Chapter Thirty-Two: Wrath
Amity Colosseum was full near to bursting as the city streets were flooded with another crowd of tourists that had come for the finals. What few empty seats that had once speckled the stands of the floating colosseum were packed, with more spectators standing in the aisles and on the stairs. A handful of adventurous people had even clambered onto the metal girders lining the walls.
Cardin counted himself lucky that he wouldn't be sitting up there today. At the moment, he stood on the stone battlefield, staring up at the commentators' booth, as Port and Oobleck introduced him and the other students standing in a line on either side of him.
To his left was the monkey Faunus. He twirled his staff with his tail and shot finger-guns and a cheerful smile at a group of girls in the lower stands. Just past him was Yang, waving up at her sister and flexing her biceps for the crowd.
To his right was Penny, the Atlas student with the floating swords. She didn't twitch the entire time he watched her. Even her chest didn't seem to move, as though she weren't breathing.
Another student down stood Jaune Arc.
When he saw Jaune come into the colosseum's locker room, he nearly did a double-take, and his heart soared. After spending all that time plotting Pyrrha's removal and thinking he had failed, she dropped out of the tournament of her own accord. He was looking forward to seeing her explain herself on tonight's news.
There were three more in the lineup, a Vacuan hidden under a black cowl, an Atlesian student bedecked with high-tech Dust gear, and a scarred Mistraltan who favored a cavalier brown vest and feathered cap.
As Professors Oobleck and Port gave the crowd the rundown on the eight finalists, Cardin reviewed what he had learned. Of the eight, Jaune's large Aura reserves, sudden increase in skill, and relatively unknown Semblance made him an unpredictable, but manageable opponent. Yang had firepower on her side, but Cardin had plans for her. Penny would be a problem, but with luck, she'd be somebody else's problem.
A cheer rose from the crowd as the professors announced the start of the finals. The digital roulette whirled overhead, and the faces of Jaune and Sun came on the screen. Cardin and the other five finalists went back to the locker room, leaving the battlefield empty for the two combatants.
Made by Atlas and only used once a year for the Vytal Festival, Amity Colosseum's locker room was an immaculate, steel-walled file of lockers. The back half of the room was divided into two, guys and girls each having their own set of bathrooms, showers, and changing rooms. Towards the front of the room, at the end of the rows of lockers, was a waiting room. They had a refrigerator stocked with snacks and beverages, a coffee machine, and a microwave. One long table sat at the center of a gray tile floor, with six chairs all on one side. A giant dust display took up the wall opposite the seats, showing the live match happening just beyond that wall.
Cardin grabbed a platter of celery sticks out of the table and took a seat at the far end of the table. The seat next to him was immediately taken. Fighting back an irritated scowl, Cardin turned, expecting to see Yang, but instead, he nearly jabbed his eye on Penny's outstretched hand.
"Salutations! I am Penny Polendina, student and representative of Atlas Academy in this tournament. You are Cardin Winchester, heir to the Duchy of Winchester, and a representative and student of Beacon in this tournament, correct?"
Cardin nodded and went back to his snack. Penny studied the unaccepted handshake for a moment before poking Cardin in the shoulder.
"Excuse me," she said, "You did not return the greeting or accept my handshake. Have I done something to offend you?"
"You might have a contact-based Semblance, so I would rather not take any risks."
"Oh, I see!" Penny took out her Scroll and showed it to him. At a glance, he could tell it was her student transcript. "These are the documents that outline my capabilities as a fighter. As you can see, I do not have any abilities that rely on physical contact. Therefore, it is perfectly safe to shake my hand." She put the Scroll on the table and held out her hand again.
Cardin scooted his chair away. "Your transcript isn't exactly thorough, is it?"
Penny's eyes widened. "Oh, right, you were talking with Ironwood the other day." She leaned in closer and asked, "Did he tell you?"
"Tell me what?"
She watched him for a moment, eyes darting back and forth as if she were reading a book. Then she looked down and said, "It is nothing. Please do not inquire into the matter further."
Before he could say anything else, she vanished into the changing area, leaving Cardin with yet another set of questions. He had his Scroll out to ask Mr. Schnee, but on the Dust screen, Oobleck counted down the start of the match, drawing Cardin's attention away from Penny.
