XLI - Snap

~~~(XLI)~~~

Oxon stood around teams JNPR, SSSN, and RWBY as they wished Yang, Sun, and Pyrrha well. The teams were incredibly excited to have made it as far as they have. Especially since they are only first years.

"This is so exciting! We're going to win our first ever tournament!" Nora seemed quite certain in a victory that hadn't even happened yet. Though, he definitely had some lien riding on the champion as well. Not that he'd tell Yang.

"Well Pyrrha got summoned by the headmaster Ozpin last night. So I'm pretty sure even he knows she's gonna win." The words that came from Jaune's mouth made Oxon freeze. Those words would mean nothing to him if he didn't have his mission from Cinder.

She was the girl that was chosen then. He'd need to tell his leader later, for now, he tried to keep his face from changing noticeably. He'd seen the red head fight, he had confidence in her in the case Cinder and her fought. Besides, she controlled metal, there was nothing more busted than that.He had to have faith.

"We'll see about that, thunder thighs, I got a plan."

"To what, pun her into the red?"

"Oh hush, Sun, not like you have a chance."

"What's that supposed to mean?" He seemed to fake being upset until he saw Blake nod in agreement. "Blake!?"

"Sorry Sun." He deflated a bit at her lack of confidence in him. It didn't last long as he found some resolve, likely hoping to prove himself to the girl by beating Nikos.

"Well as amusing this all is, it is time for us to head down. Wish us luck?" Everyone begrudgingly accepted Pyrrha's words. They had a schedule to keep, they couldn't just stand around joking forever. The three finalists made their way downstairs to join their peers.

Oxon grabbed Yang by the arm to stop her. She looked at him with slight confusion but thankfully waited for him to speak. "Just… be careful, yeah? My partner is pretty good, and a shifty bastard as well."

She snorted at his concern. "I'll be sure to remember that. If I fight him that is. If it's someone else, would you mind if I tell them?" She wasn't aware this was all rigged, so he just nodded with a concerned frown.

"By all means." He released her and gave a nod. "Good luck out there."

With that, the girl was off. And Oxon sent a text to Cinder.

~~~(XLI)~~~

Minutes later with the rest of the teams sitting in the stands, Oxon sat in his seat while Weiss and the others got comfortable. The girl had pushed up the armrest between them and had leaned into his shoulder. She seemed very content.

But Oxon was less than relaxed. He'd watched Cinder put Yang and Mercury together for the initial one on one fight. Looking at the two in the row of finalists, he couldn't help but be worried.

"Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for! The one-on-one finals!"

Down In the center of the colosseum stage, he watched as the camera panned over the singles from each victorious team. Yang had a big and confident smirk as the camera made its way down the line of final fighters, there were a few faces he might have seen in the hallway here and there. The ones he knew by name were Sun Wukong, Penny Polendina, Mercury Black, and Pyrrha Nikos at the far end of the line. He could easily tell something was bothering her, and likely the whole world could too.

"Barty, why don't you explain the rules?"

"Ah, it's quite simple, Peter. Instead of a bracket system, each round of the finals will be randomly determined immediately before the match takes place!"

"Much like any good hunt, there will be zero time to prepare!"

"Ah, yes, yes! Now, let's see who our first match will be!'

The energetic doctor pointed to the main screens above the stadium as the roulette started spinning. Instead of different biomes, this wheel spun competitors. He knew the outcome before it even started of course. His partner and Yang would face off first. The screen then confirmed it.

Port: Yang Xiao Long and Mercury Black!

"Break a leg, sis!"

"Preferably one of his…" He got a few laughs from some of the others at that. Ruby playfully smacks the back of his head, telling him not to be mean to his partner. "Ehh, Merc is a big boy, he can handle it."

Would all other combatants please leave the stage!

The rest of the students obeyed the professor, and Yang starts walking up to Mercury in the middle as the floor around them opens once more, with a ring of spotlights rising up to immediately fix their lights on the remaining twosome.

"You better not go easy on me."

"You wish."

"Pretty sure Ox is cheering for me instead of you, how does that feel?"

