Chapter 13: Ghost Stories

"Uh... were they just supposed to shut down like that?"

"The robots? I don't know, we ARE talking about Roman here… He doesn't do anything according to plan."

"You're not wrong. But he is kind of effective, I guess that's one of the benefits of organized crime. I should've taken the full dental coverage instead."

"Shut up Mercury. No amount of sarcasm can make that man tolerable."

"Ehhh, it's not so bad. He's kind of like the family member that comes to your house, gets really drunk and then you kill him. At least, that's what I'm picturing in my mind."

"Is that a recurring theme in your family, or…?"

"What? Oh, That. Right. No, I actually think about that kind of thing all the time."

Emerald took a step away from her, as she called him, introverted partner. As a team, they were effective both in combat situations and as Cinder's most trusted underlings. The Battle of Beacon raged on the campus below them, and their job was to relay every second of the brutality and chaos to the world. The broadcast had to follow very strict parameters, according to the plan. Cinder explicitly stated that they should focus on the Atlesian Knights.

Roman's job had been to get himself into a position where he could trigger the protocols and subroutines necessary to take over the fully mechanized components of Atlas' Military. His choice to complete his mission by getting locked up in a holding cell aboard an Atlesian Warship was absolutely a decision Emerald could get behind. She wouldn't have to deal with his snark for an indeterminate amount of time. Despite her displeasure with being associated with Roman, even she had to admit that he had done well to create the facade of Atlas turning against itself, against the huntsmen and huntresses, and against Vale.

Mercury had been recording some Paladins engaging a group of students in the courtyard. He was impressed by their ability to… not die… in the face of the most powerful mechanized units in Atlas' arsenal. Then it all stopped. The Knights and Paladins collapsed into assorted heaps of useless metal on the ground, and an audible cheer came from the groups that had been engaged against them. It was a good thing that for their purposes, they weren't broadcasting sound. All Mercury would have to do is turn in another direction and record the White Fang attacks or the Grimm invasion to maintain the pretense of anarchy. He actually enjoyed it. Knowing full well that he could never have orchestrated this master plan on his own, he took great pleasure in being a cog in the revolutionary machine that had now been switched on.

Cinder had been gone for close to fifteen minutes now. She'd headed off towards the Tower, picking off any Grimm that got close to her with ease. After the long walk, she disappeared inside the doors. Emerald began to worry a bit that something might be wrong. She knew better than to doubt her boss, but something inside of her couldn't help but wonder about the parts of the plan that she wasn't privy to. As far as she was aware, Cinder planned to destroy the local hub for the CCTS. Her only orders were to stay with Mercury and keep the recording going until the end. After that, Cinder would personally communicate their new instructions. Neither had even the slightest idea of the timeframe when any of this would happen.

"How much longer do we have to do this?"

"How should I know? We both know you're the favorite here, so if Cinder didn't tell you, there's no way she'd tell me. All she said was to record until the end."

"What else is really left to record? The last of the students and huntsmen have gathered at the docks. Once they leave, there's really only the… Grimm…" Emerald's sentence trailed off as the Dragon passed overhead again, this time wrapping itself around the base of the Tower.

"That answers that," Mercury replied as he panned across the landscape to focus on the great beast. "This is so great." As it clawed its way up the side of the tower, Mercury's smile just grew wider. His partner must have picked up on his sick enjoyment, and she wasn't thrilled.

"Mercury…" she growled, "How can you possibly be enjoying this? People are dying down there..."

Without moving the camera from its focus, he looked at Emerald with a hint of surprise on his face, "What are you talking about? It's our job. You know what they say… if you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life… and I'm all about not working."

She considered this for a few moments. It was hard to understand how two people could be so similar, yet so different based on a single ideological inconsistency. "It's our job," she repeated. "But I don't have to love it."

"Then why are you here, Em?" The question could have almost been confused for a scolding.

"You know why. I'm here because I owe Cinder everything. Before I met her, I was nothing... a simple thief. I had to be. It was the only way I could get by. I will never question her, but you are NOT her." Emerald was now visibly irritated with her partner.

"And where's Cinder now, huh? I haven't seen her in a little while. If it makes you feel better, you can go cry in the corner until she gets back, just don't interfere with my shot." Emerald didn't enjoy the snide remark from Mercury, but she wasn't offended by it, such was the nature of their relationship. Her standard operating procedure for dealing with Mercury crossing the line was physical abuse, so she punched him in the arm, causing him to bobble his camera.

