Note: This chapter, and Chapter 8 when it comes out, will be based on a side-quest that is available to accept in Xenoblade Chronicles X. Honestly, the affinity missions like this one are where all of the characterization comes into play. Please, I beg of you, read these chapters along with the main story as these side-chapters will have points that connect to the main chapters, but they can tell their own story.

Let's see how Blake handles the Murderess.

It was about a month after Team RWBY had been reunited in the events following the crash on Mira. Team RWBY had decided to spend the day separated, helping other teams or running some errands if they needed to do so. Ruby and Yang were helping an outfitter in the testing bay. Weiss thought that she could spend some time at a prestigious shop and pick up a few items for casual wear.

Blake's mistake was tagging along on this trip. So far, the heiress hadn't come across anything yet, and Blake doubted that they would within the day. Blake wasn't much help due to her focus on function over fashion, so she let Weiss continue browsing the shop on her own.

Blake sighed, exiting the shop and stepping out onto the sidewalks of the Commercial District. "What a day."

"Dragged into a shopping spree?"

Blake turned to her left and saw Irina Akulov approaching her. "Yeah. We know how Weiss is when it comes to her dresses."

Irina coughed. "Combat skirts."

Blake raised her eyebrow. "Dresses. She's getting some casual gear."

Irina shrugged. "She tries fighting in those things and you know it."

Blake shook her head, changing the subject. "Heading back to the barracks?"

Irina shrugged. "I was hoping to stop by the hangar first. One of the Interceptors has his Skell in the shop and I wanted to check in with him."

"Do you mind if I join you?" Blake asked. "I'm curious about those units in general."

Irina nodded. "I don't see any problem with it. Considering your heightened attention to detail, you may see some things that we won't."

Blake smiled. "Thanks."

And so they set out, the two of them walking in silence, a preference for Blake. It wasn't long before they reached the open ended hangar, where multiple Skell units were being repaired and adjusted. There were two types that Blake could see littering the hangar: Light-class Urban Skells and Light-class Formula Skells.

As the two women stepped through the hangar, one of the Formula Skells activated, closing its cockpit and standing up. It took two steps forward and stopped, smoke pouring out of its back. Almost immediately, the Skell knelt and popped the cockpit, letting the pilot, a tall, lanky man with long, golden hair, drop out of it and get to a safe distance where he threw off his helmet. Looking back at the Skell, he proceeded to shake his head and scratch the back of his neck.

It was then that Irina had reached earshot. "Having trouble with the final repairs?"

The golden haired Blade turned to face the two approaching women. "You would think we'd have it running quicker than this."

Irina shrugged. "Did you reverse the exhaust bypass valve again?"

The pilot shook his head. "No, but thanks for reminding me about last week." He looked back to his Skell. "I probably overlooked some faulty wiring, again."

Blake crossed her arms. "So is this the pilot?"

Irina shook her head. "My fault." She gestured to the Faunus. "This is Blake Belladonna from Team RWBY." Irina gestured to the pilot. "This is Matthias Rightgard, one of the best Interceptor Skell Pilots I know."

Matthias extended his right hand towards the heiress. "It's a pleasure to finally meet someone from Team RWBY."

Blake accepted his hand and shook it. Looking at him, she saw that he nearly towered over her by nearly a foot. His hair was almost gold, with a beard to match in both beauty and density. She could almost call it a lion's mane instead of hair on a human's head. His eyes were a royal blue, bold enough to be a leader on any mission.

"Likewise." She said, but posed a concern. "Wait, finally?"

Matthias shook his head. "I know OF you and your team, but only from Irina and Gwinn." Matthias smiled cheekily and scratched the back of his head. "They hold your team with such high regard that I almost pictured you four as elite Blades with near-superhuman abilities."

Blake didn't answer, but she glared at Irina. "Really now?"

Matthias cleared his throat. "Maybe you should discuss that with Gwinn, though. He was the exaggerative one."

Blake shrugged dismissively. "Fine. Getting back to your Skell, do you think it could be a fuel related issue?"

Matthias crossed his arms. "It may be a power diversion flaw, but the core is my main concern if it is. I may need to replace it and I won't enjoy the cost."

Irina shook her head. "It seems like you are going to need more time before you're fighting again."

Matthias nodded. "Yeah, I'll be working all night long and maybe tomorrow evening as well."

It was at this time that a loud commotion could be heard around the corner. "What the hell," Matthias began, "Is she doing this time?"

Blake placed her right hand on her hip. "She?"

