The battle started.
The battle was over.
At some point, the girl with arms and legs covered in bandages tried to stop the Silver-Clad Werewolf.
At some point, she was defeated too.
At some point, Ruby and Yang were pinned against the wall.
At some point, they were released.
In the aftermath...
"Yeah, guess you two aren't related to the murder attempt".
... the only thing they felt was...
"This is kind of a bummer. Guess we are back to zero, Tracy".
... humiliation.
Offense, defense, skill, instinct - even luck - she seemed to posess it all. That girl was a monster by nature, one that couldn't be fought head on.
Every type of dirty tricks was used against the sisters. That girl didn't rely on strength alone, she relied on every mean possible to win a battle.
Kicking in the breasts, throwing dirt in the eyes, even biting she did. The Silver-Clad Werewolf was an impossible opponent.
At one point, she even broke Ruby's scythe in half, laughing at how powerless she was without it.
"Let us go back to Jammer" said the Mummy of Impossible Defeat. "We have to at least regroup and recover".
"Got it!"
And they left.
Ruby punched the cold hard asphalt. Yang looked at her concerned.
"At least they don't suspect us anymore" she put her hand over her wounds. "Talk about dirty boxing".
Ruby didn't even hear Yang right.
They were defeated. They were tricked, deceived and defeated.
Yang walked over to Crescent Rose, the blade was broken in half.
"Guess we are gonna need repair this".
"How could she even do that?"
"Resonance" answered Yang upon showing her fists. Ember Celica was damaged too. "That girl could control sound. When she grabbed me, I could feel a vibration from her palms. That was her secret".
"What about that strength?" Asked Ruby. "What about that skill?! How could she be... how could..."
A sadistic smile. A posture that was unbeatable. An imprenetable armor.
Yang sat on the ground again.
"Oobleck said something about Chimaera being a dangerous place, to the point humans and faunus had to learn to work together. I guess that was the result. That girl was probably trained since childhood to become a soldier".
Ruby averted her gaze. Yang continued to speak:
"Lycaon probably is just one of the many in her homeland that strong. As terrible as it sounds, she may even be one of their weaker soldiers. And Chimaera has an army of people at least as strong as that girl".
Ruby looked at her weapon. A broken scythe.
"They have an army of people just like her, that can do anything to achieve their goals".
What if they advanced just like Luna? With the Impaler Vampire dead, what would they do? Even if they didn't set out for war, what could they do to verify the truth about Vladimir's death? Which means would they use to achieve their ends?
There was a disparity - a big one between the civillians and the knights. The Impaler Vampire was a civillian and even so he managed to beat someone of Pyrrha's caliber.
And the power of a Knight was far above his. Even if a Hunter was at the same power range of a Knight, if every Knight used every mean possible to win, the future was bleak.
The aftermath would be just like the sisters, that AT BEST.
"Oh. Am. GEE! What the heck happened here?" Shouted a girl.
Ruby and Yang turned around. A faunus girl with bear ears was there with a concerned look on her face.
RWBY: Against All Odds
UNKNOWN.
The girl of red hair received the message.
"Chad, Mary found them. Here says they engaged two Chimaerians of the Prince's team in combat".
"This means she will have no problems with befriending them" spoke Chad. "Let us go, my sister is impatient".
"Got it".
Beacon...
For the moment, Jaune and Pyrrha separated themselves.
It seemed like a crazy idea at first, but Jaune realized it was even more dangerous to leave Ren and Nora alone. So, sending Pyrrha was the best choice.
Above that, he couldn't just rely on her to defend him should worst happen. Before everything, Pyrrha was still wounded. She had better chances if Nora was by her side.
The reason for his choice was simple: the VLNT duo could simply attack Nora and kidnap Ren in order to test her. Should that happen, Pyrrha, that was clear, could convince them otherwise.
Now, he was heading to the only person he thought that could help him.
He knocked on the door of Team CRDL's room.
Arc 2: Fallen Hero
Meanwhile, with Ruby and Yang...
The girl of bear ears and punk dress held the broken Crescent Rose as if it was a toy.
"Luna never had any self-control. Seriously, that girl was a monster!"
"You know Luna?" Asked Yang.
"Before that" spoke Ruby. "Who are you?"
"Heh, I guess there are people that don't know my face" she threw the pieces on the ground as if they were a broken instrument. "Of course you wouldn't know! That's a mark of my skill!"
"My Crescie..."
"I am!" The girl made an eccentric pose. "Mary. Rees. Metal!" Spinning, she took out an aparatus that became a guitar from her back. "Of the second most powerful first-year team of Jammer!" Letting her fingers pass through the strings, she continued. "Mercenary in training! Assassin for hire! Sellsword and future ROCKSTAR! Yes, that's me... surely you must have heard about me!"
