Author Note: Hello everyone and welcome back to another chapter. Finally the last part of the Vytal Tournament has come around and the plot thickens, though if have already watched RWBY (Which you all have since you wouldn't be here if you didn't) then we all know whats coming soon. But of course its a little different when he have nine mercenaries to join the fight. Anyway thats enough chitchatting from me, lets get into it!
P.S. Please read the Author Note at the end as well! I have some announcements to make!
Beacon Academy: Mercenaries Room
The next morning, everyone woke up at a decently early time. Today was the first day of single rounds and first up was none other than Yang Xiao Long. She was facing of against Mercury Black, and the hype was high. After yesterday, the result of the matchup was unpredictable. Mercury's incredibly impressive skills and ability to take out one of Team CFVY with very little effort and Yangs brutal fighting and anger made this a close fight for many people. Afterward there would be a three hour break before another very highly anticipated match. Pyrrha vs Penny.
The fight started in two hours. The Teams were in the mercenaries room, lounging around a little, waiting for the time to leave. Everyone was pretty upbeat. Even Yang was having fun, joking around with Scout. She was nervous, but she knew that there was no reason to be. She could do it. Even so, she had her around Scout and kept him close to her for some more comfort.
The only who wasn't in a completely cheery mood was Pyrrha. She was sitting to the side at the desk in the room and was watching Demoman arguing with Weiss about bringing a crate of beer and whisky to the stadium and use them for celebration when Yang and Pyrrha win. But she wasn't listening to them. She was still reeling from last nights meeting with Ozpin. All this about Maidens and her becoming one... it was insane. However, deep inside she knew that it wasn't and that the decision that had been given to her was a very serious one.
She sighed and looked down at the wooden desk she was sitting at. Could she do it? Could she become the powerful Maiden and be the stuff of legends. Maybe, but
that wasn't her main problem with the whole ordeal. Her main problem was what would happen with her social life if she became one. She may not be able to hang out with her friends, the mercenaries, Jaune...
She gripped her head tightly and a tear formed in her eye. She didn't think she could live without Jaune. The others knew they were dating, but it was so much more than that for the couple. They were so close and cared about each other so much that they even slept together (NOT SEX OR ANY OF THAT CRAP!) when one had a nightmare. It was to heartbreaking to think of a life without him.
She felt a hand touch her shoulder and jumped up to see Jaune looking at her with a concerned look. "Everything alright?" he asked.
She hesitated for a second. She could tell him everything and convey her troubled feelings. But then saw Spy out of the corner of her eye, shaking his head slowly. She couldn't tell him. Ozpin had said to keep it a secret. She looked back him and put on a smile and leaned forward kissing him saying, "I'm fine, just a little tired."
Jaune looked unconvinced, but let it drops Pyrrha wrapped an arm around his waist and steered him back to the group, where Demoman and Weiss were still arguing. However, it had gotten louder and a little more heated.
"NO! Absolutely not! How many times do I have to say it? We cannot bring a crate of alcohol onto an airship and into a public stadium. Plus half of us here are not allowed to drink!" yelled Weiss her face becoming red from yelling so much at the Scotsman.
Demoman snorted derisively, "Aye, I started to drink when I was half ya age. And if are lassies win, what will we celebrate with? Soda? Cake? Nah, thats for wussies lass. We must drink to our victories!"
Weiss's eyes grew cold. "Well maybe thats what you think since all your victories end with blood and killing and lunatics like you and everyone here."
There was an unpleasant silence as the students looked at Weiss in horror. The mercenaries faces had gone swallow and had lost all the nicety in them. They were not happy to say the least and even Weiss recoiled slightly when she saw the faces. Demoman dropped his crate of alcohol and looked Weiss right into her eyes with his one eye.
"Don't speak about what ye don't know lassie. Ya have no idea what we went through, day in and day out."
He didn't shout or yell. He spoke calmly and quietly, but his voiced was etched with anger and bitterness. Weiss pales and stuttered trying to say something. An apology, a retort, anything. She couldn't take the cold and gaunt faces the mercenaries were giving her. That is except fro Pyro. It knew the situation was not happy and it had been effected by the Ice Princess's words but it knew it needed to do something to make everyone happy again.
Pyro mumbled loudly and walked towards the two people that had been engaged in an angry argument a few seconds before and turned to Demoman. It mumbled a few things to the black Scotsman for a few seconds, while everyone else looked at it trying to make out what the masked thing was saying. Demoman's expression didn't change at first. However, as Pyro mumbled his muffled talk, Demo's expression softened little by little. Finally, Pyro stopped and Demoman sighed and turned to Weiss.
"Aye, I'm sorry lass. I didn't mean to yell at ya. Pyro was just telling me that we are quite obviously the things you said. We killed everyday and began to enjoy it. However, while we are here, we are trying to get out of our habits and become protectors than just merciless mercenaries."
Weiss stared at him for a second. Then, to everyones complete shock, she burst into tears and fell to the ground crying. Ruby approached her, but Demoman raised a hand and kneeled down and patted the heiress on the shoulder.
"No need to cry lass. Ye got nothing to be sad about. What ye said was understandable. In fact, I will leave the alcohol behind."
Weiss kept weeping. "I'm... so sorry... I was so insensitive."
Demoman patted her gently and consoled her. Everyone else watched quietly. The students were still slightly scared about the mercenaries reaction and if the others would get angry at Weiss after Demoman consoled her. However, when they looked at the other mercenaries, they saw looks of sorrow and not anger.
After a few minutes Demoman finally was able to convince Weiss to get up. She was feeling much better and was quickly regaining her usual perfossional confidence.
"Now. Isn't it time to go?"