Irina sighed. "Are you talking about the Murderess?"

This confused the Faunus even more. "Wait, 'Murderess'?"

Matthias placed his right hand on his forehead. "Sharon Effinger has earned herself a more carnal reputation as the 'Murderess'. She's fundamentally unpredictable and manipulative to the core."

Blake raised an eyebrow. "So why hasn't she been arrested?"

Matthias chuckled. "So far as we know, she hasn't broken any laws. From what we can tell, she's more of a temptress who calls herself 'Murderess' rather than a criminal."

Irina huffed. "Matthias, I'm going to break it up if I can."

Matthias just nodded. "Good luck."

Irina began walking in the direction of the noise with Blake following her. The two passed by a few more Skells before finding the source of the noise. On the other side of a fenced-off area, two men were in a fist fight with another man watching alongside an average height woman. The woman had short silver hair that barely reached her shoulders and pale skin. She wore a long-sleeved grey shirt and black cargo pants that were stuffed into steel boots with reinforced shin guards. Her violet eyes observed the scuffle with a hint of longing to join the fray. Blake could only guess that this was Sharon, aka the Murderess.

As the two ladies stepped forward, one of the combatants finally landed a hit to the other's gut, sending him reeling over in pain. The Murderess stepped forward, clapping slowly for the winner.

"It looks like we have a winner," she said, clearly not caring for the fallen Blade. "And a fine one at that."

Blake stooped down and helped up the fallen Blade. "Take it easy this afternoon. A blow like that should be harder to overcome."

The Blade nodded and limped away, holding his gut. Blake turned back to Irina, who had gotten into a small argument with the Murderess.

"It's just like you to torture potential partners," Irina accused.

Sharon scoffed. "There's no such thing as partners in my group. I had an opening and these two tried out for the spot."

"In this sick sport you enjoy too much."

"Why can't you see things from my perspective?"

"Because you're sadistic, manipulative, and devious."

"All of which are in my nature."

Blake stepped forward as they both crossed arms and glared at each other. "So this is Sharon?" Blake inquired, slightly hesitant to approach the silver-haired schemer.

Irina dropped her head slightly, her eyes still locked onto her target. "The Murderess, traitorous Blade, deceitful backstabber, and number one on my revenge list."

Sharon shrugged and smirked. "Now, now, let's not form her opinion for her, Little Miss Irina."

Irina raised her eyebrow. "What did you call me?"

Blake held out her hand in an accuser's pointing motion. "Why don't you prove her wrong?"

The Murderess simply chuckled. "Why not? I'd be happy to show you my true colors and let you decide the outcome."

Blake lowered her outstretched arm. "How do you propose we do that?"

Sharon smiled. "Why don't we check the mission board? I'm sure after a few missions, we'll be more comfortable with each other."

Blake frowned. "Irina?"

Irina shook her head. "Knowing her, she'll keep asking until you accept."

Blake finally shrugged. "Why not?"

Murderess smirked slyly. "Let's head over there and find something."

Sharon immediately lead the way, Blake holding back a short distance with Irina. "Don't trust her," Irina warned her, keeping a low volume. "Keep your weapons close and expect her to betray you."

Blake nodded. "I'll keep my eyes open."

N-Sight held his sword in his offensive stance, waiting to change his stance if needed. He twitched as his opponent glared at him. This staredown wasn't very long, but it meant a lot to the two combatants. The blades they both carried were aimed to strike and N-Sight wasn't going down without a good fight.

Without warning, his opponent launched forward. N-Sight blocked the initial strike, going in for a sensitive blow. His blade was deflected by his opponent's weapon as the bout began again, block after block, with no sign of either losing their stance or momentum. It was clear at this point that the two of them were evenly matched and they both were giving their all in the fight.

Finally, N-Sight gained the upper hand, knocking his foe off-balance and throwing her to the ground. Emm stood up, holding up her hand in defeat, trying to balance herself on her katana.

"Well done, N-Sight," she said, pushing herself to her feet. "You've improved by leaps and bounds since our last fight."

N-Sight deactivated his plasma blade, clipping it to his blade as the lights in the training room let up. "I've noticed that you tried additional tactics this time, going for my arms instead of my legs and switching to a safe offensive rather than a full on strike."

Emm frowned. "I didn't hold back on you."

N-Sight chuckled. "I didn't say you did."

Emm sheathed her katana and dusted herself off. "So," she pondered aloud. "You're saying that I instinctively attacked you in a different style?"