"Hmmmm, don't care, really. Let the oaf cheer for who he wants."

Both brawlers face the crowds one last time, then slowly start advancing on each other, arms raised defensively until their hands are almost touching. They stay there as the final countdown starts.

"Three..! Two..! One..! Fight!"

As the fight began in earnest, Pyrrha joined them and sat next to Jaune. She seemed a bit nervous still, likely whatever her meeting with Ozpin was about. The power Cinder is after.

Watching his partner and Yang fighting was almost like art. The girl was punching shot after shot only for Mercury to dodge each of them, sliding around the stage on bursts of air until he attempted to come down on her with his leg. The blonde just managed to block and push away the attack. She then went with a shotgun blast but he went under her shot and managed to land a powerful kick on her. It sent her back and she still lands in a crouch with a slight grimace.

"Come on Yang! You can do it!"

While this was happening, he put into practice something that he'd read online. Faking a stretch, he laid an arm on Wiess' shoulder. She flinched a bit at the contact, but she didn't move to remove it, instead she snuggled closer.

Thank you, internet.

Moving his gaze back to the fight, he watched as Yang launched forward with a double blast and began landing blow after blow on Merc. He ended her combo when he roundhouse kicked her in the back and attempted to hit her with his heel. She got out of the way just in time and punched the ground in an attempt to get him, but he leapt out and twirls a hit on her instead. One of his kicks seems to pass wide, but Mercury brought it down hard enough to shatter the reinforced arena floor.

"Wow. Your partner sure knows what he's doing." Blake watched the fighting pair with quick eyes. It was a fast paced battle and hard to look away.

"Yeah, he's got some sort of gun boots. You could almost call him Yang's annoying male clone."

"I don't think anyone could be more annoying than her. Puns, innuendos, and hogging the hot water are just the first three that come to mind." Weiss didn't know the guy down below. He'd trade him for a Yang type person in a heartbeat.

The two exchange kicks after the last attacks until Mercury sends her backwards. The fleet-footed teen rushed forward in order to capitalize only to receive a fist to his chin followed up by one to his torso, knocking him on his stomach. He got up right as Yang rained down firey blasts again, causing him to somersault back until one explosion caused him to get knocked off of the stage.

Oxon and the others held their breaths, was Yang going to ring him out!?

Unfortunately, Mercury managed to save himself by firing air blasts downward, letting him fly back into the ring.

"Ughhhhhh! That was soooo close!" Ruby flopped into her chair after she stood up in excitement at the near victory. He definitely felt how she did.

Once Mercury landed, he began unleashing a series of kicks that put Yang on defense. She ducks under one only to be hit by another as Mercury jumps into the air to knock her back. The guy followed it up with a powerful shot from his boots. Yang avoided it easily it seemed, but she didn't see that it hadn't gone away.

After the miss, Mercury starts shooting his foot out in every direction while rotating on one foot. Each kick into the air sent out a silvery blast that Yang also dodged with ease. With her misplaced confidence at his apparent bad aim, she rushed in with their fists ready and began duking it out with the boy. Except until Mercury kicks her into the air and then knocks her right back to the ground. How he managed to make the other circling blasts hone in on her, he'd never know, but the explosion was an impressive sight.

With the blast over, Mercury gets up from his stance with a grim. He bagan dusting off his outfit casually, seeming for all the world as the winner. But there wasn't a buzzer. After nearly no time at all, the smoke from behind him erupts into a raging inferno. Oxon's eardrums were almost gone from Ruby's squealing as Yang emerged from the flames, slamming her knuckles together violently.

With a wild yell, she lands a punch that sends him back, and she rushes up while avoiding each kick sent her way. The one that did get through seemed to do nothing to stop her. Soon enough, after a few powerful, semblance enhanced blows, Mercury lands on his back as the buzzer sounds.

The roars of the audience were deafening.

Was that it? Did Mercury fuck it up and loose? The guy put on an impressive display but wasn't able to beat the blonde brawler. She'd even completely drained his aura. The guy seemed upset at his loss, but he couldn't find Cinder or Emeralds faces to confirm.

Port was excited at her victory, he was probably happy the first win went to his school. "What a way to kick off the finals!"