Yang was confused at that girl.
"Who?"
"Huh..." The girl took another pose while playing the guitar. "Mary Rees Metal, the Bloody Mary!"
Ruby shook her head. The girl continued:
"The Iron Maiden, Mary Rees Metal?"
Yang and Ruby expressed their confusion. The girl continued:
"C'mon! There must be a rumor about me around Beacon! I even killed a Nevermore a week ago to strike fear before the tournament!"
"Sorry" Ruby apologized.
The girl glared at the sisters with tears on the corners of her eyes.
"And I even took my time here once I heard the noise of the battle..."
"Sorry" Ruby apologized again.
Yang was curious.
"Why would you come help us? No offense intended, but since you are a Mercenary, doing that for free is kinda..."
"NAÏVE!" Shouted the girl. "You do not understand how this works. It's like a drug seller! You do it for free once. But then, the next time you name your price!" She took away her guitar. "Also, my friend was caught in the riot, so I had to come here either way".
"I see..."
"Well, Mary" said Ruby. "It's nice knowing you and all, but we are kinda busy with all that happened and we have to go".
"Yeah, you guys are screwed!" She said upon laughing. "Since I took a liking upon you girls, and your taste for clothes, I will give you a tip: there is a shop around here called [The Strings of Fate] you can repair your weapons there."
Ruby and Yang looked at each other and the blonde spoke:
"Does every student from Jammer promote that place?"
"Wait, what? But I'm pretty sure I'm the only one- aw, forget it! So, do you wanna go? I, Mary Rees Metal, wouldn't mind guarding you two for free through these dangerous streets since your weapons are broken!"
"You are scared to walk alone, aren't you?" Asked Yang with a smile.
"N-Nonsense!" She quickly averted her gaze. "Either way, not only you can repair your weapons there, but there are a bunch of cute clothes at that store and-"
With an wry smile, the sisters followed the bear faunus as she walked talking.
And without them noticing, a discrete sneer appeared on her face. 'That was easy' she thought.
'Seems like we will be great friends... for a while, that is'.
Neither of the sisters knew how much of an enemy the seemingly harmless girl actually was.
Chapter: Spies and Envoys of War
Jammer...
"It was better like this!" Said Newton.
Tracy pulled him by the collar.
"Do you even know what will happen there now? Announcing Vlad is missing to our homeland is begging for trouble! His brother aside, his sister is crazy enough to start a war!"
Luna lightly grabbed Tracy's arm.
"If the news are spreading NOW, then they would learn soon. It was better if it was through Newton than if they learned by second means. They know he is missing, if it was through some death news, even the queen herself would act on impulse".
Tracy released him and bit her thumb.
"Even so..."
"Let us concentrate at the current situation" spoke Newton. "I believe Vlad may be still alive. Then, we have to find him".
"We can't get at the site" said Tracy upon sitting on her bed. "There is a riot going on. Faunus and Humans fighting like baboons right now".
"Then, let us concentrate at what we know" said the scarred boy. "Team RWBY is innocent, so is JNPR. Who do we have left to suspect?"
UNKNOWN...
"Sister" spoke Chad.
"Did you really kill the prince, Vlad?" Asked Telka.
"Yes" Chad nodded.
"There was only a pile of coal there. That smells of a trick."
"Of course. That was, after all, the point".
"What?"
The girl of red hair interfered.
"I could feel it... Chad used one of my cards during the night. The prince didn't die on the fire, is that right?"
"Yes" Chad nodded again.
Past...
The robot released the flames.
In the pilar of fire, the prince used the only arm left to cover himself with the coat.
After the long duration, his body dropped on the ground and he struggled to crawl away.
"Ah... Ah... I... I... will... not..."
The Paladin opened and Chad descendes from the cockpit.
The prince continued to crawl, but even a new-born baby would be faster than him. His wing was bruned and only a dead weight. He had lost too much blood, was covered in too many wounds and still had the strain.
"N-no..." muttered the prince weakly. "G-get away... go... a-away..."
Chad took out a sword, the handle shaped like a grey knight chess piece, and...
"Argh!" Pierced the back of the prince - pierced the heart of the Impaler Vampire.
"Afterwards" Chad spoke to the two girls. "I cremated the body and threw the remains near the arm and the wing".
Telka was curious.
"Why would you do that?"
"Yes" The Girl of Red Hair agreed. "Why?"
"Because hope is the deadliest of poisons" answered Chad. "Everything points at his death, but they will cling at the possibility [He is Alive]. This changes everything. They have to act fast now. Faster than investigating a murder, for their prince [May be Alive]. Yes, a corpse is a 100% death. Cremated remains mean only 99%. And for 1% people will do anything.
Luna snapped her fingers.
"The Girl of Red Hair!" She shouted. "Of course, she is behind this, or at least related."