N-Sight opened his comlink and activated something on it. "In a manner of speaking, yes." He tapped something else, which summoned a drone from above them in the training room. The drone projected a holographic video feed of their fight. "You weren't restrictive in your strikes, but you tended to focus on defending yourself more than you usually do. By doing this, you effectively prolonged the fight for as long as it was."

Emm viewed the footage again. "It seems that you were more aggressive in your offense, but you played more defensively as well. In the end, my slip up was the deciding factor."

N-Sight shrugged. "By that logic, you should have come out victorious, based on how often I slip up."

Emm shook her head. "We're on an even playing field. We both are only out there for precise strikes and quick kills. The faster we get, the better we are later on."

N-Sight turned off the video feed and put away his comlink. "I'm sure that we could be at this for hours, but I'm curious how my other designs would hold up. I haven't calibrated my entire arsenal yet, but it would take all day."

Emm shrugged. "Why not test out a few of them and recalibrate what you need to?

N-Sight snapped his fingers. "That's a good idea. Let me just-"

N-Sight was cut off as his comlink buzzed. "N-Sight! Come in!"

He pulled out his comlink and turned it on speaker. "This is N-Sight."

Irina's angered voice came from the other end. "Oh thank Mira. N-Sight! It's Irina! I need backup!"

Emm's expression fell to slight anger mixed with concern. "Where are you?"

"Noctilum! Middle Hushflood! Hurry!"

The line cut off and N-Sight took off. "Come on, Emm! I've got something we can use to get there!"

Emm sprinted after him. "It may be our only option."

Blake and Irina were crouching behind a rock near the wall. They were outnumbered 3 to 2, but the third opponent was using a Skell, making their odds of surviving nearly 45 to 1. Blake's weapons were nearly depleted and Irina was on her last two clips of ammo. It didn't look like they were going to get out of this alive.

At that moment, Blake's ears picked up another sound: some sort of small jet-based pack of some sort. Peeking her eyes back over the rock, she saw two small figures flying in on backpacks of some kind. She couldn't tell what the second one was carrying, but the first one was holding a cyan beam sword. Blake could tell that Irina's call had helped them, switching for her swords after realizing who would be helping them.

The two individuals' jetpacks deactivated, dropping the first onto the back of the skell, where he proceeded to slash through the arms and leg joints. As the second one landed, she drew a katana that was clipped to her back, slashing the guns of the two foot soldiers. She then proceeded to slam her opponents' heads into each other. Blake had barely enough time to halt her progress towards the newcomer before the opposing Skell's back exploded, dropping the hunk of metal to the ground.

The newcomers, Emm and N-Sight, sheathed their weapons, signaling for Blake and Irina to follow suit. "What happened?" N-Sight inquired, reaching down to cuff the hands of the unconscious pilot.

Irina scowled at Emm. "Guess who?"

Emm coughed into her hand. "Knew it."

N-Sight clipped a small device to the cuffs on the pilot. "The Murderess is getting trickier to handle, isn't she?"

Blake reached out as Emm handed her a pair of cuffs. "I shouldn't have trusted her."

Emm shrugged, stooping down to cuff the second blade. "We all trusted her at one point or another. Sometimes it takes time to understand someone's true motives."

Blake locked her cuffs on the third and threw the guy over her shoulder. "Let's just get these guys back to NLA."

Irina crossed her arms. "Not an easy trip back."

N-Sight tossed Emm and Blake a pair of small devices similar to the one on the pilot's cuffs. "Lock this onto the cuffs. I've called for an evac."

Emm clipped it on while Irina helped Blake with hers. "Evac?" Irina asked. "What kind of evac?"

Her answer came in with a whirring sound from above them. She looked up and saw a large metallic vehicle unlike the Skell she had fought prior. It had a long body with a claw underneath and twin propellers on each wing. N-Sight waved it down as it landed, the claw extending and picking up the Skell wreckage.

N-Sight walked up towards the cockpit. "Ozzie!"

The cockpit's windshield slid back, revealing a small, robotic head with two golden eyes on a black visor. "BEEP BOO MAI!"

"We'll need passage for three captured along with the Skell. Do you need help finding their tags?"

The mechanized head swiveled back and forth slightly. "BEE, DA MO!"

N-Sight smiled. "I'll get the rest of us in the passenger seats."

The cockpit slid back after the robot gave a quick, "MO EN DA BOO!"

N-Sight motioned for Blake, Emm, and Irina to make their way to the claw. "There's only four seats behind the claw. I'll have the magnetic field hold the unconscious guys."

