.

Guilty Intentions

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Chill in my heart.

Weight on my shoulders.

Curse in my ears.

My ghosts still haunt me.

.

.

If she could find the right moment, she knew she could turn this fight around.

The thin sword sliced through the air and Yang ducked underneath by a hair's breadth.

She overcommitted on that.

There's my chance!

Yang rarely spotted flaws in her opponent's technique, fewer still she could capitalize on. If she failed to take advantage of this one, there would likely be no next.

The boxer settled her thoughts and opened her senses. Her vision blurred, but something else sharpened in its opposite. An almost trick of the light or new plane of focus.

She traced the pathing energies to where they connected. The convergence she could glimpse for short periods of time, with a few met conditions. It came as a crack as small as a pebble, but it drew Yang's focus in, like gravity.

Hair blazing like the sun, she could feel a tightness travel down her forearms to her knuckles. The punch would not be her best, and far from her strongest. Never chancing weighted haymakers against such a nimble target, she opted for a more peppering strike.

Yang traded her dynamic strength for speed and accuracy. Her step-in was light. Like a marksman, she closed one eye—concentrating only on the glimmering speck that verged on disappearing.

The low left hook whipped out with a snap.

Even before seeing the effect, Yang felt the feedback from her fist. It was gratifying and electric. An almost magical moment where one's intentions aligned exactly with what was executed.

Neo buckled from the blow that connected clean with her liver. Pain flooded her sides.

Without wasting a moment, Yang followed up with a second punch that stopped just short of cracking her partner's temple.

"I…I won?" she blurted uncertainly.

At this, Neo recovered and attacked Yang's back, but she didn't care.

"I WON! HAHAHA! I WON! I BEAT NEO!"

Her partner proceeded to strangle her neck, but Yang continued to jump with joy, pumping her arms energetically in the air.

"I gotta tell Merc and Em!"

Neo puffed her cheeks and repeatedly slapped Yang's head.

"Ow, ow, ow! Hey, are you okay? I didn't hurt you too bad, did I?"

The petite woman climbed off her with a pout. Neo rubbed the section of her torso where the blow landed. A bruise was starting to discolor there.

"Oh, come here, baby." Yang kneeled down and kissed the sore spot. "Better?"

When she tilted her head up, Neo was hovering the tip of her sword over her eyeball.

"Sore loser," Yang grinned. "Let's go find Merc and Em. Now that I think about it, I haven't seen much of them around. Wonder what they're up to lately…"

.

X

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A great scythe ripped through the air and almost tore Mercury in half. The sharp gust of wind that followed, staggered him back. Although the weapon was massive in size, its wielder manipulated its center balance with a deft handling.

Mercury back-pedaled and danced around the grim reaper's touch. Constantly a narrow measure away from being cleaved through. He was hardly allowed any space to catch his breath.

"Freakin', crazy, overpowered old man!"

Qrow continued to give Mercury chase. Not flinching the slightest when his enemy managed to throw a kick that grazed his cheek. Instead, pushing forward and punishing the shallow move with a blade through the chest.

Jagged steel carved into Mercury's chest cavity. Blood pooled his mouth as the life drained from him. He could feel Qrow give a quick twist of his scythe to make the wound too large to recover from.

A fatal blow.

"DAMN IT!" Mercury cursed as the hallucination faded. "Hey, Em! Don't you think you're making him a little too hard?"

Emerald, who was still in her meditative stance, opened her eyes.

"I only have the ONE time we met him, after the fight with the Fall Maiden, and the crappy intel we got from Jupiter for reference," she explained. "Everything else, I have to fill with a suped-up version of Ruby. It's as close a simulation as you're gonna get!"

Mercury stood from the middle of the sparring ring. His clothes were drenched in sweat from hours of practice. The frustration obvious in his body language. Emerald did a better job of hiding it, but the stress was mounting for her as well.

Their training and preparation for Qrow's assassination was not going well. Every scenario they played out ended with them losing. Emerald especially, who wasn't a frontline fighter, struggled to combat the weakest iteration of their target.

There was also a tall number of unknowns surrounding the job. Few had ever seen Qrow Branwen fight at full strength—or lived to tell of it. The target's location was vague. There was a possibility he was accompanied by Ruby, and it was unclear if he had more allies.

It was the kind of gig anyone in the professional world would call, bad practice. A mission that would inevitably lead to a disadvantageous fight, followed by a quick defeat, and a not-so shallow grave. The script to a terrible play no one wanted to see.

Mercury and Emerald were catching their breaths, when the doors to the practice room banged open.

"—If you guys were training, you could've invited us." Yang entered with Neo in tow.

"Not now, blondie. I'm not in the mood," Mercury groaned.

"Eesh. Bad session, huh? Well, guess who just beat Neo! Boom!" Yang did the double thumbs pump to herself.

"Seriously?"

Emerald scoffed. "So, what? You beat Neo. Once. In a spar. After how many losses, might I ask?"