"Interesting theory" said Newton. "But the girl is just a traitor. She has nothing to gain from killing Vlad, right?"
Tracy thought about it for a while.
"Luna, why did you accept the mission to take on that girl?"
"What?" Luna was confused. "But I didn't do anything".
Tracy spoke again:
"Vlad told me he wasn't the one that accepted the mission".
"Neither was I" said Newton.
"... So, no one of us did?" Luna was confused. "What does that- NEWTON!" She shouted. "Check the system! Who is behind that mission?!"
Newton quickly took out his scroll, but then ran to the computer. Not long after tapping the buttons...
"Nothing..."
"No one put the mission?" Asked Tracy.
"The mission does not EXIST anymore. There isn't a trace of it left here".
Meanwhile, with Ruby and Yang...
Talking with Mary was a weird experience, considering the amount of times she refered to herself in the third person, but also was productive in certain aspects...
"That explains a lot!" She said. "If you are Qrow's niece, you use the same fighting style as him, which would be problematic, since it's kind of generic".
"Excuse me?" Said Ruby.
"Excused! Now, what I mean is: Qrow taught a bunch of people and is kinda famous. In Jammer, famous people are problematic. The weakness of Qrow's methods is the very weapon; users are overly dependent on it" Mary pointed at Ruby's broken scythe. "You take away or break it and the user is done for".
Ruby remembered her time in Glast Heim. When without her Crescent Rose she wasn't a match for the faunus of Torchwick.
Yang spoke too:
"What about me?"
"What about YOU? You are a boxer for rock's sake" said the girl. "People just need to aim for the legs and you get rekt. At worst, since you are a well-endowed girl, a punch in the boobs take care of the job".
Yang remembered the pain from fighting Luna.
"You guys are relentless".
"Of course we are! If we could win battles with a goody-two shoe style, most of us wouldn't be forced to go to a Mercenary Academy and be introduced to the underworld. Most hunters have only one weapon or a pair at most, with two forms. Once that's obvious, so are the weaknesses. Look at me, my super cool dress is filled with hidden knives and is perfect for concerts!"
Jammer...
"Going back a bit" spoke Tracy. "This all seems related to the Red Haired Girl. If she hacked the systems to give us that mission and relying on the behavior of the pilot of the Paladin, Vlad was the target from the start."
Luna reviwed the information.
"Calling her Reddie for short, Reddie put up a farce - a compulsive and continuous behavior and routine that we used to our disposal, but all along we were tricked".
Newton spoke too:
"Reddie also probably knew about Vlad's background and personality, so she used the tournament, and powerful Beacon students to lure Vlad night after night".
Tracy thought about it while writing down.
"Reddie was waiting for a chance. Rumors were spreading around Beacon and Vlad had quite the reputation. One day, something happened and her chance came. It was probably the incident that guy Lie Ren caused, remember? I heard he managed to manipulate all the school".
"The incident isn't that important" said Newton. "The aftermath is. Nikos went out of Beacon. The behavior of Reddie suggests she probably was waiting for a chance to take down Vlad, either that or..."
"She was waiting for a scapegoat" said Luna. "And she got Pyrrha Nikos by chance, the biggest target for Vlad in Beacon. On that night, she lured Vlad to Nikos and the two fought. As a result, she was wounded. Reddie's behavior shifted the next day, which suggests that she, and her allies, planned to kill Vlad since he was weakened".
Tracy bit her thumb.
"But they got far more than that. They probably have at least three people working together. One in Beacon, one in Vale and the last one at the streets. With the fall of Nikos, the guy in Beacon must have kept an eye on her team and signaled that they would involve themselves with Vlad. This way, the others waited."
"Either fated or not" spoke Luna. "Vlad and I found Belladonna and Xiao Long".
"At the same time" said Newton. "Reddie lured me in Beacon to a Schnee AFTER I got information that team RWBY was involved with the Paladin incident. The information was probably planted once Reddie and her allies felt team RWBY would interfere, in order to throw us off the mark."
Tracy continued:
"Regardless, I was busy in Jammer and you became top priority. With Luna coming to your aid, Vlad was left alone and he probably was followed from the shadows the whole time. Finally, he encountered and fought with Arc. Later, he and I separated from them. At that time, Vlad had too many wounds - that was probably the time Reddie's ally thought it was best to attack".
Luna continued:
"They used a Modified Atlesian Paladin, built from the pieces of the one team RWBY destroyed. Doing so, team RWBY would be suspected. Before that, Arc was the last one who fought Vlad. In the end, the two teams became scapegoats".
"The battle was beyond us" said Tracy. "And the result is today..." She looked at the tv. News of the Riot were spreading. "We are dealing with a dangerous opponent around here. Whoever attacked Vlad analyzed his behavior and knew his background. But why did they want to kill him?"