Blake stepped over, following Emm and N-Sight as they stepped behind the claw, which was now cradling the remains of the Skell in its jaws. Blake looked ahead and saw four chairs with harnesses that jutted out from the aircraft, two of which were occupied by Emm and N-Sight. Blake sat down in the one next to N-Sight while Irina took the one to Emm's left. Once they had all buckled in, the magnets on the cuffed Blades had been attached to the claw.

N-Sight tapped his earpiece. "Back to NLA, Ozzie!"

Blake could make out the faint reply from the robot. As soon as she heard it, the aircraft slowly began to rise off of the ground, separating the ground beneath them by a vast distance. Blake could see the vast jungle beneath them. It spread out before her more as Ozzie brought the aircraft higher into the air.

N-Sight spoke to her through her earpiece. "Nice view, don't you think?"

Blake nodded. "It's almost… calming."

N-Sight chuckled. "You took the worlds right out of my mouth."

Blake turned to him. "Explain to me who 'Ozzie' is."

N-Sight shrugged. "He's a helper bot that I gave to the transport group. He's their fifth best evac pilot and they let me call him in for favors every once in a while."

Blake wasn't too surprised by this. "So, why did you call for his help?"

N-Sight tapped the side of his head with two fingers. "Intuition. I figured we'd need to clean up afterward."

Before Blake could ask anything else, the aircraft rocked a little more violently than usual. "Ozzie!" N-Sight hollered. "What's going on?"

Ozzie's beeps and boops came through quickly, alerting them to the indigenous attacker. "Well," the blade replied, tapping his backpack. "It could be worse."

Emm looked towards Irina. "Stay here. N-Sight and I will handle this."

Irina crossed her arms. "It's not like we have any choice."

N-Sight shook his head. "We'll see you back in NLA."

The two combatants proceeded to release their safety straps and drop out of their seats. As they dropped, their jetpacks roared to life, propelling them after the attacker: a Telethia-based opponent.

N-Sight tapped his glasses, learning the name of this tyrant. "Josiah, The Jaded."

Emm drew her katana. "We only need to get its attention and protect the crew."

N-Sight's plasma sword ignited. "Agreed."

Bursting forward, the two combatants clipped the gigantic creature's wings. Josiah roared in pain, leaping off of the aircraft and lunging towards the flying blades. He missed, soaring past them and receiving a slash to his back from both attackers.

Josiah turned, glaring at N-Sight, locking eyes with the determined blade. N-Sight muttered something under his breath. The indigenous creature nodded and dropped out of the sky, gliding to its roosting place beneath the trees of Noctilum's dense forest. Emm looked like she wanted to pursue it, but N-Sight held up his hand.

"No," he ordered. "It was only looking for food. We don't need to fight it off any further."

Emm sheathed her katana. "Fine. Let's just get back to NLA."

"That traitorous scumbag!"

Irina was in a fit. When she and Blake went to Eleonora to hand in the mission results, they found out that The Murderess had already collected the reward. Not only had they wasted ammunition, they had to call for evac and get backup.

"Sharon did leave a message for Ms. Belladonna here."

Blake's bow twitched. "For me?"

Eleonora nodded. "She said she'd enjoy working with you or your team members again in the future."

Blake crossed her arms. "Figures she'd say that."

Irina shook her head. "My advice is to keep her away from the chaos if you can. She preys on the weak and betrays whoever she needs to get her way."

Blake shook her head. "If it's necessary, I may have to work with this vile Blade again."

Irina started walking away. "Well, at least you'll have a strong ally."

Blake turned to watch Irina's departure. Maybe she had a point. If she could fight alongside the Murderess, then she'd have a good chance of survival. Blake sighed.

"If only trust came that easily."

Looks like Blake's a little uneasy after that one. Don't worry, she doesn't have to work with her next time.

You might be wondering why I'm doing an author's note instead of a dialogue segment like always. Truth is, I was writing the next chapter and completing school work that I forgot to write the final outro. I usually write them the day I upload, but I'm a little late on this upload.

I'll have one next time, but I've already written that one out, so you're in for a treat.

Those of you who read the update to DOOM: GTOV, thank you for reading both stories and leaving your feedback, whether through PMs or reviews. It really helps me get connected with you guys.

Those of you who are wondering how long the alternating updates will continue, I don't have an answer, but next week, DOOM: GTOV will get a new chapter. RWBY: MW will get its next update in two weeks, the weekend before Has-Been Heroes releases.

Until next time, everyone. Keep those brains thinking.