"Yang Xiao Long wins!"

"Yeah! You did it, sis!"

"Way to go, Yang!" Blake was unusually excited. Though the situation definitely warranted it.

"Well, I was nervous for a moment there, Merc is pretty good. Though it seems he was not good enough here."

"Yes, though the real fight will be Pyrrha. I'm sure that one of those two will be the champions of this festival." Weiss had gotten out from under his arm to stand and cheer for her teammate. She seemed extraordinarily proud of Yang, likely because she helped her advance to the finals herself.

He could see Yang wiping her brow with an arm down on the stage. The fight had been hard, but she came out victorious. She then turned to the down Mercury. Probably to offer condolences or to give one of her usual fist bumps in good sport.

A loud blast is heard in the speakers as Yang suddenly releases a point blank slug shot to the assassin's leg. The moment she did that, there was a clear sound of something breaking. Oxon was only able to look on in shock at the scene, on the big screen Mercury falls back to the floor from the pain of the maiming.

Oxon surged to his feet and gripped the edge of the arena with knuckle whitening force. "What the FUCK was that!?" Language be damned, he'd just watched his friend attack his teammate. Even if he didn't like the guy, this was so very far away from reasonable.

"My word!"

"Cut the cameras!"

Mercury's form on the ground, the cameras showed his leg in a not quite natural angle. "My leg, MY LEG!" The cameras were easily able to pick up his cries. Though they also showed a red eyed and unrepentant Yang.

Yang still seemed aggressive until she noticed the Atlesian Knight droids and a pair of Atlas soldiers circling her. They had their guns directed at her with stern frowns.

"Oxon, what…" He turned to Weiss and saw her almost lost expression. Gods be damned, he wanted nothing more than to hug and reassure her that it was fine. But he couldn't, and that made him furious.

"I…" What could he say!? Brothers give him something to do! The shouting from the rest of the stadium was in an uproar. Boos and insults were being lobbed at Yang. There were even a few that tried to throw some food, not like it reached anywhere close.

On the other side of the arena, he watched Emerald jump down and rush to the side of their downed ally. He gave the shocked girls and guys a nervous look before jumping down himself. He quickly made it to the group and locked eyes with a confused Yang. Oxon didn't know what just happened, but it was clear something was up.

"Mercury!" His yell only got the silver teen to look at him with teary eyes. It was not a look that was natural for him.

The normally cool and collected teen was gripping his leg in pain. "Why'd she do that!? WHY'D SHE ATTACK ME!?" That was the million lien question. He turned to give a questioning look at Yang as she received a disgusted scowl from Emerald.

It seems like their looks finally made her look at the main screen. The large thing played an instant replay of what they'd all seen: Yang circling the crouched-down Mercury until the footage cuts to him just standing there and her suddenly shooting him in the leg, causing him to crumple over on the floor.

The professors looked like they were valiantly trying to get the screens to show anything else. But for some reason they were having difficulty doing so. Probably more of Cinder's work.

"Ox… I- I swear he attacked me!" His eyes slid to link up with Yang's. She stared at him with a hurt and confused expression. In that instant he knew what happened. She wanted to understand what just happened, but he had nothing for the poor girl. He couldn't just tell the girl about Emeralds Semblance, that would lead to his own crippling. Or death.

His left hand fell to his hip, resting on Fratris, he was so angry that he needed something to grip or hit. She saw his motion, misread his anger, and tensed up. Yang gave him a look he didn't like, but what was he supposed to do? He wanted desperately to reassure her, but he was powerless in this situation.

"I need you to back off, Yang… Don't make things more complicated." He could see a few, small tears form in her eyes at his obvious distrust. This was a real mess…

"What can I -"

"I think you have done enough, Xiao Long…" He took his hand off his and placed one on her shoulder, giving the girl a light shove. He spoke in a low voice to her, hoping Emerald and Mercury would be too busy to pay attention. "Just, just get out of here, I'll try and handle this, maybe it's not so bad... I'll try to keep you posted."

