were gone, Emerald had wrestled a leg out from under him, and her knee went straight into his groin.

Even as he staggered back, he had his weapon ready, shaking though it was, but Emerald seemed to have taken the headbutt hard, limply rolling to her feet and cradling her head. Cardin searched for his weapon, found it at Emerald's feet. While she was distracted, he crept forward, keeping low, hoping she wouldn't notice.

She did. With a kick, his mace slid up a slope, went over the edge of a crater, and tumbled down into its burning depths with a hiss of sparks. Emerald raised her blades and walked slowly, carefully towards him. Cardin scanned the field for somewhere to run, and saw a metal lump on the ground, Mercury's shattered leg, metal casing cracked around the kneecap, exposing a slender length of steel that made a perfect grip.

He feinted the other way, then went at a dead run. Bullets and footsteps raced after him, but he reached it. The metal burned his fingers, but he swung the makeshift club. The foot caught Emerald square in the chest, and a loud retort knocked both of them back.

The improvised weapon sent the crowd into an uproar. Professor Oobleck shouted at a hummingbird's pace into the microphone and Port rumbled over him.

Scrambling to his feet, Cardin examined the leg. At the heel, a hollow barrel trailed smoke, and a ring of bullets sat around the Achilles heel. Before he had time to figure out how it worked, Emerald lunged at him. Cardin had to use his Semblance to get the weapon up in time, but its unbalanced weight slid down, letting Emerald's blades in. Pushing forward, Cardin nearly knocked her into a crater, but she leapt over it and landed awkwardly. He lashed out again, firing another bullet as the heel slammed into her forehead.

Near the edge of the ring, Mercury howled with delirious laughter. "Hey Cardin, I'll give you my second leg if you kick her in the ass with it!"

Emerald glared at him, and Cardin used the opening to lash again. It seemed that every time the heel flicked forward, the hidden firearm went off. It felt awkward, but flicking the weapon forward like a fishing rod made powerful impacts. Emerald panted hard, winding around the kicks, but getting driven back by Cardin's awkward sweeps.

Even with the new advantage, he was losing in Aura. They were both at around a third, and at the rate Cardin was burning his Semblance, he only had a couple minutes. Snarling, he pressed onward, lashing wildly, driving her deeper into the cratered landscape. Emerald stumbled over crater rims, but she recovered quickly, leaping to safer ground and unloading another round of bullets at him. The leg proved better at protecting his face, but bullets nicked at his Aura.

Cardin could tell his Aura was bleeding faster than hers. His mind circled through options as he let his arms and legs fight for him. With his ball and chain gone, he had no way of throwing Emerald off the edge of the ring. All he had were Mercury's legs, and the Dust phials.

A crater erupted between them, belching fire and smoke. Emerald smirked and took the opportunity to back away further, letting her submachine guns roar. The haze of smoke parted as bullets punched through it, leaving wispy holes in the rising black curtain.

His hand went to the Dust phials at his waist. His fingernail trailed over the cap, counting the notches in the metal. Still holding the leg in front of him, he grabbed the fire Phial, snapped off the cap, and hurled the canister forward.

Emerald's eyes widened as the phial tumbled end over end, spilling red Dust into the air, and disappeared into a crater. Cardin scrambled back as the ground heaved under him. A deafening bang shook the colosseum, and a hot volley of stones struck his back, followed by a scorching shockwave, like a giant hand made of fire. His feet left the ground, and the force shoved him forwards. Tucking in his arms, Cardin spun, landing on his shoulder and rolling to a stop in fresh ashes.

Emerald was blown way from the ring, over the out of bounds zone, but before she fell, she reached forward with both blades and caught the edge of the ring. Cardin rose to his feet and flicked Mercury's leg forwards, but the bullets that left it went wide, bouncing off broken stone.

With shaking arms, Emerald hauled herself up, cresting the edge of the ring with her head. Her eyes fixed on him, burning with hatred, but then they focused farther out, to something behind him. The rage vanished like a snuffed candle. One hand slipped, and for the span of a held breath, she hung by her fingers to her last weapon. As the crowd cheered, she fell.

"And what an explosive comeback that was!" Oobleck shouted. "He's lucky that didn't take out the rest of his Aura."

Port gave his colleague a withering look. "Professor Oobleck, we talked about this."

"Talked about what? How blown away we all were by Cardin's ingenious use of the terrain and his resources?"

"Barty," Port growled.

"Miss Sustrai went out with quite the bang, didn't she?"

A loud crackle came over the speakers as Professor Port smashed Oobleck's microphone with his battleaxe.

"I do hope you can all pardon that unseemly commentary. As I believe my colleague was trying to say, it was an impressive gambit from Mr. Winchester. Now, all he has left to do is contend with Mr. Black, who may have all his aura left, but doesn't have a leg to stand on."

"Seriously?" Oobleck shouted into Port's microphone.

Cardin walked over to Mercury. He let the leg scrape against the rock, digging a furrow of ashes in its wake. Mercury had his arms raised in a fighting pose, but he could barely sit up.

"I'd rather not do this," Cardin said.

Dripping with cold sweat, Mercury looked up at him with unfocused eyes. "Too bad. I don't like giving up. Every time I tried, it'd get me a boot in my ribs." He cracked a grin. "Besides, it's kinda funny, getting beaten up with my own leg. Do me a favor and say 'why are you kicking yourself' while you're doing it."

Cardin studied the board. He had nineteen percent left. Just four, and he'd be out. He gauged the distance to the edge of the ring, just over six feet, and tried to judge how much of his Semblance it would take. It'd be close, but it was haul him out, or beat him with the leg and hope he didn't have any surprises planned.

When he circled around to Mercury's back, his opponent turned, trying to face him. Cardin was faster. When Mercury's back was to him, Cardin grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and shoved his Semblance into him. Mercury's Aura pushed back, and his arm burned as power welled up in his fingers, but he could feel Mercury's weight shift. He wrenched his arm up and around, hauling Mercury off the ground, and flung him over the edge of the ring. Without any legs to twist around, Mercury was unable to turn and grab the ledge. He went over the side with a stifled cry of pain.

"And there you have it, Team CRDL will be moving on by a hair! What a spectacular performance from Mr. Winchester, taking on two opponents at full Aura.

Cardin turned, following the line of sight Emerald's eyes had taken before she let go. Cinder leaned back in her seat, watching his victory with a smile.

As he sat down on the charred earth, breathing hard and coughing from the ashes, all he could think was oh hell, it wasn't over yet.