Once he'd secured his scroll again, he began to refocus it on the Dragon, which was, by this time, clutching to the top of the Tower. "Emerald please. Nobody likes shaky cam footage. Besides, something's happening up there."

They both tried to focus their eyes on what the giant Grimm was doing. Mercury zoomed his scroll to get a better look, revealing that it appeared to be singularly focused on whatever was in the room at the top of the tower. He could feel Emerald's breath on his neck as she looked over his shoulder at the tiny screen.

"If Cinder doesn't do something pretty soon, that thing's gonna take all the glory for itself," Mercury joked. "Then again, if the tower goes down, the tower goes down. Doesn't matter how it happens." Emerald knew he was right. The plan called for the CCTS to be taken down. It didn't specify how.

As they stood huddled around Mercury's scroll, quick flashes of light could be seen in the windows of the room in question. Then, for what seemed like no reason at all, the Dragon pushed away from its perch, and began to fly off into the distance. "I wish that thing would make up its mind," he complained, "My arm's getting tired... aaaaand it's turning around again." There was no clear indication that the beast would slow itself before returning to the tower. "Heeeeere it goes," he said, barely able to contain his excitement.

The Dragon lowered its head, using it as a battering ram, and exploded through the exterior of the great structure, passing through it fully, and emerging from the other side. Huge chunks of cement, metal and glass rained down from above. One of the smaller pieces of glass to fall to the ground was Mercury's scroll, which had immediately switched to displaying only static. He forcefully crushed it with his foot. The dust cloud created in the wake of the impact obstructed their view. "So now, we wait. Terrific."

"I know, you hate waiting. But orders are orders," Emerald said mockingly.

Mercury laughed at the thought of all the things he'd said in the past being thrown back at him. "I'm starting to think I'm spending too much time around you."

"Whatever. You want me," she piled on. Emerald waited a moment to see what kind of reaction she could get, but Mercury wasn't paying attention any more. Instead, he was squinting at the tower again. "What…are you looking at?" she asked.

"Two things," he replied. "Number one. I see a young girl in a red hood running toward… no… wait… now she's running up the side of the tower."

Emerald immediately turned to see what he was describing. Sure enough, it was her. "I thought you took care of her at the coliseum…"

"Number two. I see another young girl dressed in white running from a pack of Grimm towards the entrance at the bottom of the tower." The squint slowly changed into Mercury's signature devious smile. "She got away back at Amity. Ruby's fast, but not all that smart. Probably could've thrown a wrench into our plans if she'd run back the way she came when I found her. I won't make the same mistake twice." He began to head towards the edge of the dormitory roof, clearly intent on leaving it.

"Merc, wait!" she screamed. "Cinder said to wait for new orders. If she comes back and you're not here, you're dead."

"I'm already a ghost, Em. Nobody even knows we're here. I've got an opportunity in front of me. And it's just too good to pass up. Tell ya what. I'll take the heiress, you can have the half-pint. Deal?"

Emerald was clearly torn by the proposal. This wasn't even remotely close to the plan. She also didn't share Mercury's murderous tendencies. "I'm getting bored here Em, I'll take both if you don't want to help. You just stay here and twiddle your thumbs until Cind-"

A blinding flash lit the sky, cutting off not only Mercury's sentence, but his vision as well. Similarly, Emerald cried out in agony as the light burned her eyes. The two of them fell to their knees, trying to find something to hide behind to take shelter from the light. It lasted for only a handful of seconds, before retreating back to its original source.

The effects lasted much longer. At first, the duo writhed around on the roof with blurred vision, dulled senses and equilibriums that had been thrown into turmoil. It felt like an eternity for as many times as Mercury claimed that he was blind. After several minutes passed, the temporary disorientation began to wear off. "What in the name of Grimm was that?" he asked.

Emerald tried to shake the cobwebs out of her head, "I don't know, but it came from the top of the tower. I was looking in that direction when it happened. That's where Ruby went, right?"

"That's right. And that's where I'm going. I need to know what that was." Mercury was clearly agitated that he'd missed the opportunity to have some fun hunting down Weiss, but at least he still had something to do. Better yet, it didn't involve standing on top of the same boring roof he'd been on for the last few hours.