The moment the bell rang, Sun tried to rush in close, but Jaune's Aura slashes kept him back, forcing him to pole vault and leap his way closer. Any time he got within striking range, Jaune' shield would light up and shove him back. While Jaune's Aura reserves steadily fell, the sweat dripping down Sun's face after fifteen minutes of dodging hinted that he'd soon start taking hits.
One slash clipped Sun's foot, knocking him end over end. He recovered smoothly on all fours, but Jaune had another slash ready. Sun rolled under it, but Jaune ran forward and slashed down with steel. The Faunus' tail whipped around, coiling around the sword and twisting it aside, but the blade glowed and knocked the tail away.
Jaune backpedaled and put more Aura into his blade. There was a keening, high-pitched wail, like metal crushed in a vice, and Jaune's blade flew apart in a burst of light. Metal shrapnel sliced across his face, sending bright flashes where his Aura absorbed the damage. Jaune staggered sideways, blinded and deafened by the explosion.
Sun charged into the opening, staff split apart into buckshot-spitting nunchaku. Jaune took a few hits before he raised his shield, but the two-pronged attack struck around Jaune's defenses. Jaune shrunk the shield, wielding the sheath like a club, and though he got some hits in, he took twice as many, each one backed by an explosive shell. Within minutes, Jaune's Aura sank into the red.
"Ooh, what an unfortunate accident for Mr. Arc!" Oobleck shouted over the roars of the crowd. "It would appear that his Semblance was too much for his weapon to handle, and it cost him the match. Now let's see who fights next!"
Penny came up on the next round, pitted against the shawled figure from Vacuo. Cardin watched carefully as Penny directed each of her blades without a visible gesture. It seemed eerie to him, how she stood perfectly still as her blades leapt and dove towards her opponent. The shawled figure didn't stand a chance, not with her arsenal of throwing knives and daggers. She could throw three at once, but it only took a single blade to deflect them, and a dagger in each hand can only block so many attacks. Within minutes, the shawl, and their Aura under it, were slashed to ribbons, and Penny was declared the winner.
The next round ostensibly excluded Yang and himself. His fingers nervously drummed against the hilt of his mace as he stared at the screen in the locker room without looking at it.
Yang slapped a gauntleted hand on his shoulder, making him jump. "Tough luck. Looks like this'll be your last round."
Cardin didn't answer her. He had planned this matchup for years, had extensively studied her twin-gauntlet techniques to the point that he could envision every step she would make in her attack, how far she would pivot her feet for a roundhouse punch, where a jump boosted by her buckshot would take her. Cinder had to realize he would be prepared for Yang, which begged the question why she set this match up when Penny would be far harder for him to win against.
"How's Weiss?" he asked instead.
"Still in bed. Too bad she's not going to see me kick your ass."
Cardin took a deep breath, wondering how much to tell her. "Did Cinder or any of her teammates say anything to you?"
"No, why? Were they supposed to ask me to let you win, or something?" In a low growl, she said, "Not happening."
Over the screen, they heard Oobleck announcing the end of the match, in favor of Mistral's last student. Cardin followed Yang out to the battlefield. There were scorch marks and dents in the rock that were polished out by application of a thin layer of Earth Dust.
"And to end the day, we have Yang Xiao Long and Cardin Winchester, both first years at Beacon Academy! I don't think we've had such a promising crop of students for years!"
"Very true," Port said. "I haven't seen a young man who showed as much raw masculinity as myself in all my years teaching here, but young Mr. Winchester may give me a run for my money once he graduates." The portly professor punctuated the statement with a hearty guffaw.
"Yes, quite," Oobleck said dryly. "Anyways, these two have been students together since primary school, so this is bound to be an exciting match. I personally am excited to see what else Mr. Winchester can do with the hidden chain in his weapon."
"I also." Professor Port stroked his mustache. The crackling of his facial hair came out over the speaker, and the crowd cringed at the sound. "The ladies don't appreciate being teased, Mr. Winchester, and neither do I."
Yang sighed and smirked up at the commentators' booth. Prodding Cardin's arm with her elbow, she said, "He's really laying it on thick, isn't he?"