They all shook themselves from the momentary daze that had settled in and checked the clock on the far wall to see that it was an hour before Yang's fight began. They all scrambled up and began to get ready to leave. Usually this would have taken quite a while, but in the rush the group was out the door in just under five minutes and they ran towards the airships outside of Beacon.
Once on, they all panted heavily from exerting way to much energy to just run to the airship. Medic equipped his Quick-Fix and trained its beam on each individual until everyone felt better and refreshed. He himself had begun to regenerate his stamina back as with his energy and didn't not need any assistance.
"Well," said Ruby slowly as the group lay back in their chairs, breathing a sigh of relief at Medics healing, "that was a rush."
The others nodded as the airship began to take off to their destination. No one spoke much as they flew. Nerves had begun to kick in for Yang. She usually was very confident in herself and didn't usually worry about an upcoming fight. But this was the singles round of the Vytal Tournament. The stakes were high.
They arrived at the stadium and walked out of the airship and began to wade their way through the crowd of people towards to the locker rooms to see off Yang before they went up to the stands. After they got through the crowd, which involved some pushing from Heavy and Soldier, they stood around the locker room entrance and began to wish Yang good luck.
"You will do great out there sis!" said Ruby hugging her half sister tightly.
"Do not disappoint us Xiao Long," said Weiss with a small grin on her face.
Blake didn't say anything but just nodded and gave Yang a small but genuine smile.
Scout walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulders. "Yang. You are one of the best freakin fighters I know. And thats saying something since I literally live with eight other supreme fighters and your friends are very good. My point here pally is that your gonna nail it!" He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then stepped back with his trademark smirk on his face.
Yang smiled happily at the group. She was so happy that she had friends like these. Yang turned to the door to the locker rooms and, with one last wave to the others, she opened it and stepped inside.
She walked inside the familiar white locker room for the third time and sat down on the bench in the middle and began to ready herself, thoughts jumbling in her mind.
It was the singles round of the tournament. If she got passed this she would be in for the finals and had a chance to win the tournament for Vale. She would be a hero and a celebrity. But then her thoughts turned to Scout. Her cocky, loud, crazy but loyal boyfriend. What would that do to their relationship? They had gotten close and she had even learned some deep secrets of his past that he only told the ones he trusted.
She giggled slightly, remembering how nervous he had been when he had told her some of the things since he thought she would freak and dump him. However, she didn't mind. On the contrary, it made her like him more and laugh thinking about his funny stories and times with the other mercenaries.
She sighed and equipped her gauntlets and stood up. She stared at white lockers and her face became determined. Scout would want her to win the match and not worry about the future. And also, the paparazzi that would surround them would most likely make him very happy to boast his many abilities.
She took a deep breath and turned to the exit and headed for it. When she opened it, she was greeted with massive cheering and applause from the crowd as she stepped out onto the arena.
The arena was a just a plain white circular platform instead of the complicated four slices that formed a huge circle which served to change the biomes. The singles round however did not use biomes and was a pure one on one with only the abilities that they had to offer to use.
Mercury stood on far end of the arena, checking his leg gauntlets on his boots. He looked up to see the yellow haired brawler come out of the locker room and grinned. It was slightly sinister, but nothing that conveyed anything evil was about to happen.
The two fighters approached the center and shook hands as the announcer told the audience their names, school, and main abilities to look out for. Then they back away from each other and got into fighting stances.
Yang looked up to the spot she and her friends usually sat when watching the other fights and wasn't surprised to them there, cheering her on. Ruby and Nora were both ecstatically jumping up and down and chanting her name. Pyrrha and Jaune were also standing up and yelling the occasional encouraging words. Blake was waving a little flag and smiling. Weiss was sitting but Yang could see her yelling encouragement as well.
Even the mercenaries were a bit more cheery than other times. Scout of course was standing, yelling to anyone who would listen how one sided this would be. Soldier was literally chanting "BLOOD" at the top off his voice in the middle of a public stadium. Pyro was clapping and jumping happily up and down exactly like Ruby and Nora. Demoman was holding up a whisky bottle that he had snuck in and hollering drunkenly. Heavy was standing calmly with his hands crossed over his chest, but his face was soft and he was smiling, expecting a good performance from Yang. Engineer was doing some kind of funny dance while singing, "Yippee ki yea he yay kyaaah kayo!" Medic was simply clapping along with the rest of the sane crowd around him. Sniper was sitting alongside Spy calmly and watching the arena with concentrated eyes.
Yang smiled at them happily. Then she turned her attention back to her opponent and saw him also looking up at a certain spot in the crowd and grinning. She followed his gaze to see Emerald there, exchanging a similar grin with him. It was a strange grin, like the one Mercury had given her when she had walked out of the locker room. Before she could dwell on it however, the gong sounded and the singles round match began!
Mercury immediately charged forward and swung his leg in a arc to catch Yang around the head. She stood firm and rose her arm up next to her face, blocking the strike. With her over arm she swung forward at her opponent and let off a shotgun shot towards his gut. He spun out the way and then jumped towards her again, this time aiming for her legs. She backed up, dodging the powerful kick and pushed forward while pulling back her fist. Mercury looked up to see her fist coming towards his face and reacted quickly, sliding under her body and kicking her in the gut and blasting her up into the air with an extra shotgun shot from his gauntlets. She flew up winded, but came back down on her feet.
Mercury looked at her, smiling smugly as he straightened up and reloaded his gauntlets. Yang returned his look with a smirk and also reloaded her gauntlets. Neither moved for a few seconds. Then Yang threw her arms back and shot behind her blasting her self forward and right into Mercury, who had to awkwardly stumble away to avoid the charge and lost balance. She put her right and on the ground and turned herself toward him and then let go once more and raised her left arm to swing at him. It connected with his side and he skidded back. Before Yang could congratulate herself for her great thinking he ran towards her and then fell onto his back and shot both his gauntlets at her. The bullets hit her face and she fell to the floor and in pain. Mercury used his arms and did a complicated back roll to right himself and looked towards the pained brawler.