She nodded dumbly and let the soldiers escort her out of the arena. He watched as a pair of medics arrived to place his partner on a stretcher. The guy sounded bad. He and Emerald followed him through the halls of the Amity towards any available or waiting aircraft.

Oxon and Emerald ran alongside the two paramedics that were carrying Mercury. They seemed good at their jobs in keeping him steady, that was good. Eventually they come across an open door with a woman in the same medical outfit inside.

"Here! We've got an ambulance ready to go!"

He and Emerald followed him into the craft. The other medical officer left the craft right before the door closed. The remaining one was a small girl with an odd expression. She almost looked… Pleased? The girl then moved to the front of the craft to pilot it, he assumed.

He felt the transport shift as it made its way away from the Colosseum

Mercury was lying on a cargo box in the back, still moaning and crying beside Emerald sitting next to him. Oxon could do nothing but stand there awkwardly.

"Oh doc, tell me, will I ever walk again?" Oxon was stunned when the girl hit him. "Ow! What's your deal!?"

"Ugh, headache. One mind I can handle, but two is a stretch." Suddenly he saw what she was referring to. In an instant instead of flesh and blood, there was metal and wires making up Mercury's legs.

The bastard was never even hurt?! How, how in the hell did he not notice them before? He racked his brain until he came to a sudden conclusion. Emeralds Semblance, she must have used it on me when we were together! I would have easily seen his legs otherwise. Was… was I a part of the act? Damnit!

Cinder spoke from the front of the shop as they neared Vale. "Well, you all performed marvelously, driver included."

"So, you think it worked?"

"Of course it did, Mercury. Did you see their faces?"

He spoke up, still in a shell shocked mood. "Nobody saw the truth…" That only got a smug grin from Mercury.

~~~(XLI)~~~

"A terrible tragedy took place this afternoon in the one-on-one rounds of the Vytal Festival Tournament-"

Click

"I don't know what Beacon's Headmaster is teaching his students, but that was disgraceful! Completely uncalled for!"

Click

"Mercury Black was one of the student huntsmen that was responsible for the arrest of Roman Torchwick. Yang Xiao Long of team RWBY had failed to stop said man from wreaking havoc in Central Vale a few months back. Maybe she was jealous of Black and his team for fixing their failure? If so, it paints a poor picture for the team -"

Click

"Despite Atlas reinforcements, local authorities are still calling on any available Huntsmen to aid in suppressing the spike in Grimm activity."

"Hey, I was watching that!"

Oxon looked tiredly at the not-so-crippled teen as he tossed the remote across the room. "Shut the fuck up robo-bitch. It's one thing to do what we've done, it's another to be smarmy about it." Seriously, nobody needed to watch the constant drama unfolding on tv…

"I don't want to hear it from you. And really, your bedside manners are just awful!" Oxon smirked as Emerald twisted the screwdriver still in his knee. That at least caused him some pain. "Ah, too tight!"

"Enough. Our Mercury put on a wonderful show. He was quite brave."

"These things aren't exactly cheap, you know." Waa waaa waaaa, prick. Oxon wanted to crush the brothers' damned things.

"So, what's next?"

"You and I will ensure that our next matchup goes just as smoothly."

"What about me?"

"You get to lay low until the end. We wouldn't want people to see you on your feet and have this all be for naught, now would we?"

"Can do."

"What should I do?" He didn't like this one bit. It was clear from a few texts he'd received that Yang was taking this poorly. Damn these people… But he knew it wasn't over yet.

"For you Ox? Do keep dear Mercury company. We wouldn't want him to get bored now." Babysitting Mercury? Fantastic. "Oh, and thank you for confirming our suspicions, it looks like the old man has gone with Miss Nikos. Expected, but good to know for certain, we'll need to keep an eye on her from here on out."

Oxon's scroll kept buzzing throughout the meeting. Looking at the screen, he saw a great amount of messages from team RWBY, team JNPR, and even one from Sun. They wanted to know what was going on, about how Mercury was doing. Cinder noticed and gestured for him to show her.

"Well now, aren't you popular?"

Nosey bastard… "They're concerned. They all saw you crippled if you haven't forgotten."

"As they should be. Now, as for a response… Tell them this." He listened, a heavy frown in place as she told him what to say.