Cardin ignored it all and hunted the crowd for any sign of Cinder. With the stands as packed as they were, it was all but impossible to pick out any individuals from the crowd. He could see Ruby, only because she was a bright red, wildly bouncing blur waving and trying to catch Yang's attention.
As he was about to give it up, he saw her. She, Nelly, Mercury, and Emerald had front row seats directly below the commentators' booth. Despite the crowd, they had a buffer of empty seats around them. When Cinder saw he was looking, she gave him a wave and a cold, cruel smile.
So distracted he was, he almost missed the start of the match. As Oobleck counted down the seconds, Cardin's attention snapped back in front of him, to Yang's eager stance, poised to punch his Aura into hamburger. When Oobleck's count hit zero and the horns blared, Yang rocketed forward, propelled by buckshot rounds. Cardin lashed out with the mace, but two more rounds knocked Yang sideways and struck Cardin's left shoulder. The armor there took the brunt of the blow, but stinging little rounds ricocheted off his armor, and a few found his Aura.
As Yang circled around him, Cardin unfurled the chain. She backed away, studying him and waiting for him to make the next move.
"Looks like Mr. Winchester is about to use the chain," Port said. "Very astute of him to show such a pretty lady everything he has."
Cardin swung the weapon in a wide arc. Yang backpedaled as the ball grazed the front of her shirt. He swung it in wider and wider arcs, forcing Yang closer to the edge of the arena. On the final swing, Yang ducked underneath the chain and barreled towards him. Ready for the charge, Cardin retracted the chain and spun, spinning the ball in a tight arc. Before Yang could react, the ball clipped her shoulder, knocking her sideways. She staggered back, keeping her footing with a frantic feat of footwork.
He swung the weapon in wide arcs again, but Yang had a new idea. With a roar, she punched the ground. Cracks spiderwebbed out from the point of impact. Lunging aside, Yang punched again and again, cracking the stone into huge slabs. With a grunt, she lifted one with the help of her shotgun rounds. She raised more and more, until the battlefield was littered with upright boulders. When Cardin swung his weapon again, the chain wrapped around a boulder. Yang darted at the opening, but Cardin used the chain to swing himself out of harm's way.
He skidded to a stop on the other side of the boulder and waited. Yang rushed towards him, ready to blow the rock he was hiding behind to pieces. As the gauntlet clicked back, Cardin retracted the chain. The ball whipped out at blinding speed, dragging the chain with it. When Yang was just a pace away, the chain snagged around her legs. She let out a yelp and hit the ground with a thud, her legs squeezed together by the force of the retracting chain.
Cardin stepped out from behind the rock and heaved with all his might, forcing Yang's legs into the air. He swung her around and around, letting the chain out inch by inch as he built momentum. She yanked at the chain, but it was wound too tightly for her to get free.
When he had enough speed, he slammed her into a boulder. Aura flashed and sizzled as Yang crashed straight through the obstacle. With each boulder he slammed her into, another chunk of her Aura meter vanished, and she plunged closer to the red. She tried firing off her gauntlets to control her momentum and smashing rocks before she hit them, but with how fast she was spinning, she couldn't aim. When that failed, she fired straight down, forcing herself higher into the air, but as she rose above the rocks, Cardin swung her up over his head and slammed her down into the arena floor. Before she could grab hold onto the broken rock or recover her footing, Cardin made the chain lighter and yanked her back into the air.
As he swung Yang around, he kept an eye on her Aura gauge. He felt his heart race as it dropped closer and closer to the red. Soon, he was a few good hits away from winning, and he cheered with the crowd.
He blinked, and Yang was right in front of him, arm cocked back to knock his skull through the colosseum. Cardin yelped and retracted the chain, scrambling out of Yang's kill zone. When he blinked again, Yang was on the ground thirty feet away from him, rubbing sore ribs and shoulders, eyes blazing like compressed suns. She pushed herself onto her feet, brushed dust off her shirt, and cracked her knuckles.