Then, to his surprise, Yang got to her feet and fire began to crackle around her. Her eyes had become red and she looked like she was about to dish out some real pain and hurt. Before Mercury could do anything, Yang activated her semblance and charged straight at Mercury and decked him right in the face sending him flying back. She then shot upward with her gauntlets and came back down and pounded him into the ground with one massive strike.
And just like that, the gong sounded. Yang looked up, her eyes returning to their normal color to see that she had lowered Mercury's aura into the red with her temporary power boost and had won the first singles round. The stadium around her were cheering and applauding with a defining roar. She noticed her friends cheering and whooping along with the crowd. Yang smiled. She had done it!
"You won't get far!"
She turned to the angry and spiteful voice to see Mercury up once more and charging at her. Her eyes flashed red once more and swung a devastating strike into his incoming leg. He fell to the ground once more and began cradling his leg.
Their was a large gasp from the crowd. Yang looked around. They must have been shocked that Mercury had attacked her... right? Then she noticed something on the arena screen. It showed Mercury still on the ground after Yang had defeated him. Yang was looking up smiling when she suddenly turned around pended Mercury in the leg, sending him to the position he was in now. Her eyes widened.
"No..," she muttered. From the entrance to the arena, paramedics filed in, followed by a dozen Atlesian Soldiers who surrounded Yang, blasters raised.
"Yang Xiao Long! Do not move from that spot!"
Yang put her hands up in the air, the moment of happiness completely gone. From the stands there was a concerned shout and Emerald was seen running to get down to the arena. She made her way down and approached her teammate and asked the paramedics in a worried voice if he would be okay. Then turning to Yang, with tears in her eyes she said, "Why would you attack him like that? He was just on the ground!"
Yang flared up. "What do you mean on the ground? He attacked me!"
The Atlesian Soldiers tightened their grip on their blasters. "Yang Xiao Long, you have the right to remain silent!"
Yang looked around, tears in her eyes as well now. All seemed to have gone down. How could people not see what happened?
"THAT GIRL'S A BLOODY SPY!"
The loud drunken voice tore through the shocked silence like a blade. Demoman was standing up, his whisky at his side and pointing his finger at Emerald. Next to him, the other mercenaries were also staring down at the mint haired girl with calculating eyes.
"Ye all saw that lads? That bloody mist around them when it happened," said Demoman turning to look at his comrades. The others nodded. They had all noticed a strange transparent mist around the two when Yang had hit Mercury. A lot like Spy uncloaking.
Then, to the stadiums horror, Soldier literally jumped out of the stands and broke through the force field that kept the stands safe from the fights in the arena and landed on the arena. He advanced towards Emerald and Mercury, a manic gleam in his eyes.
"BOYS WE HAVE A TRAITOR!"
Emerald and Mercury watched the patriotic mercenary approach them, fearing their own health. But, before Soldier could get within ten feet of them, another dozen Atlesian Soldiers came out and blocked the mans path.
"Freeze! You have no authority to come down here! Leave the premises at once!"
Soldier was about to fight his way through the wall of Atlesian troops, when the other mercenaries and Team RWBY and JNPR came down as well. Heavy and Engineer ran to Soldier restraining him from doing anything even more rash and stupid. Scout, Nora, and Team RWBY ran to Yang, who had collapsed on the ground sobbing. Medic and Demoman were trying to explain what they saw to one of the Atlesian Soldiers. Pyro, Sniper and Spy though were looking at Emerald and Mercury as they were led out of the arena by the paramedics. The mercenaries eyes were filled with suspicion. They had seen something that none of the others had seen and knew that it hadn't been a mistake.
Beacon Academy: Team RWBY's Dorm
"That was unacceptable Miss Xiao Long! What were you thinking?!"
General Ironwood was passing in front of Yang who was sitting on her bunk watching the general in front of her, trying to plead her innocence. In the other bunks, the other members of Team RWBY sat there watching the conversation with grim faces. To the side, Scout, Soldier, Heavy, Medic, and Spy were also watching the whole affair quietly, but their eyes with a certain malice.
"I told you general, he attacked me!" Yang said angrily. Ironwood looked at her his face showing a look of disbelief.
"Attacked you? All the footage we have seen on the battle shows him on the ground after you defeated him and you being proclaimed the winner. Then all of a sudden you turned around and decided to cripple him!"
Yang spoke up once more. "But I swear-"
"THATS ENOUGH!" yelled Ironwood, at the of his patience, "Miss Xiao Long, we have all the evidence that you attacked a defeated and basically unarmed person with malice. People have already questioned Ozpin and Beacons methods of teaching since the incident that may I mention only happened an hour ago!"
Ironwood calmed down a little before continuing in a cold voice, "I have no choice but to disqualify you and your team from the Vytal Tournament. Your actions have made it clear to many people that you are unstable and to keep you in the tournament is unwise."
There was a horrible silence. Yang was looking at her hands, tears beginning to track down her cheeks once more. Ironwood looked at her and his face softened.
"I can see your not a bad person. And I wouldn't believe that you had done this if someone had told me. But I saw what happened and I cannot deny what I saw," he said in a calm manner.
"Then you would have seen the mist that was around them right before it happened," said Spy all of a sudden from the corner, his face deadly serious. Ironwood looked towards the French espionage and narrowed his eyes.
"Mister Spy, I still have no idea what you and your fellow comrades have been talking about when mentioning this 'mist.' We have looked over the tapes many times to see only what millions of people around Remnant saw."
Scout stepped forward threateningly, but Heavy put a hand on his shoulder holding him back though his own face was also looking at the General with upright disgust.
