Hey, it's chapter 17! As previously stated, this is the second chapter this week since I decided to write and release chapter sixteen earlier than intended, simply because I was bored. Now, if you cannot recall, Epsilon has just won his first battle in the finals against Mercury, but something has gone terribly wrong as everyone believes that Epsilon attacked a helpless student, rather than defending himself? Who will believe him? Can he be proven innocent? Find out in the new chapter!
Chapter Seventeen - That's all you need to know, for now
Cinder walked through the dense, seemingly empty forest, searching for a boy very important for her plans. After several weeks of research and silent observation, she decided he was the one she needed in order to capture and defeat the Fall Maiden, and all proceeding plans.
After several more minutes of searching, she stopped suddenly right as she got in front of a large tree, a dagger piercing the wood mere millimetres from her face. She smirked and turned to the side, finding who she was looking for. As she moved towards him, he unslung his crossbow and aimed it at her chest.
"Who are you?" He asked, slowly approaching her.
"I'm looking for a young man I've been observing for several weeks." Cinder said vaguely, and he just narrowed his eyes. "What's your name?"
"Yours first." She smirked a little.
"'Crimson'. Yours?"
"It's David." He told her, lowering his crossbow. He walked over to the tree and pulled out the dagger, sheathing back in the crossbow. "That's all you need to know, for now."
Amity Colosseum...
I looked around at the AK-200's and Atlesian Soldiers in confusion and fear as they all had their weapons raised directly at me. I looked over at Emerald and Mercury, who was still clutching his leg in pain.
"Please, somebody help him!" Emerald cried in distress as a pair of paramedics arrived with a stretcher. "Can you do something?!"
The two paramedics looked at the pool of blood flowing out of his leg, where my dagger had pierced. "We need to get this boy to a hospital. Grab a blanket." One of the paramedics told his co-worker. I watched as they put him on the stretcher and carried him off, Emerald trailing right behind them. I turned back to the soldiers.
"Why are you letting him go? He attacked me!" I yelled, causing the soldiers to lift their guns higher in response.
"Stow it! You've caused enough of a scene!" One of the soldiers ordered me. I gritted my teeth in anger, but did as they said.
Emerald ran alongside the paramedics as they reached the dock on the Colosseum, looking for an ambulance.
"Here! We've got an ambulance ready to go!" Cinder called out, now disguised in a paramedics outfit. Just as the paramedics moved to get Mercury on the ambulance, two gunshots went off, hitting both of the paramedics in the knees and dropping Mercury. "What!?" Cinder turned to the shooter, only to get punched in the face, hard, by Ultra, sending her to the ground.
Emerald quickly reacted, taking out her revolvers and rapid-firing at Ultra, the bullets simply passing through him as he stormed towards her. In a state of panic, she turned her revolvers into the Kusarigama form and threw them at Ultra, wrapping around his waist and she pulled, ripping him in half.
Ultra simply sighed and smirked. "That all you got, you little bitch?" He asked as his waist reformed instantly, much to Emeralds horror. In an instant, he swung his fist and punched her in the stomach, making her keel over in pain, and kicked her in the face, sending her back towards the ambulance. He looked down at Mercury and violently lifted his 'broken' leg and pulled down the trouser leg, revealing his cybernetic limb.
"Odd, I thought it was broken. I thought you were in pain. Well, the whole fucking world thinks your leg is damaged and that my brother is crazy!" He yelled as Mercury winced in fear. "Best if I just finish the job." Ultra grabbed his leg and smashed it against his own, snapping it in half. As Mercury screamed in forced-reaction pain, Ultra threw him at the ambulance, banging him on the door.
The ambulance door opened and Neo walked out, briefly looking at the ground to see Emerald and Mercury, and looked at Ultra in surprise. Without even looking, Ultra took out his pistol and shot Neo directly in the throat, much to her surprise. She grabbed her throat as blood started to pool out.
"And that's for almost killing Yang!" He yelled angrily. "Man, this really feels good, kicking their ass." He heard dust formation behind him and immediately took out his machetes, turning around to block Cinder's dust swords. He violently pushed his machetes forward, forcing her back.
"Traitor!" Cinder yelled, swinging her swords at Ultra a couple of times, Ultra easily blocking them. Taking the opportunity, Ultra swung at her, forcing her to back flip out of the way and Ultra sheathed his machetes, pulling out his pistols and shooting at Cinder. She dissipated her swords and held out her hand, stopping the bullets with her Maiden powers.