Stomach sinking somewhere near the planet's core, Cardin scrambled for the Dust container on his wrist, but Yang didn't give him time to grab it. Her gauntlets roared as she threw herself towards him. Her first punch struck the ground where he had stood, sending a shockwave through the arena. Cardin stumbled, rolled over the sharp stones strewn about, and leapt back on his feet. Yang's next attack flew towards his chest. He only had time to bring his mace in front of him, deflecting the attack towards his right arm. Her fist slammed into his shoulder. Pain shot up his neck as the shoulder popped out of its joint with an audible smack. With that one attack, his Aura sank a quarter, and his arm hung uselessly at his side.
The next few minutes felt like a lethal game of tag. Cardin sprinted and sidestepped his way across the broken ring with all the half-acquired skill Blake had drilled into him, shoving rocks with his feet in a futile effort to trip up Yang. She pursued him relentlessly, batting aside thrown rocks and his mace with careless swats of her gauntlets and shaking the ground with each missed strike. Whenever he could, he spared a glance at the board, praying that Yang's Semblance would burn out what little Aura she had remaining. Her Aura sank percent by percent, but Cardin was quickly losing his breath, and his own supply, though still in the green, wouldn't last against a single direct hit.
Once Yang's Aura dropped below a quarter, Cardin turned and swung his mace, letting the chain unfurl. The ball whirled towards Yang, but she caught the chain. In the split second he had to react, Cardin poured his Semblance into himself. Blood rushed to his head as his whole body grew lighter.
Yang tugged on the chain, and Cardin rocketed towards her. Mid-flight, Cardin reversed his Semblance and shot at Yang with the weight of a freight car. He swung at Yang, but dazed as he was from the sudden shifts in weight and unable to move his right arm, Cardin missed Yang by a foot. He normalized his weight a second before hitting the ground and rolled to a stop near the edge of the ring.
He had a few seconds to catch his breath as Yang strode towards him, but his lungs burned as they struggled for more air. His legs shook, and his sight blurred to a cream and yellow-colored blob slowly filling his field of view. Even with his Semblance, he couldn't raise his mace any higher than his waist.
Staggering forward, Cardin lashed out with his left arm. Yang grabbed him by the wrist, and with the other hand, she punched him square in the chest. Buckshot broke his Aura into pieces, and he sailed over the side of the arena.
"Victory by knockout and ring-out for Yang Xiao Long!" Oobleck said. "What an incredible match!"
A couple attendants rushed to Cardin's side and helped him onto his feet. He had to lean on a shoulder as he hobbled up the steps to the arena. Yang stood at the center of the arena, covered in dust, smiling and waving to the crowd. As he came closer, she turned towards him with a smirk on her face.
"Gotta say, I thought you had me."
Cardin thought back to the moment that, against all reason, he saw Yang rushing at him. "I thought I did too."
As they closed the distance, he could hear Yang panting beneath her grin. Her face and arms were turning purple, and she favored her left leg.
"Looks like it's over," he said.
"Yep. But don't worry, I'll win for you." She looked away. "I mean, I'll kick everyone's butt so you don't feel so bad about it."
Cardin's eyes stung, but he refused to let any tears show. With Cinder's grip on the media, being a finalist wouldn't be nearly enough for interviews and news articles, the opportunities he needed to spin public opinion to his favor. Years of planning crumbled around him like a sandcastle, carefully sculpted schemes to leverage his popularity toppling and falling apart, the walls it would put in between him and the Dukes caving in.
"You do that," he said numbly.
He held out his hand. Yang reached for it, and hesitated. Her eyes widened and blazed red. Before he knew what was happening, Yang's fist was in his stomach. His feet left the ground, and his breath whooshed out of him in a gut-wrenching blast. A rib cracked, and he screamed soundlessly as pain burned his chest like a furnace.
The silence that filled the colosseum was broken by a bang. The sensation of molten iron, overpowering the previous pain, shot into his gut. His vision swam, and the sudden roar of the crowd fell to a distant din as he hit the ground.
The sudden heat of pain was replaced by a creeping chill that seeped outward from his stomach. Too weak to rise, Cardin reached for his stomach with a hand. His fingers sank into a hot puddle. His hand trembled as he held it closer to his face. Blood stained his palm and dripped onto his cheek.
There was motion all around him, but he had trouble making out the figures. The attendants had fled and were replaced by gleaming Knights. A wall of them stood around him, while more had their guns trained on Yang. Then the wall was flung aside, making way for a copper-colored shape and another gleaming figure. A hand grabbed his wrist, and liquid warmth was pumped into his veins. His breath shuddered as torn tissue knitted itself together.