Ironwood turned back to the blonde brawler on her bed. "I must attend to somethings now. Please just stay in your dorm and relax." And with that he left her, her team and the mercenaries alone.
"YOU ARE A CRAPPY EXCUSE OF A GENERAL, MAGGOT!" yelled Soldier after the generals retreating back. Yang put her face in her hands and began to sob. Ruby and Scout came to her and began to whisper comforting words, or at least Ruby was. Scout was spouting profanity about the general. Weiss and Blake looked on with sadness.
"Schweinhundsm," muttered Medic angrily as Heavy mashed his large hands in frustration. They knew what they had seen. Many years of fighting in the Gravel Wars, dealing with spies, had imprinted those types of things in their mind.
Spy himself, turned to the sobbing brawler and sighed deeply. "I am sorry we could not deter him. Though if I might say, it was a lost cause to try and do so. He had not much choice in terms of the matter. Even if we convinced him, we would have to convince the millions of people who had seen it as well."
Yang looked up from her hands, her eyes red and tear tracks smudged on her face.
"You guys believe me right?"
Scout looked at her appalled. "Of course we do babe! Why would you need to ask a thing like that?"
Ruby smiled at Yang and hugged her tight. "I believed you the moment you first said what had happened."
Weiss and the mercenaries in the room all nodded as well. Blake however looked down and avoided Yangs gaze as it fell on her. Yangs bloodshot eyes widened and her hands began to tremble.
"Blake?"
"I cannot deny what I saw Yang. It looked like you attacked him when he was wounded. I didn't see anything else. Which is why I'm having a hard time believing you."
Blake looked up to see her blonde teammate choke out a sob. Next to her Scout scowled and wrapped his thin arms around the once strong and firm brawler. Ruby and Weiss stared at their faunus teammate. Soldier was looking at Blake, mouth agape. Heavy had a very foul look on his face. Medic gripped his gloved hands tightly, rage behind his spectacles. Spy however, just took a drag from his cigarette and let out a small chuckle.
"Well, it seems that the cautious Blake is still with us. Even after her teammate got framed. I must say, very impressive."
Everyone turned to stare at the masked frenchmen who took another drag from his cigarette and continued, "It is good that you are questing the authenticity of this story. It means you are not easily deterred by major events. However, in this case, Yangs story is the true one."
Blake blinked for a second, unsure how to respond. Spy grinned. "Me and the other mercenaries have fought in a war with many spies exactly like me. Every time we disguise, we set off a misty cloud around us before we completely disguise. That misty distortion that we saw around Yang and her opponent were very similar to this. And if I recall correctly, the girl known as Emerald used some sort of disguising or illusion technique when she fought against Coco. How strange for that to happen once more and do it to disqualify the opponent of her teammate."
He grinned broadly as Blake digested his story. Blake however had one more question. "Why would she do it so her own teammate got hurt?"
Spy's face became grave as he turned to his comrades who were all thinking the same thing. They had done it many times back on the battlefield to save a losing fight.
"Because a competitive nature and a desire to win leads to sacrifices."
Team RWBY stared at the five mercenaries in the room. The room temperature felt like it had gone down a couple of degrees. It was a cold silence. Then Spy looked up once more.
"However, I do not think that is all that was behind what happened."
Once more, the four teens looked at him curiously.
"I believe there is something deeper and more dangerous to all of this. Which is why I will be investigating the room that Emerald and Mercury stay at. Then we will get some answers."
Beacon Academy: Courtyard
Meanwhile, Team JNPR, Pyro, Demoman, Engineer and Sniper were taking a stroll through the massive courtyard that surround the fighting school.
They had decided to give Team RWBY some space after the incident. So, naturally, Nora had voted to go to the festival and win some prizes. She had already started out of the dorm room, dragging a very surprised Ren, before anyone could object. Which led to Jaune and Pyrrha to go after her. They were joined by the fire, bomb, wrench and scope of the mercenary group and soon found themselves at the festival in town. There they were able to pick out Nora, winning a massive amount of prizes while Ren stood to the side, a little disheveled from being literally dragged their. Once they had persuaded Nora to leave the festival, which had been very hard, they returned to Beacon and decided to take a relaxing stroll before Pyrrha's match against Penny.
Jaune and Pyrrha were at the front of the group, holding hands and not speaking but enjoying each others presence. Behind them, Nora was showing off her prizes to Pyro and Demoman, who were laughing along with her at the reactions of the salesmen when they had seen her scores at the games she had been playing. In the back, Ren talked quietly to Engineer about what had happened back at the stadium and the chance of General Ironwood letting Yang off. Sniper simply walked with them silently, his hat pulled down slightly.
As they walked on, the sun began its slow decent back under the horizon to give way to the moon. As the minutes ticked by, Pyrrha began to sweat slightly. She had not forgotten about the decision she was supposed to make and as time flew by, she knew that she would be expected to answer soon. But she still didn't have the slightest clue of what she even thought of all of this.
Jaune noticed her hand become sweaty under his own and glanced over at his girlfriend. He could easily notice the anxiety and sadness in her eyes. He had to know what was happening with her. He turned around and tried to catch on of the others eye. To his surprise, it was Sniper who saw him looking at first and even more to his surprise nodded immediately.
"Come on mates," the assassin said, "Let me show you mates where I taught Ruby how to shot a bloody rifle."
He led the others away. Pyrrha began to follow, but Jaune gripped her hand. "Pyrrha, wait."
She looked at him confused. He sighed. "He did that so I could be alone with you."
Pyrrha let go of Jaune's hand and turned to face him. "Why?" she asked. She wasn't angry or suspicious. It was just a genuine question.
Jaune looked at her once more and saw the tightness of her features. She was dwelling on something and it was worrying her greatly.
"I can tell your hiding something and its hurting you. I understand not wanting to tell people, but can't you tell me? You know I will understand and try to help you no matter what."