She formed her dust bow and fired three arrows at Ultra, who rolled out of the way as the ground where he was was destroyed and turned to dust. She ran up to him, swinging her bow at his face, smashing metallic particles off him, disorienting him. Cinder fired another arrow directly at Ultra's head, severely damaging it, but quickly reconstructed as he got back up.
"Cinder!" Emerald called out as she dragged Neo and Mercury onto the ambulance. "We have to go!" Cinder reluctantly dissipated her bow and ran to the ambulance to escape. Ultra got back up, rubbing his head, and quickly realised Cinder was about to escape. He pulled out his pistol and fired at her, but missed every shot. He watched as the ambulance escaped.
"Son of a bitch."
The Forest...
"What is it that you want?" David asked as he started to continue walking through the forest, Cinder following next to him.
"I want to be strong." She told him. "I want to be feared. I want to be powerful. And I need your help in order to do this."
"So let me get this straight: you came here for my help?" David asked Cinder.
"Correct. You're the one I need, David. You're a very powerful young man, our skills in both fighting and with your semblances are critical to my plans for a revolution. Your ability to lead others is something not seen in many at your age, let along experienced adults."
"I know you are the son of famed hunter Qrow Branwen, and he obviously cannot be trusted or even approached by this plan. But you, his son, are exactly what I need."
"I'm not much one for revolting, and it just seems like needless danger to me to help your cause." David stated. "Why should I help you?" She stepped ahead of him, stopping him in his tracks.
"Are you anything like your father?"
"Well, I'm not an alcoholic, and I don't go on missions for months at a time. I'm nothing like him. If you needed my to be like him, you wasted your time." He informed her. She put on a satisfied smirk.
"If you help me, I promise you that I can help you become the most powerful living thing alive, even stronger than your father or even me. All you need to do is swear your allegiance to me, and I can promise you all of this." She offered. David remained silent for a few moments.
Beacon Academy...
"I'm sorry, but you've left us with no choice." Ironwood said to me as I sat in Team RWBY's dorm room with Team RWBY and Benjamin, who had his scroll connected to me as he typed on his scroll.
"But he attacked me!" I yelled again. Ironwood sighed and paced.
"Video footage and millions of viewers say otherwise." He informed us.
"But Epsilon would never attack an innocent person!" Weiss told him.
"Yeah!" Ruby agreed. I sighed and placed my hands over my face in annoyance.
"You all seem like good students, and the staff at Beacon are fully aware that you would never attack an unarmed person in the way you did... under normal circumstances." Ironwood said as I looked at him. "What I believe and hope this to be is nothing more than stress and adrenaline-"
"Stress and adrenaline!? I don't even have the glands to create adrenaline!" I yelled angrily, cutting the general off. Ironwood continued.
"When you're out on the battlefield, your judgement can become clouded in an instant. Sometimes you see things that simply aren't there. Even after the fight is past..."
"Or maybe you just missed that Mercury attacked me!"
"That's ENOUGH!" He yelled angrily, silencing me. "The sad truth is, whether it was an accident or an assault, it doesn't matter. The world saw you attack an innocent student. They're already drawing their own conclusions. And i's my job to inform you that... you are both disqualified." He informed us.
"Both?" Yang asked.
"I'm aware that Epsilon has to follow your orders, whether he may want too or not. I informed the council and they believe that Epsilon didn't attack on his own accord, but that you ordered him too."
"What!" Yang yelled.
"There is no way to prove that you did this, or if you didn't, so they elected to disqualify your team as well as a precaution." He finished. "Epsilon, you are to remain in this dorm room until further notice." He left the room with Benjamin, leaving me with Team RWBY.
"You guys believe me, right?" I asked them all.
"Without a doubt. I know that you're a good person, and would never attack without reason." Yang said reassuringly, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.
"You're too nice to people to attack someone innocent. I believe you." Ruby said.
"You can be dangerous, but you're not reckless. You wouldn't attack without a reason." Weiss told me. I turned to Blake as she remained silent.