Two more white-clad people ran into view, bearing a stretcher between them. The hand at his wrist remained as two pairs at his shoulders and hips gently slid him onto the stretcher.
As they were about to move him, a silver person trailed by a squad of Knights approached them. They argued, but their words were lost to the tingling buzz that filled Cardin's head.
The white-clad people were led away by Knights, and two more robots took the stretcher. He saw himself rising in the air, but he was beyond feeling anything but the burning, freezing vortex in his chest.
As the world slid by, he hunted for Cinder. The world snapped into focus for one instant on the spot where he had seen Cinder. Mercury stared at him with an unreadable expression and Emerald was nursing a headache, but Cinder and Nelly had vanished.
His stretcher went down a narrow tunnel and emerged at a small Bullhead dock. He was loaded on board, and metallic hands held him horizontal on the seat as the pilot gunned the engines. The doors slid shut as the Bullhead lurched out of the station. Silver hair and eyes filled his dwindling field of view. The person said something, tinged with concern but indiscernible.
"Weiss?" he croaked. He coughed and tasted blood in his mouth.
"Stay with me. We're almost there." The words were muffled as though he had cotton in his ears. To the person at his side, she asked, "How much more can you handle, Jaune?"
"I don't know," he said in a strained voice. "I've never handled anything this bad before."
"Hold on as long as you can. His life may depend on it."
He tried to warn her about Cinder, tried to tell her not to let anyone near him, but his words came out as a rasping gurgle.
"Don't try to speak. You'll need your strength."
The Bullhead swerved side to side as it came in for a landing. Cardin nearly rolled onto the floor, but metal hands stopped him short of the seat's edge. They trundled him out of the bullhead and down another string of short hallways.
The hand beside him tightened, and shoes squeaked on the floor as Jaune stumbled. He growled, propped himself against the wall, and kept going.
After what felt like a year, two sets of hands, lifted him off the stretcher and onto a hard hospital mattress. Paper crinkled under him as he groaned and shifted.
A doctor sprinted into the room and hissed through his teeth when he saw Cardin. "Why the hell did you bring him here?" he asked. "He should be at Vale Central."
"This was closer," the woman said. "He might have bled out before we made it."
The doctor peeled aside Cardin's bloodied shirt and studied the wounds underneath. Cardin gasped and thrashed when the doctor's gloved hand prodded one of the bullet wounds.
"His lower intestine's been torn to shreds, but I think it missed his liver. The best I can do is stitch him up and get some blood in him. After that, he'll be ready for the flight to Vale."
"That will be a last resort. Your orders are to treat him here to the fullest of your abilities and send him to Vale only if he will die otherwise."
"But-"
"Those orders are straight from Ironwood," she snapped. "And besides, we have someone with a healing Semblance here. He's already reversed much of the damage done, and he should be able to fix the rest."
"But he should be-"
"This is not up for debate. For the time being, no ship will enter or leave our docks until the General gives the order. Now get to work."
The woman left, leaving Cardin alone with the doctor and Jaune. The doctor phoned in the rest of the medical staff and went to his cabinets for medical supplies. Cardin never got to see what those were.
"Oh god, it's coming up." Jaune let go of Cardin's wrist and rushed onto his feet. Scrambling for a bathroom and not finding one, Jaune threw up in the middle of the room and fell unconscious to the floor.
The last thing Cardin saw and heard before the cold and darkness took him was the doctor returning to the room with an armful of indistinct shapes, staring down at the mess and unconscious body, saying, "What the hell do I do now?"
A/N: This was another chapter that I'm very excited to see the reactions for. As much as I liked the execution of Cinder's plan in the show, I felt that, one, it relied on no one noticing that Mercury has prosthetic legs, and two, why settle for a bit of unsportsmanlike conduct when you could trick Yang into killing someone on international television?
From the reviews, it sounded like people were catching on to this nefarious plan, but I hope it was a delightfully evil surprise all the same.
As for my new writing schedule, I've had plenty of success with it so far. So much so, in fact, that if I'm able to keep up this pace, I may have a new chapter out next Tuesday.