He took her hand once more and looked into her green eyes with his bright blue ones. "I love you Pyrrha Nikos."
Pyrrha was frozen in shock and fear. She had loved the blonde goofy knight for a long time now. And to hear that he actually loved her, made her heart melt. But it also made her decision even more difficult. It made her situation more painful.
She closed her eyes and looked away. "Im sorry Jaune. I can't tell you."
Jaune looked at her, his bright blue eyes full of worry. "Pyrrha please, I just want to-"
"I CANT!"
Pyrrha screamed loudly. It was full of pain and sorrow for what had been laid on her and what it would do to her and her loved ones. All of it had finally gotten to her. Her semblance activated for a second and Jaune, who was still wearing his highly magnetic armor, flew back and into the wall of the school. He slid down and staggered to his knees looking at Pyrrha. Not with anger but with more concern.
Pyrrha finally realized what she had done. She put her hands to her mouth and tears began to trickle down her face.
"I'm sorry Jaune," was all she could say before she ran off. Jaune tried to speak, but he was still winded from being flung into a wall.
The others that had been there a few minutes ago came running back, hearing Pyrrha's shout. They found Jaune in a small pile of bricks from the wall that he had smashed into. He was on his hands and knees, trying to figure out what he had done.
"Crikey mate," Sniper said, eyes wide behind his shades, "The hell did she do to you?"
Engineer kneeled beside the knight. He put an arm under Jaunes arm pit and helped the still groggy and confused knight. "Now ain't the time camper. Lets get this boy to the doc!"
Vytal Colosseum: Maintenance Room
"Ah much better," sighed Mercury as he lay on a table, working on his 'legs' with a screwdriver. Next to him, Emerald sat in a chair, looking exhausted and frowning at the gray haired teen next to her. A few feet away, Cinder stood with scroll out, making some arrangements. To her side stood a Neo, quite as ever, enjoying a Neapolitan ice cream.
"You know its hard being punched in the legs and crippled deeply," mocked Mercury to Emerald as he screwed in one last bolt to his synthetic leg. Emerald scowled at him. Her use of her illusion semblance to distort Yangs vision and provoking her to attack had drained her.
"Thats enough, Mercury," chided Cinder, though she was smiling a little. All was going according to plan. The final part would soon happen and if all went well, then Vale would be fighting for their lives.
She scrolled through her contacts and messaged her ally, Adam Taurus, to begin setting up for the main event. Then she pocketed her scroll and turned to the two teens.
"Well, me and Neo must be going now. You two know the plan," she looked at Emerald, "You must do one last illusion during the next fight," she looked at Mercury, "and you can relax and make sure no one interferes. From there I will take over. Understood?"
The two nodded and the evil woman grinned. "Soon, I will take the rest of that Maidens power and kill Ozpin."
Beacon Academy: Team RWBY's Dorm
Two hours had passed and the dorm room still hung with the depressed air that they had came in with. Granted, it had gotten slightly better. Yang had stopped crying and was now enjoying Scout put on hilariously ridiculous cosmetics. Ruby was next to her, laughing a little as Scout put on a hat resembling a cooked chicken called the Wing Mann. Heavy was observing a chess match between Weiss and Medic. Soldier had once again surprised Blake with a large and well written book called Hamilton. It was an engrossing book about a young orphan that becomes a great politician and writer of laws when he moves to the great country of America. Spy was standing near the windowsill, smoking his usual cigarette.
The door burst open and in came Engineer and Demoman, carrying a barely conscious Jaune. Behind them, Nora, Ren, Pyro and Sniper filled in.
"Doc!" said Engineer before any of the others could ask what had happened, "Heal up Jaune here!"
Medic stood up from his chess match and adjusted his spectacles. "Of course my hard hatted friend!"
Engineer and Demoman laid him on the ground softly. Medic pulled out his Quick-Fix medi-gun and trained its beam on Jaune. After only a few seconds, the blonde knight sat up looking around him with startled eyes.
"Pyrrha!" he shouted, concern etched in his voice. He tried to stand up, but Demoman forced him to stay sitting.
"Relax lad," Demo soothed, "She's fine. Nora was able to contact her and she told us she was heading to the stadium for her match. Though it is a little early."
Jaune sighed and looked down at his knees as Medic stopped healing him and put away his Quick-Fix. He still didn't know what had he had said wrong and even more concerning, what was in her mind. These thoughts swirled in his mind, but were interrupted as Sniper checked his watch and spoke.
"Mates, when she left it may have been early, but now it might be wise if we start making our way to the bloody stadium before its too late."
The others nodded and began to get ready to leave. Jaune also got up and got his coat, still very worried, but putting it out of his head for now. He would at least see her in the arena.
In two minutes, everyone was ready except for Yang, Scout and Spy. Engineer raised an eyebrow. "You fellas comin' or what?"
Spy looked away from the the view outside the window. "Non. I must stay here to investigate something. Yang her is staying because she is technically not allowed to be in the stadium anymore. And Scout..."
Spy turned to Scout questioningly. Scout sat down next to Yang and looked up at Spy with determination. "Cause my girl needs me shapeshifter. I ain't leavin her to be depressed pally."
There was a slightly stunned silence. No one, especially the other mercenaries, would have thought that the loud mouth, cocky Scout would actually miss out on a fight and stay to comfort someone. Sure, he had bought Yang an incredibly expensive motorcycle, but he could have just been trying to boast about how he could get her stuff. But this was from the heart.
Yang looked at him and smiled, fresh tear appearing. But these weren't sad or depressed tears. These were happy tears. She hurried her head in his chest and sobbed happily. Scout patted her on the back and looked at the others, challenging them to say something.
Then Spy spoke, his voice not mocking or mean but proud, almost like a father.