"I want to believe you..." She said, not looking at me.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I had someone very dear to me while I was in the White Fang. When he started to do little bad things, it started as accidents, then self defence, then he began to think he was right. I thought he was right." Blake explained. "But you're not him. You're not a monster, the monster in you is somewhere else in Beacon. I want to believe you, I will believe you. But first, look me in the eye and tell me that he attacked you, and that you regret what you had to do."
I sighed loudly and turned to Blake. "I attacked him because he attacked me. I didn't want to do it, I with it didn't go down like it did, but I did what I I had to do to defend myself."
"Okay. Thank you." Blake said with a small smile. I sighed and leaned back.
"I would like to be alone for a while, if it's alright with you all." I requested, and they nodded and left. I rubbed my eyes, trying not to think about what I had done to Mercury.
The Forest...
"What you need, is to leave." David told her, surprising her. "I may not like my father, frankly I don't really feel any emotion towards him, but I plan to follow in his footsteps and become a hunter. You may want to quit while your ahead."
"All you need to do is end this insane scheme, or you can continue your campaign, but I promise that if you continue, I will stop you." She glared at him for a few moments before talking a small breath.
"Very well." Cinder nodded and turned in the other direction as David slung his crossbow over his shoulder, continuing through the dense forest. Cinder stopped and reached for her bow, put an arrow in it and aimed it at David, who was still facing away from her. She released the arrow.
Ozpin's Office...
Ozpin sat at his desk, drinking coffee as Ultra sat opposite him on the other side of his desk. "You shot two paramedics... and assaulted an injured Haven student... and attacked the rest of his team." Ozpin tired to comprehend.
"To be fair... the paramedics could help each other. Tehy are paramedics after all." Ultra joked, getting a very unamused look from Ozpin, making Ultra shrink a little in his seat.
"What happened to you?"
"One of them, a chick, shot me with a bow made entirely from dust right in my left eye, and damaged my targeting. Basically, I can't shoot anything unless it's a lucky shot." Ultra explained, getting a 'hmm' from Ozpin.
"She attacked with dust weapons, were they infused into her clothes, or her body itself?" Ozpin asked,
"Correct. This woman is the one who infiltrated the CCT, and the one who attacked the Fall Maiden." Ultra confirmed. Ozpin leaned forward in his chair slightly.
"You fought against a half-Maiden and survived. Impressive. Do you know who she is?" The headmaster asked.
"No." Ultra lied. "Can't tell him, even though I want to stop that bitch, I can't yet. Canon."
"That's a shame. But good work anyway." Ozpin told him, and the elevator opened, Benjamin walking in. "Mr. Jiro, good to see you."
"The feeling is mutual. I have the analysis on Epsilon here." He told him, showing Ozpin his scroll. "Notice anything worth noticing?"
"It... looks normal." Ozpin said slowly.
"Exactly! That means that when he says that Mercury attacked him, he believes that Mercury attacked him. Either he's an incredibly good liar, or he's telling the truth." Benjamin told the headmaster.
"Mercury attacked him. I saw it with my own eyes." Ultra backed up his brother.
"If I could use your testimony, I would, but they aren't going to believe you since you're a criminal, you're the suspects brother, and you're insane." Ozpin informed him.
"Fine. I have work to do, I'll see you layer, Ozpin." Ultra said, getting up from his chair.
"You can't leave this room, Ultra. You'll leave the 50-foot range." Ozpin told him with a small smirk.
"Mother fucker! Damn it, I hate this fucking tracking device you sadistic fuck!" He yelled at Ozpin, who was completely unaffected by his outburst. Benjamin was terrified. He took a deep sigh. "How many tools and parts do you have in this room?"
"Enough for what you need. Best get to work, you don't have much else to do." Ozpin said, taking another sip of his coffee.
Team RWBY's Dorm Room...
I lay on the bed, looking up at the bed above me blankly, until a knock at the door caught my attention. I got up and opened it, showing Penny.
"Hey Penny." I said unenthusiastically.
"Salutations." She greeted, giving me a hug as she always did. "I just came by to see how you were before I went to the Colosseum for my possible fight." She said as we entered the room, sitting down on one of the beds.
"I'm sorry to say I can't go and watch your match personally, I'm under dorm arrest." I told her.
"Oh, that's unfortunate. Are they keeping you here because you stabbed Mercury in the leg?" Penny asked.
"Yeah." I said simply.