"Say what you want, Em. But have any of you beat Neo before?" Yang asked with a smug look.

"That's not the point."

"Oh, really? I feel like it is."

"No, she's right," Mercury said. "Beating Neo's a little impressive."

"Thanks, Merc!"

"Neo's her girlfriend," Emerald added.

"Is it official?" Mercury asked.

"I don't like labels," Yang shrugged.

"Kinda makes it more impressive. Y'know… cause Neo's all dominatrix-y with her."

"Alright!" Emerald threw up her hands. "If you're done with all the back-patting, we still have work to do. Mercury, max difficulty sim next."

"Oh, joy!" Mercury cried with sarcastic cheer.

"Oooh, can I watch?" Yang asked.

"Sure," Emerald rolled her eyes. "If you wanna watch an idiot flop around the middle of the room, be my guest."

Yang and Neo sat beside Emerald eagerly. It wasn't long until they saw an uncharacteristic reaction come from Mercury.

"Is he…shaking?" Yang titled her head.

Emerald flashed a broad grin.

"The next simulation's a liiiittle tough."

Although Mercury knew there was no one else in the ring with him physically, he still had to fight the urge to run away. Even if he knew they were hallucinations, Emerald's Semblance had grown leaps and bounds since ENMY's formation. And that meant the images she conjured had a disturbing realness to them. The same went for the simulated pain and death upon defeat…

As Qrow, Cinder, Raven, and Glynda Goodwitch took their fighting stances at the other end of the ring.

Group of Death, huh?

Fine! Bring it!

As Mercury began the simulation, the others watched with mild interest.

"Hey, Em?" Yang asked.

"What is it now?" Emerald groaned, while still concentrating.

"Your Semblance can hallucinate anyone?"

"As long as I've seen them myself. But if you're talking about simulated abilities, I'd have to see them fight or have a lot of intel beforehand."

"Can I make a request, then?"

"My Semblance isn't a toy, southpaw."

"…I'm not playing."

Emerald opened her eyes and turned to Yang. She saw the girl's expression was dead serious. It would be difficult getting her teammate to back off when she was in this kind of mood.

"Sure, why not," Emerald agreed without thought. "It's not like Merc didn't just get insta-killed out there. Hope you have something worth watching."

"It'll be something alright." Yang leaned in and gave her two names. "Can you do it?"

Emerald responded with a crooked stare.

"Y'know, you've been off the hinges lately, but now I know your brain's fragged. But yeah, I can make realistic hallucinations of them—more real than real. Gotta ask, though. Why do this to yourself?"

"I'm going through some stuff and I wanna work it out. Plus, I need to see something."

"…You want their personalities included?"

Yang paused. "You can do that?"

"My Semblance works off my memories, but if we both know them, I can use your brain to fill in a lot of it too. You ready for that?"

Yang took a huge gulp and strode to the middle of the ring. There, she hefted Mercury's body off the floor.

"Sorry, buddy. It's my turn."

Once he was placed off the side, Yang returned to the stage.

She inhaled a deep breath. Her heart pounded madly, like it would soon burst out of her chest.

Truth be told, Yang was afraid. She personally witnessed how realistic Emerald's Semblance was on several occasions. She didn't much care for the experience, but today it would provide her with a unique opportunity.

Yang opened her eyes slowly—and almost immediately teared up.

"This is going to be sen-sational, Yang Xiao Long!" a perky, freckle-faced girl greeted her.

"It will be an honor to fight you, Yang," another girl with scarlet hair made her declaration.

"Penny…Pyrrha…"

She froze with uncertainty. They were so much more life-like than she could have prepared for. The intonations in their voices to the smallest expressions in their movements—it all matched her memory. Nothing vague about them, like dreams or mere imaginations.

Emerald was right. They seemed more real than real life.

Yang cursed her selfishness.

"—Do you really want to go through with this?" she heard Emerald ask, a trace of guilt in her speech.

"Yeah. I need it."

"… Fine. Have it your way. Just so you know, even if you've gotten a little better—those two have been in a different league from the start."

Yang banged her gauntlets together and produced a shockwave of flames.

"I know that better than anyone!"

The afterburners in her Ember Celica kicked into thrust. Her overflowing Aura channeled through her limbs and irradiated her form.

At the same time, Penny deployed her swords and began hovering in the air. Meanwhile, Pyrrha set into her combat stance. All the metal on Yang's person hummed.

What would you two think?

What would you guys say?

I'm beside the people responsible for what happened to you.

I'm…betraying your memory, aren't I?

You were my friends, and they're…

Yang was losing herself to an amalgam of emotions. Her self-loathing never seethed as it did in this instant. But something inside her told her to push on. To never stop, despite what suffering may come.

"Here's your chance to beat me up for it!"

I've regretted this for so long.

But now, I'll face you two.

I'll take it all on.

Guilt, pain, and all.