"You have grown Scout. You have changed since we arrived here," he said simply, smiling down at the speedster. Scout looked shocked for a second. Then he smiled back.
At the door, their was a cough and all turned to see Sniper pointing at his watch. "I hate to interrupt this touching moment you mongrels but we need to get bloody moving if we want to be there in time."
The others around him nodded and they said their farewells before heading out, closing the door behind them.
There was a small silence as the three remaining fighters were left to their own devices. Then Spy sighed and flicked his cigarette out of the open window.
"Well my friends, I must get to some investigating. You two have fun, but please don't do anything naughty. I have no inclination to want to separate to writhing bodies."
And with that he walked out the door, taking out another cigarette as he did so.
Scout and Yang were left alone in a comforting silence. Then Scout turned to the blonde brawler, grinning a little.
"Well babe, whats on ya to do list? I mean ya got me here with you to do stuff and thats always a bonus."
Yang looked at him and her smile suddenly began predatory. Her eyes gleamed slightly. She pushed him down on the bed and laid on top of him.
"Oh we will have some fun."
Scout grinned his usual cocky grin. Then he put on a face and did his best impression of Spy. "Don't do anything naughty though!"
Yang laughed and cupped Scouts face. "I will keep it from going too wild. But, I need some relief and after your caring words a few minutes ago, I must reward you." And with that she pulled Scout into a passionate kiss and they enjoyed themselves, alone and together.
Meanwhile, Spy was walking through the corridors making his way to the dorm room where he had met Cinder Fall for the first time. All the way, he was thinking of what he would find there.
He had been suspicious of Cinder and her crew since the time he met her and now, events were occurring with at least one of her team members tied into it. Not to mention, the strange power he felt when he was near her.
He found the room and saw it, obviously, locked. It needed a keycard to get through. Without breaking a sweat, he pulled out the Red-Tape Recorder, a reel to reel tape recorder, and placed it on the keycard terminal. It sparked for a second and the Red-Tape Recorder began to spell out something. The emergency code to the room, in case the person had lost the keycard.
Once it was done reciting the code, Spy took it off the terminal and typed in the code. The terminal beeped and the door to the dorm room unlocked. Spy took out Ambassador and gently pushed the door open.
The room was like every other Beacon dorm. Nice and well organized with four beds, a bathroom, and a desk for studying. However, unlike most Beacon dorms, there was a board on the wall next to the desk which was littered with papers. The board itself was covered with a type of map and lines were place all over. It reminded Spy of the map he had found in the ruins of the warehouse that he and Pyro had gone back to investigate.
He approached the corner and studied the map closely. To his surprise it was almost identical to the one that he had found. The lines, dots, and circled areas were the exact same to the other one.
"So they did have something to do with Torchwick and Mountain Glenn," Spy mused quietly. He turned his attention to the desk covered in papers and began to look through them. They were all notes on different people at the school and attending the Vytal Tournament. For what a whole forty-five, he tried to find anything concerning anything mysterious or even evil in each paper but failed.
He was getting increasingly frustrated, when he spotted something tucked away in one of the desks overhead drawers. A scroll. He reached for it and took down delicately. He tried to open it but, like the door, it was locked. He sighed and once again took out his Red-Tape Recorder and placed it on the device. To his surprise, the device didn't spark and the recorder didn't not repeat him a code. The scroll was to well guarded.
He put away the Red-Tape Recorder and thought deeply. He suspected that this will have the secret plans that these people were cooking up. After seeing the map on the board, he could tell that these people were evil and were working with criminals such as Roman Torchwick. And now, he most likely had their plans in his hands, but could not unlock it. His normal sapper would just destroy it. Which only left...
He looked at the scroll one more time before, with great annoyance pulled out a strange white sapper with a large blue dot in the center. The moment it was out, the dot moved like an eye and a British voice spoke.
"Ah, hey hey!" said the Ap-Sap.
Spy groaned a little. He hatted this talkative sapper, but it had its moments. Though it was programmed to destroy devices it could also simply just hack into them, at Spy's command.
"Listen up," Spy said, whispering, "I need you to hack into this device and either open it or project its files out of eye of yours so I can examine them. Got it?"
"Yep!" said the Ap-Sap amiably. Spy put on the scroll and the Ap-Sap began mumbling to itself as it began to work.
"Ah, yes. Hard security. Hmm... ah there we go! Okay, now we just need to... oh dear. No that won't work."
Spy waited patiently for a few minutes, trying not to get to frustrated. Finally, the Ap-Sap looked towards Spy with its one blue eye and said, "If I let you use the device, it would encrypt your data and make you easy to find. Should I just project the files and tell where to look in?"
Spy nodded and the Ap-Sap's eye went wide and a blue projection of the files of the Scroll were shown on the wall. Spy stood silent for a second, pondering what to search for. He didn't not what the file would be named. Well might as well start of the obviously wrong and stupid one.
"Search for 'Evil Plans'," he said face palming. It sounded ridiculous just saying it.
"I found 'Evil Plans to Destroy Beacon'," said the Ap-Sap, startling Spy. He hadn't expected anything. But, it seemed he had hit the jackpot. "Open it up."
On the wall a bunch of documents appeared from the file. They were all labeled with steps of the plan. One was named, "Mountain Glenn." The other was named, "Disqualification of participant." Spy told the Ap-Sap to zoom in on that file and skimmed through the contents.
This plan had been done to plant the doubt in peoples minds about Beacon and especially Ozpin about what they thought their. And to disrupt the calm and peacefulness for moment.
Spy looked disgusted and told the Ap-Sap to zoom out and once again looked through documents. There was one called, "Final Step" and he was about to tell the Ap-Sap to zoom in on it, when something caught his eye. Another document. "Maiden Ambush."