"Well, I think it's quite confusing why they would keep you here. All you did was defend yourself after all." Penny told me, and I immediately turned to her.
"I'm sorry, what? You saw him attack me?" I asked, surprised.
"Yes. I saw him get up as you walked away, leap in the air and lunge at you. You only defended yourself against the attack. I wonder why others think you attacked him, and why that camera footage was wrong. Maybe it was a bad angle-" She said. I cut her off with a tight hug.
"Thank you, Penny." I said, slightly confusing the girl.
"For what?" She asked.
"Penny, I've seen the looks in people's eyes. Ruby's, Weiss's, Blake's. Even Yang's. They all say they believe me, and they may even believe it, but deep down I know that they think I'm lying." I told her, and looked into her green eyes. "You believe me." She smiled a little, looking away. "I appreciate you coming to see me, but you'd better go. Your match could start soon-" I was cut off as she kissed me. It only lasted a second before she pulled away. I looked at her, eyes wide in surprise.
"I've been told... that things like that can help others feel better." She said nervously. "I hope you are proven innocent." She got up and quickly left, too scared to look at me. I leaned back onto the bed, speechless. Wow...
The Forest...
David immediately turned around and held out his right hand, stopping the arrow in mid air. He narrowed his eyes and turned the arrow around, firing it towards Cinder so it landed at her feet, between her legs. He unslung his crossbow and aimed it at Cinder, who knew that she couldn't load another arrow after than he could shoot.
"Don't try that again." He said coldly, turning back away from her and disappeared in a cloud of yellow smoke. Trying to compose herself, she took a low, calm sigh and left the forest to go to Vale.
Beacon Docks...
"Can you remind me why you have to come with me?" Ruby asked Ultra as they stood in line.
"I'm here because firstly, you have that device on your wrist so I have to stay within a 50-foot radius to you." Ultra told her, pointing at the little device on her wrist. "And secondly, I want to go see the next match and test out my new device." he help up said device to emphasise.
"Umm... what does it do?" She asked, closely looking at it.
"It's an eye piece, it acts as an assistant to help me with aiming my weapons, after I damaged my eye earlier." Ultra explained, attaching the red eye piece to my left eye. "It's basically the same as Deadshot's eye piece, just look it up o Google Images if you don't know what it is. It aims for me, but also changed my vision in one eye to night vision, thermal, x-ray, zoom and illusion." He told her, but she wasn't paying much attention as she watched Velvet taking pictures, and walked up to her. Ultra sighed and followed, removing the eye piece.
"Ruby, how you going?" Velvet asked as she finished talking pictures.
"Hi, Velvet! What are you up to?" Ruby asked.
"Oh, you know. Just working on my photography. Do you wanna see?" She asked, showing her a picture of Sun, but missing his head and feet, only really showing his weapon.
"Was that intentional? Or do you just have really low standards?" Ultra asked the faunus.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Velvet asked.
"Name's Ultra. I'm Epsilon's brother." He answered.
"Oh... I'm sorry to hear about your brother. Is he doing okay?" She asked with concern.
"No idea. I'm not allowed to see him." Ultra said, annoyed.
"He's... coping." Ruby told the faunus. "Yang got disqualified too though, for reasons."
"I think it's just awful what people are saying about him." Velvet stated as she put away her camera inside her box. "Epsilon's such a nice person."
"Well, I'm glad that someone thinks so." Ruby said sadly.
"Your camera your weapon? Really?!"
"Most people don't know what it's like on the battlefield. I mean, even experienced fighters can get scared and start seeing things. If it can happen to Coco, it can happen to anyone." Velvet stated.
"Coco!?" Ultra yelled, moving much closer to Velvet. "What happened with Coco?"
"S-she swore she saw Yatsuhashi with her in the forest during the fight with Emerald and Mercury, but he never even made it out of the geyser fields. Stress-induced hallucinations, apparently." She told him, somewhat startled.
"I fucking knew it! Those bastards!" Ultra yelled in joy. "Come on, Ruby." He grabbed her by the arm and basically dragged her to the ship to take them to the Colosseum.
Team RWBY's dorm room...
I looked out of the window, the sky dark except the Amity Colosseum which was the only light in the sky. Yang sat next to me to keep me company, but my mind kept thinking back to earlier on with Penny.