Emerald could finally see about as well as she was able to before the flash, and most of her other senses were returning as well. "Did you conveniently forget about the giant dragon?" she asked. Mercury gave no indication that her question would alter his plans in any way. A quick glance toward the source of the light was all it took to convince him.

"It's not even moving any more. We were out of commission for five minutes, and we're a half mile away. That thing just got the world's fastest laser eye surgery. It'll take time to recover." He hesitated only briefly, before restarting his walk towards the ledge. "I'm not even gonna worry about it."

"Well, you're not going alone," Emerald stated firmly. "I don't particularly care for your little game of cat and mouse. I'm coming because Cinder might need us." His surprised look seemed to indicate that he didn't expect his partner to break from the plan. Either way, he would get to have his fun, so he couldn't complain.

They quickly descended down the side of the building, and began to run toward the clearing between the group of dormitories and the tower. In almost perfect synchronization they stopped, and dove into cover behind the wall of the last building before the courtyard. As they did, a ship flew overhead, hovered for a moment, then set down no more than fifty yards away. Emerald took the corner position, Mercury next to her. She could see the ship by peeking around the edge of the building. They spoke in loud whispers.

"Who is that?" he asked.

Emerald took a long look, then withdrew to her previous hidden stance. "I don't know, they haven't left the ship yet." The sound of a mechanized gate opening caused her to check again. "It's some soldiers, maybe… seven or eight of them, looks like they're from Atlas." She maintained her vigilance for a moment more, "That's bad."

Mercury was not impressed. "I could handle that many soldiers in my sleep. It's not bad."

"That's not what I mean," Emerald insisted. "I see that guy. From the day we attacked the maiden. The one that saved her. The same guy you saw fighting in the courtyard a few days ago." He didn't have to say anything to convey his displeasure with the current situation. Now his hunt would have to wait. Mercury could not risk attacking the huntsman despite being sure he could hold his own in a fight. This guy was a professional, he'd escape with his life, and that would be enough to blow what was left of their cover.

Emerald continued her observation, "Okay, now the huntsman and four... no... five soldiers are moving towards the tower. The other three went back inside the ship and they're closing the gate." She hesitated for a moment, still watching the events unfold across the campus. "They're clearing a path through the Grimm. Mercury, I think we have to follow them."

He was discouraged by this most recent turn of events, but pleasantly surprised at Emerald's newfound ambition. "I was actually just getting comfortable being a ghost. If we follow that guy, our cover is shot. After that, Cinder's gonna make us into real ghosts."

Emerald's concern for her mentor created a clear bias in her thought process. "You do realize that Cinder is still in that building somewhere, right? What if she needs help?"

"I think she can handle herself. I'm still more concerned with the half-pint. She knows about us, so she can't be allowed to talk to that huntsman. Looks like we're gonna have to follow them after all..."

Emerald was not even the least bit interested in Mercury's actual motives for following the task force in front of them, she was just content with finding out where Cinder went, and subsequently finding out what their next move was. They decided not to run straight through the clearing to the tower. The remaining soldiers would surely see them. Instead, they would flank a few hundred yards out to the starboard side of the transport ship, then move to the entrance of the tower from a wide angle, hopefully avoiding suspicion. It was the most tactically sound option.

Fortunately for them, the Grimm were mostly concentrated near the base of the tower, and the huntsman was fighting alongside the soldiers to clear them out. Mercury and Emerald moved as fast as they could along their extremely roundabout path to the entrance. After reaching the furthest point from the ship along the detour, they stopped to confirm that their targets had not detected their presence, and to briefly catch their breath after an extended sprint. By that time, the entrance had been cleared, and they could see the huntsman and his, now three soldier, attachment slowly move into the building.

A quick inspection of the path towards the tower revealed that a number of griffons were circling in the skies above. This gave Mercury an idea. He quickly explained it to Emerald, and then the two moved quickly from cover to cover until they rested outside of the main entrance, behind a knee-high wall separating the grass from the sidewalks.

The doors leading inside were left opened, and it appeared quite dark inside. Without making a sound, Emerald slipped just inside the door. She saw the soldiers, slowly moving away from her towards a damaged elevator shaft, trailing a few feet behind the red-caped huntsman. Knowing that she had not been detected upon entering the room, she signaled for Mercury to follow. Then, she began phase one of their plan. She cleared her mind, and began to construct the image of a large griffon to inject into the perception of their target. Once her illusion was complete, Mercury would land a kick to the huntsman under the guise of a griffon charging with a headbutt, sending him plummeting down the elevator shaft, none the wiser.