Spy stared at the title for a second before ordering the Ap-Sap to enlarge it for him. Inside, the information he found was like a missing puzzle piece. It told of how Cinder, Emerald and Mercury had ambushed the Fall Maiden Amber and had used some type of Grimm to suck out the power and transfer it into Cinder. However, as he remembered from the meeting between Ozpin, Ironwood, Glynda, Qrow and Pyrrha, Qrow had been able to retrieve Amber before all her power had been taken.
The file also mentioned about a new alliance. After Cinder had gotten most of the power of the Fall Maiden, she had stormed the White Fang hideout in Vacuo and confronted their leader Adam Taurus and had struck an alliance with him. This also soon included the hiring of criminals, most notably Roman Torchwick.
Spy stared at the contents. Everything began to make sense now. All the events leading up to here... were all linked. He told the Ap-Sap to zoom out of the folder and turned to the final folder. "Final Step"
The Ap-Sap opened the file and Spy read it. As his eyes moved through the text, his eyes widened.
"Mon Dieu..." he said quietly.
He had to get Yang and Scout, to tell Yang to contact the others.
He told the Ap-Sap to close the file and then disconnected it from the scroll. He put it away and then grabbed the scroll. As he left the room running, he heard something. It was distant and hardly distinguishable, but still he knew what it was.
Screaming.
Vytal Colosseum
While Spy had been looking through the many dorm room of the evil doers and Yang and Scout made out, the others had made it to the tournament in time to catch the match. Outside, sun had started to set and the light had begun to dim. They had just seated themselves into their usual spots and were getting comfortable, when the announcer spoke up.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Bring your hands together for our two competitors tonight!"
There was a roar of applause and cheers as down in the arena below, Pyrrha and Penny came out from opposite sides and walked to the center. Jaune tried to scan Pyrrha's expression from the stands, but could not see anything but a serious and determined face. On the other side, Penny was smiling happily and basically skipping towards the center.
The two shook hands, and then backed up and got into fighting stances. Their was the usual tense silence. Then the gong rang.
Penny immediately unlocked her string controlled swords from her back and used them to lunge forward at her opponent. Pyrrha dodged a few and blocked one with her shield, before pressing forward and stabbing her spear towards Penny's chest. Penny stepped back used her swords to block the stab and push Pyrrha away. She immediately followed up with another all out attack and forced Pyrrha to retreat. Pyrrha used her rifle part of her spear and fired a few shots at Penny, but they were simply blocked by one of the swords.
The crowd cheered as the fight got more and more intense. In one section of the crowd, Emerald sat her eyes fixated on the fight. She knew what she had to do. She closed her eyes and used her semblance.
Back on the arena itself, Pyrrha was dodging acrobatically around Penny's swords, trying not to get impaled. Her incredibly training and skills as a Huntress made her undeterred by this, but her mind was having trouble staying focused. Emotions were sloshing inside of her like a raging sea. She felt terrible for hurting Jaune, even if by accident, and the decision still weighed heavily on her mind.
While in the midst of these thoughts and emotions, she tripped over and fell to the ground. She staggered to her feet instantly and looked at her opponent. She gasped in horror.
Penny was had retracted her swords and had them above her. She was smiling in a very evil way and her arms were up as she was about to pounce. Then above her, ten other swords materialized above her along with her original set. Then another ten. And another, and another. It kept multiplying until there were literally hundreds of swords above her.
Pyrrha was shaking. She didn't know how she could do this. It was insane. She was too scared to call for help. Penny thrust her arms forward and the swords soared straight towards Pyrrha. Pyrrha closed her eyes and in her panic her semblance activated. However, it was much more forceful than she usually did. It took hold of every sword and forced them back towards their original thrower. They then soared past Penny, but the strings connected to them caught around her waist, neck and arms and kept pulling. That is until they went through her synthetic body.
Pyrrha fell to the ground and her eyes seemed to clear. In front of her, their was a sliced up android and only a set of eight swords behind her. She chocked out a gasp. Along with her, the crowd gasped as well. On the arena screen, it showed a simple eight swords being sent by an excitable girl before her opponent sent out a shockwave of magnetic power and forcing the swords to go backward and the strings that connected them to Penny go right thought the synthetic girl.
There was a shocked silence. No one moved. They just stared.
Suddenly, a female voice echoed out of the speakers. Not just in the stadium. Everywhere.
"What a shame. Look at this. A friendly tournament for the kingdoms to celebrate peace over gone wrong. First a competitor attacked a defeated opponent. Then another one got so competitive, it sliced through a secret synthetic of Atlas. To think that Atlas would be so petty as to bring a bio-engineered android with living aura around it to fight in a tournament. However, more importantly, the two competitors that did damage. What do they have in common. They are from Beacon Academy and learn under the headmaster Ozpin. This begs the question of what he teaches the children to do. To kill? To fight without honor? How terrible. But that is enough about that. It is time that the result of the result of the kingdoms continual absentmindedness come forth."
As the voice said this, a loud screeching noise could be heard. People looked around for the source and a giant Nevermore came down onto the stadium and roared down at the people below, unable to get through the protective barrier. People began to scream and the stadium began shake slightly as people began to run as fast they could to the exit.
The group were being jostled by the crowds of people. The mercenaries got the students out of dangerous swarm by the only means they could think of at the time. Heavy grabbed Ruby and Weiss, Soldier grabbed Blake and Ren, and Demoman grabbed Nora and Jaune. Together with the other mercenaries they dropped down into the arena itself and broke through the protective shield that kept the crowds safe from the battles in the arena.
"PYRRHA!" Jaune yelled as they landed and extricated himself from Demomans grip. Pyrrha was motionless. Stunned and terrified at what she had done. Above her the Nevermore was trying to smash its way through the barrier that protected the stadium.