"Hey there, Xiao Longs." Qrow spoke up from the corner of the room, his arms crossed and a small smirk on his face.
"Hey, Qrow." I said, not turning to look at him.
"So, why'd you do it?" The hunter asked me.
"How many times to I have to repeat myself?" I asked, annoyed. "You know why I did it."
"All I know is that you attacked a helpless kid." He said, uncrossing his arms. "So either you're lying or your malfunctioning."
"I'm not lying." I told him coldly, turning to the hunter.
"Hmm, malfunctioning, got it." He stated, walking to the center of the room, hands in his pockets.
"Who knows? Maybe I am malfunctioning." I said, looking at the floor.
"Don't say that. I can't loose you." Yang told me.
"And here I thought your dark-haired friend was the emo one." Qrow joked seriously, pacing through the room.
"I saw Raven." I told them both, surprising them both a great deal. "It was on the train that caused the breach in Vale, David stopped Neo from killing Yang while she was down. Raven appeared through a portal and sliced at her, but David pushed her out of the way and took the hit, which is what put him in his coma. I'm still doubting myself that it was actually Raven... but that sword was identical to the one Raven had in your picture."
"You're not crazy, Epsilon." Qrow said with a small laugh. "That was Raven, all right. Let me guess - she didn't say a word, did she?"
"Not a word." I agreed, Yang too shocked to speak. "How did you know?"
"I don't see my sister often, but she does try to keep touch, see her nephew occasionally... whenever it suits her." Qrow said with a small smile
"Wait. You mean you talk to her? That was real?" Yang asked, distressed.
"Yeah, she found me. Had a tip from my most recent assignment and wanted to give you a message." He told his niece.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner!?" She exclaimed to us both. Qrow let out a sigh and walked up to the window, looking away from us.
"I was tryin' to wait for the right time, and this sure ain't it. But I guess you deserve to know. She wanted me to tell you that she tried to save you once, but David beat her too it, but nevertheless you shouldn't expect that kindness again." He said solemnly.
"Raven and David both have an interesting way of looking at the world that I don't particularly agree with. And they're dangerous." He turned to us with a smirk. "But you're both touch kids. Shouldn't let this tournament thing get'cha down. You had a slip-up, sometimes bad things just happen. I say it's time you move on."
"Move on to what?" I asked, Yang silently asking too.
"Well... Raven let slip some info slip before she took off. If you ever wanna track her down, I think I might be able to help." Qrow offered to us. I glanced at Yang, who had new found determination and her full attention in her eyes. I turned back to Qrow.
"Tell me more."
The Vault...
David placed Amber inside the left rectangular capsule, which closed over and hissed as it pressurised. He turned to Ozpin. "Will she live?"
"Because of you, she has a chance. Thank you, David." The headmaster thanked with a small nod. "Did you see the woman who attacked Amber?"
"I've seen her before. She tried to convince me to help her with her plans, which I assume was just what happened, but I declined. She said her name was 'Crimson', but she was lying." Ozpin sighed sadly.
"Such a shame. Anyway, good work David." He praised an walked to leave.
"Ozpin!" David called out, catching his attention. "I stopped a lethal woman from killing a Maiden and saved her life. Is this enough to be accepted to Beacon?" He smirked a little.
"Yes. David, you are now officially accepted to Beacon. Congratulations."
End of Chapter Seventeen
So, that's the end of this chapter! Next chapter will be the chapter that we are currently at in Volume 3, episode 9. Originally this chapter was going to have more, but I changed it so more will be in the next chapter instead. I guess this could be a two-parter chapter, but I wouldn't really consider it to be one.
Also, the scene with Ultra beating the hell ou of the bad guys was so satisfying, you can't even imagine how it was to write it. And when Penny kissed Epsilon, could it become something more, and does it have a deeper meaning? Who knows?
Now for the story recommendation:
Name: Arkos Book 2: Discovery
Author: lordxsauron
General Synopsis: After ArkosBook 1 Origins. The Kingdoms are at peace, but there is tension in the air. Kingdoms are rearming, Grimm are growing stronger. As for Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos, they arrive at Beacon to train to become Hunters and Huntresses bent on stopping the forces of evil. They have to deal with classes, romance, drama, action, friendship while battling enemies new and old.
And, as always, remember to follow, favourite and leave a review, and thank you for reading chapter seventeen.