~~~(XLI)~~~

"This is a mess…"

Jaune watched as the three teammates left their dorm in a sullen mood. He asked them a question, not knowing how he'd get answered. "She doing okay?"

Blake: "She's doing the best she can."

Ruby held up her scroll for Jaune and the others to see. "Oxon said that Mercury and his team are rushing back to Haven to be with his family. So, until they land, no one can really question him or Mercury about what happened."

"If there's anything we can do, please don't hesitate to ask."

"All right then. If that's the case... Pyrrha?"

"Hm?" His partner looked up at Ruby as she was addressed. Poor Pyr, she seemed rather out of it.

"You be sure to win one for Beacon, okay?"

~~~(XLI)~~~

Ruby had come to investigate why She had seen Emerald in the stands. She wanted to support her friends when she'd seen her. Making her way through the corridors, she saw something that chilled her blood.

She watched, petrified on the spot, as Mercury Black stepped out from a nearby tunnel. Unlike when they saw him last, he was completely unharmed and definitely not back home in Mistral.

Ruby was beyond stunned seeing him here. What.. What was going on? She tried to focus her eyes more, in case it was somebody else.

"Mercury?" He was just standing there, silently watching her. It made her incredibly nervous.

Her fears were confirmed when she saw Oxon burst from the room Mercury came out of. He looked angry. Incredibly angry and glaring at Mercury. He was no longer in his casual clothes either, he was dressed up in his combat gear, ax and guns in their holsters. She realized he was ready for a fight, even though he wasn't supposed to be.

"Black, I swear to whatever gods and goddesses are out there, if you don't get your murderous little ass back into that room, then I'm gonna pour salt water in your geary kneecaps! I won't let Cinder blame me if you fuck up by getting caug-!" Her friend paused the moment he saw her. "Ruby!?"

"It looks like our first contender is... Penny Polendina from Atlas…"

"What are you doing?"

"And her opponent will be... Pyrrha Nikos from Beacon!"

Penny against Pyrrha… Pyrrha's semblance… Ruby's eyes widened in realization. "No…"

"Ooh, polarity versus metal. That could be bad."

"Merc, stop being you, for one second. I am begging you." Oxon turned to Ruby, hands out. "Now Re- Ruby, I'm sure you think this is all kinds a' wack, and it is, but there's a very reasonable explanation for this-" Her "friend" was Interrupted by his partner smacking him in the pec.

"Give it up bud, she's seeing through your bullshit. We can't let her get away until Em's done though." Oxon flinched at that, and gave Ruby a conflicted look. She didn't know what to think about how his hands went to his gun belt slowly. Fingers strumming in the air near the grips.

They were up to something bad, Ruby could tell. She didn't want to believe it, that Ox would be doing something so suspicious. But how else was she supposed to see him and his supposedly crippled teammate walking around all sneaky like…

Ruby gave the two an angry glare all the while reaching back to grab Crescent Rose, only to remember she doesn't have it on her. Right! It's in the lockers! It was then she wondered why she didn't take after Oxon and carry something with her at all times? It would have really helped her in a situation like this…

Mercury gave a malicious grin and set himself into a fighting pose. It was just like he had done when he fought her sister. Whatever happened earlier today, it was planned. A plan Oxon was part of. Turning her head, she gave said teen a confused, yet hopeful look.

It vanished as she watched him un-holster both of his large revolvers, holding one near his head, pointed up at the ceiling; the other was aimed at her head. She heard more than saw the hammers of both click back, echoing slightly in the silent corridor.

~~~(XLI)~~~

And so ends the fluff… Don't forget to review, it really makes me happy to read them all! It's also the final call for bets regarding The Fall. Winner gets nothing but bragging rights.

Also! Nobody ever told me there are RWBY comics, think of all the CONTENT I could have made with that. Idk where to even find them. Anyone got SparkNotes that I can read or something? Ugh, it's too late for the first three volumes… unless I just make omakes or something. Or the Successional Branches fic, hmmmmm… that could work.

If anyone knows how to read them, dm me.