The reason was important. It couldn't be something simple like "he is the prince of those that dirtied faunus/human blood". No, someone that smart had an equally powerful motivation.
"He was a tool" spoke Chad to the girls. "Now, Chimaera will strike and knowing them, they will use every mean possible to find Vladimir Tepes."
"This is pretty big" said Newton. "Authorities here can be bribed with ease, but before that they will go straight after teams RWBY and JNPR".
"So, we are alone" said Luna. "And at least until our people come, and they will, we are out of clues. The authorities won't listen to us".
Chad walked around.
"Authorities will be off the mark constantly. Chimaera will move soon".
"But a war won't happen" said Telka.
"It's uneeded" answered Chad. "Currently, they are just a big diversion and it's all we need. Soon, Telka" Chad looked at her in the eyes. "Soon we shall be winning this".
"And if that plan of your fails?"
"I have a backup plan" Chad spoke again. "Also, a plan inside that plan. And that is not even my ACTUAL plan. I'm not toying around here, and never will. Girls, we are getting what we want here. They want results and we will give them those. I will do anything that is needed for that, even if by the end of this, I have to become the scapegoat. Even if the entire world will be against me".
The Girl of Red Hair averted her gaze. At the same time, Telka looked at the ground.
"Brother..."
"There is no need to worry" spoke Chad.
At that moment, the situation was going too well.
Mary was befriending team RWBY A.K.A. the second most suspectful team in the eyes of authorities.
Half of team JNPR would be stuck in the hospital and Jaune Arc himself had been cursed, so the first suspects were in a troubling situation.
At the same time, Chimaera would move in at least a week.
At most, the authorities could discover the truth behind Arc, but team RWBY didn't have excuses once they discovered one of their members was a faunus and if Chad spread out that she once belonged to the White Fang.
Above all else, the Paladin they used wasn't even the same one team RWBY destroyed; that was what made those girls so valuable. It was just a mean of planting the correct and ambiguous information and people would believe it was the same.
And even if by some miracle their innocence was proven, Chimaera would strike and they were wild by nature.
Chad spent a long time planning and planning. There was no way they could let chances slip by. Whenever a new piece appeared with potential to participate on the board, Chad analyzed, searched and studied. Backgrounds were checked and dirt was dug. Not only Team VLNT, but JNPR, RWBY, the wild cards of CRDL and even Ozpin, not counting many and many more. Chad knew and would use the information of each if needed. They didn't need anything more than time and results.
Results were already appearing and time was something they would get.
"We WILL succeed".
Beacon...
A door was opened.
Sighing, the boy looked at Jaune.
"I can pretty much guess what this is all about. Let me just get ready".
"Thank you, Cardin" answered Jaune.
"The situation is worse than that" spoke Tracy. "There are spies everywhere. In Beacon and in Jammer".
Mary was walking while chatting.
'Guess this is the second time team RWBY helps me out' she thought. 'The first one was when they hunted down the prince out of nowhere. I wonder what Chad has in plan now. Well, I guess the results will be jaw-dropping'.
The girl stopped and looked at the skies. Susprised, Yang and Ruby stopped and lookeed at it too. All they saw were...
''Birds?'' Asked Yang.
Ruby shook her head.
''Those are... bats?''
Mary sneered, but simply mumbled:
''Oh, my! What an interesting sight'' in the sky, there were no birds to be seen. Only bats. In the poles, across the clouds and in the cables. Only bats.
'Did you come to say farewell to your kin?' she asked mentally.
Heretic Notes:
The plot progression is... slow again!
Well, what can I say? It was hard enough to focus on the conflict with VLNT, but you people never realized that, right?
It's just like Competition Moon all over again. I gave you villains, but after a while, I revealed they weren't the actual villains.
It's like Final Fantasy. "Oh, I am the evil emperor, but my sexy henchman is the actual final boss!"
Wait, that isn't right. It's more like "oh, you thought those guys there were the villains. Too bad, who knows who they actually are!"
Yes... no one knows... YET! There will be so many plot twists that you people will go insane by the end of this arc. It will put the Jaune VS Vlad battle to shame and make you people have your hearts beating like crazy!
And then I will twist it again! And you people will go "no way!" And then "NO WAY!" And then! Andthenandthen! "NOOOOOO. WAAAAAYYYY!"
Oh, my! You people will love it.
By the way, the schedule will go like this:
Next chapter: short thingy.
Chapter after that: breather chapter. You people need to chill a bit after all.
Chapter after this and that: things will get serious.
Then two to four chapters after that one and the arc will be over.
There will be fancy bgm's and stuff too with symbolism, but this is not important at all.
C - ?
L - ?
M - Mary Rees Metal - The Three Bears
T - ?
More info on them will be revealed as the arc progresses.
Later!
Heretic, out!