Emerald looked over to Mercury, who gave her a thumbs up, their signal to go. The attack would buy them enough time to subdue the soldiers and find a way up the tower. She gathered her concentration, and focused all of it on the huntsman just as he neared the edge of the great hole. Before she could even project the illusion of the griffon, a real one dropped from above him in the elevator shaft, dragging him down with it.

The surprise of it all caused her to break her concentration and look over to Mercury in shock. He just shrugged, happy to be on the good side of fortune. With the threat of the huntsman diminished, he moved quickly to dispatch the soldiers, without the use of weapons. They couldn't risk causing alarm. Simultaneously, Emerald reactivated her semblance, allowing her to peek over the edge down at the dangling huntsman without the risk of being recognized as anything other than a flying Grimm. Satisfied with his predicament, she created the illusion of the griffon as she had originally intended to chase him further down. As he struggled, even more real griffons began to awaken from above. Luck was smiling on her today.

Paying no attention to Mercury, she quickly made her way to one of the intact elevator shafts, pried one of the doors open using the blade form of her pistols, and entered the small room. She looked back to see what was keeping her partner. What she saw sent a chill down her spine as she watched him finish off each one of the soldiers he'd just taken down. The sight of him ending their lives for no reason was horrifying. Emerald knew that none of them had seen their faces. The sneak attack was executed to perfection.

She decided that she couldn't watch any longer. It wasn't a part of the plan to kill those men. Mercury was just so difficult to control, so unpredictable. She hated him for it, but it made him a very effective tool for Cinder's cause, so there was nothing that could be done about it. Emerald motioned to him that she was going to climb up to the roof. He motioned with his index finger that he would be another minute or so behind her.

She quietly removed the ceiling panel inside the elevator car, exposing the cables that she could use to climb to the top floor. Emerald was very nimble, so this was not a problem at all for her. She knew it would be a bit more difficult for Mercury, but he'd still be able to do it. The ascent took no more than two minutes. At the top of the elevator shaft, she had to pry another door open. This proved a bit more difficult with no proper footing available while dangling from a steel cable. Nonetheless, she got the door open and lept into what was left of the, she guessed, office that had been here before.

For the first time in ten minutes she broke silence, but it wasn't intentional. She saw two bodies collapsed on the floor, and instinctively called out to one of them. "Cinder…?" she murmured, as she slowly approached the motionless woman. It felt like every step somehow increased the distance between them. When she finally knelt down next to Cinder, Emerald checked for a pulse first, which was an unnecessarily difficult task with trembling hands. When she found one, she very nearly teared up. But much to her chagrin, no amount of shaking or other stimulation would wake her. She wasn't sure how to proceed. For a few moments, she stared blankly, helplessly, at her leader.

The sounds of Mercury struggling with the ascent broke the trance she'd been in. She began to survey her surroundings, stopping when her gaze fell on the other body. It was smaller, younger, and wearing that distinctive red hood. Emerald held a certain lack of respect for Ruby, but otherwise harbored no ill intent. It had been her mission to deceive and manipulate members of team RWBY for the furtherance of Cinder's plans. But what was happening at this particular moment… was not part of Cinder's plans. She wasn't prepared to let her renegade teammate create more senseless bloodshed.. Emerald decided to improvise.

Mercury's hand reached over the edge of the elevator shaft. "A little help here?" He had to arc his hushed voice over the ledge that he could not yet see over.

Emerald glared at the hand, cleared her mind, and once again activated her semblance. "Yeah, hang on Merc." She carefully placed Cinder back on the ground, and slowly walked towards the arm, before pulling it up along with the rest of her partner. She then returned to Cinder's side. Mercury looked around the room thoroughly. He noticed the dragon, poised menacingly above them. He saw Cinder. There was no half-pint.

"Guess you were right about Cinder... She did need our help. But where's Ruby?" he asked, obviously agitated that he didn't get to pursue either of his targets.

Emerald looked directly at the defenseless young huntress, before turning back to Mercury. She just shrugged. "Looks like we're not the only ghosts around here."