The others ran after Jaune. Ruby was with them and then her scroll rang and she looked to see who it was. Yang. She picked it up and Yangs voice spoke out loudly.
"RUBY ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"
"I'm fine Yang! But everything is going crazy!"
"We know! White Fang and Grimm have begun to attack the city! Me, Scout and Spy are off to help now!"
Ruby stopped and trembled. The city was under attack...
Sniper stopped and saw her trembling. "What is it mate? I get that this is all insane and crap, but now is not the time to stop and think about it!"
Ruby looked up at the mercenary. "White Fang and Grimm are attacking the city and Yang, Scout and Spy are going in to fight!"
That made all the mercenaries and the other members of Team RWBY stop in their tracks. They couldn't just leave Team JNPR here, but their other comrades were going to go out there and fight in a mass scale battle.
Before they could say anything, Nora looked at them and then yelled to them in a very uncharacteristic way.
"Go! We can take care of ourselves here!"
They stared at her disbelievingly. But she gave them a determined look and they nodded. Ruby turned back to her scroll and yelled, "Me, Weiss, Blake and the other mercenaries are on our way. Team JNPR is staying behind to take care of somethings."
Then she and the others, besides Team JNPR, began to run to the exit.
General Ironwoods Main Ship
The soldiers on the ship were enjoying a nice relaxing time until General Ironwood, broadcasted them a message and notified them of the attack. The fleet of Atlesian airships had suddenly become very busy as men began to ready firearms and synthetic Atlesian Soldiers.
In all this chaos, Neo was sneaking around. She was finally going to do what had wanted to do for so long.
She snuck up on two men and easily took them out with her umbrella. She then moved on to another pair of guards and did the same to them. It soon became a pattern and soon every man on the ship had been taken out. There hadn't been that many, and with someone with the skills of Neo, it was basically clockwork.
She smiled as she walked to the back of the ship. There she opened a door leading into a large room with many tiny closed off prison cells. She walked up to one specific one and coded in a code that she had found while taking out the men.
The door opened, revealing a red haired man with black eyeliner around eye and wearing a white suit. And a bowler hat. He was smiling as he saw who had opened the door.
"Ah, about time Neo," drawled Roman Torchwick.
Neo just smiled and held up a scroll.
"Yes, I know, hack the Atlesian Soldiers, I got it."
He got out of the cell and made his way towards the control center of the airship with Neo in toe. Once they arrived to a large room with rows of desks and complicated computers and buttons and a large control table with all the main stuff, he took the scroll and placed in a small slot on the table. The scroll went red and began to infect the system.
Torchwick giggled to himself. Back on the ground, hundreds of Atlesian units that had been firing upon invading Grimm and White Fang had now began turn their fire upon Huntsman and Huntresses that were protecting the city.
"Hahah! What a beautiful gift for being in that awful cell for so long," he gloated. Neo smiled widely, happy to see her master and only real friend free once more.
Torchwick was having a fun old time when, suddenly, the room began to flash red. He looked around to see what could have cause it to do so. Then he was answered by the speaker system.
"Self-destructing air fleet in thirty seconds."
His eyes widened. Neo was also looking terrified. On the control panel, a woman's face appeared.
"Cinder!" Torchwick gasped as he stared at the panel desperately, "Thank god we need help! The ship is going to-"
"Self-destruct?" Cinder said, an evil gleam in her eye. Torchwick nodded and Cinder laughed.
"I know it is Roman. Its supposed to."
Torchwick looked at her angrily.
"WHAT?"
Cinder just smiled at his enraged and terrified face. Behind her, the screams of civilians being slaughtered could be heard, along with sounds of battle and alarms.
"I made it so once the infection spread through the Atlesian forces, all the airships would self-destruct as well. All I needed them to do was infect the soldiers. After that they are useless. Just like you."
With that, the panel went dark leaving Torchwick and Neo to stare at the spot in rage and horror.
"Self-destructing in ten seconds."
The two partners in crime looked up at each other. One last time.
City of Vale
Cinder was still smiling when the entire Atlas Air Force exploded above the city, drawing out more screams.
The city was in pandemonium. Fires had already started to spread as rioting White Fang members and Grimm stormed the streets. Some Huntsman and Huntresses came to fight them, but many had been slain. The forces were rampaging to one single place. Beacon.
Cinder looked towards the school. Her smile broadened.
It had begun.
After a week in development, I hope it was worth the wait. Remnants New Mercenaries chapter 18 is here! Lol, aside from Gabe Newell jokes and what not, I do genuinely hope you enjoyed this chapter. And I am very sorry it took some time to post. Now before I leave, I do want to make three shoutouts.
First is that if you guys want me to do review responses, please tell me and I will do so. I haven't till now since I didn't consider this story popular enough or even good enough at that. However, if you people want review responses then I will be more than happy to oblige.
Second is that, though I won't be hosting any sort of game nights like my friend chief of RAGE does, I will leave my steam name out there so if people do want to play TF2 with me, they can. And before anyone asks, no none of my items are for sale.
My steam name is Ellis & Scout
Look for a deadliest warrior layout with Ellis from L4D2 on one side and Scout from TF2 on the other as thats my avatar.
Finally, I'm going to start a TF2 trivia at the start of each chapter from now on. They will be multiple choice and will talk mostly about weapons. For the people who get the question right in the reviews, I will give them a shoutout in the following chapter. Below is an example of what I will be doing and if you do answer this correctly in the reviews, I will give you a shoutout in the next chapter.
Which Scout weapon allows you to triple jump, without needing to do damage or use another weapon to help you as you double jump.
a) Force-O-Nature
b) Soda Popper
c) Atomizer
d) Winger
This should be a simple one for people who play the game a lot. But yeah this is something I will add now every chapter. Anyway, I think that is all that needs to be said. Reviews are always welcome and I will see you in the next chapter... BYE BYE!