Emerald and Mercury had just arrived at the perimeter of Beacon Academy's campus. They saw barricades of brick walls, piles of bags stacked on top of each other and trench holes right behind them. This pattern of barricades extended from the bridge to the path to Beacon's courtyard all the way to the brick wall with an iron gate. They examined the scene. There was nobody on Beacon Academy's campus grounds save for a few guards. Further back on the the side of the wall were huntsmen and huntresses, standing by in case the Grimm should try to attack the city again. Past the last gate-late structure was the courtyard, where most of the Grimm were. Several buildings and stone structures were in ruins and were partially or completely destroyed.
Mercury noted the two guards standing at the entrance. "How do we get in?"
Emerald pointed to her forehead. "Simple."
The two guards stood there, bored out of their minds. Suddenly one of them noticed two black-hooded figures approaching the gate.
"You shouldn't be here. You need to leave!" the first one exclaimed.
The hooded hallucinations laughed at them, and appeared to be taking their scrolls.
"What the?!" the first one asked.
They both checked their pockets and their scrolls were gone.
"After them!" the second one commanded.
The guards chased after the hooded figures, leaving the entrance unguarded. Emerald put the stolen scrolls away as Mercury smirked. "Nice one."
"They won't be distracted for long. Let's go!" Emerald commanded.
So they went past the gate and traveled further into the deserted, destroyed academy. By this point, there were no longer any huntsman or human workers, only Grimm creatures as far as the eye could see.
Mercury sulked. "Now for the more difficult part; trespassing without being attacked by Grimm. How in the world are we going to get through without being noticed by them?"
"Think of happy thoughts." Emerald told him.
Mercury grimaced. "You're talking to someone with a very troubled past."
She frowned. "Come on. You have to have some happy memories." The young thief attempted to smile before waving in exasperation at him. "Don't you recall our victory during the team match in the Vytal Festival? How we crushed our opponents?" As Mercury responded with a slight, "Hmm..", Emerald grabbed his wrist and guided him through the pavilion.
As the two went through the courtyard, they recalled their first victory in the Vytal Festival. The match ended up occurring in the early morning, before team RWBY, JNPR or many of Beacon's other teams fought in the tournament.
"Two Haven teams defeated in a row. I think it's safe to say that Haven's school is not doing well very morning, but it's too early to tell. Perhaps that will change with this next fight." Professor Oobleck commented.
"We have team CMSN (Crimson) of Haven going up against team CRME (Cream) of Atlas." Professor Port said, introducing the two teams. "The members of team CRME, save for Claire Blanche, competed in the tournament two years ago and suffered defeat in the first round. With a new leader by their side, will these third year students be able to redeem themselves? Let's find out."
Cinder and Neo (in her disguise) smirked as they entered the arena. Mercury looked bored, and Emerald was displeased, folding her arms. Some of the members of the opposing team, namely the second and third guys were nervous. Claire smirked and the first guy stood there with a neutral look on his face.
Team CRME consisted of three guys and one girl. The first member, Claire Blanche, was a girl with very pale skin, blond hair with white streaks in a braid and light brown eyes. She wore a knee length cream-colored dress, white elbow-length dress gloves with white heels. On her right wrist was a silver bracelet with blue gems while the left wrist donned a gold bracelet with red gems. She wore a silver tiara with white gems. She looked rather young for an Atlas student, like younger than or the same age as Ruby. How old was she?
There's no way she's a third-year student. Emerald thought.
She's very young for a leader, and a student in general. Mercury mused silently.
Claire's weapon was a multi action dust rapier similar to Myrtenaster, only visible differences were that while Weiss's sword was white, this girl's sword was snow blue. The sword was also slightly smaller by three inches.
The second member, standing next to the leader, was a tall, muscular guy, who kinda looked like a lumberjack standing at 6"4. The tall guy had messy blond hair, pale skin and green eyes. He wore chest armor over a black t-shirt exposing his muscles with a white rook and black cargo pants with dark grey combat boots. He possessed these green hand-guns that had various settings on them and could be equipped with dust.
The third member was an average looking guy with arms weaker than limp noodles, brown hair, slightly tanned skin and grey eyes. He wore jeans, a red jersey with a black pawn chess piece and grey sneakers. Unlike his other team members, who had more modernized weapons, he wielded the ever-classic sword and shield.
The last was a guy with light brown skin and hair, with blue eyes to compliment the look. He wore a black outfit with black combat boots and dark grey chest armor. He carried a heavy grey battle axe with small slots on the handle to insert dust.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" the third (and last) guy asked.
"Nonsense! We will fight and we will win!" the leader declared. "I've put you men through the toughest training along with our three years of training in Atlas. Besides, these are first year students and that grey-haired guy doesn't even have a weapon! This will be easy!"
CMSN stood on the right while CRME stood on the left side of the arena. The holographic roulette begun spinning for the right side of the arena. It stopped on a grey image with a rectangular building showed up. The platform rose up, revealing an urban city that appeared to have suffered damage, likely from an earthquake. Stone and broken glass was found throughout the city.
"Hmm... This is will be interesting..." Cinder spoke.
The holographic roulette started once again, this time for the other side. It landed on a light blue slide with a snowflake. The other side of the arena rose up as an arena an slippery ice and ice shards rose up.
"Three... two... one! Begin!" Professor Port exclaimed.
The fight began with Emerald running forth and firing her shotguns with laser beams at the enemy team. The second and third guys ran in two different sections to avoid her gunfire. The third guy was surprisingly fast and was able to outrun Emerald's attacks. While Claire and the first and thirds guys retreated, the second guy faced Neo in hand to hand combat, but her punches were quicker. She punched him in the face, then the right shoulder, then the gut, then his left knee, and finally kicked him in the face, knocking him off the center and onto the ice, and then Mercury kicked him out of the arena.
"And team CMSN swiftly gains the advantage." Oobleck announced.
The third guy fought against Mercury, who swiftly fired explosive projectiles from his boots at him while the last guy tried to shove Cinder into a corner. He swung his axe at her, only for her to block it with her swords in an X-formation. She pushed against him, trying to shove him back, but his axe was sharper, breaking her swords into pieces. She cartwheeled backwards as he swung his axe at her again, then did so again when he threw it at her. Cinder then reached the destroyed apartment complex. She picked up a piece of rubble and tossed it aside, revealing a lot of broken glass. She knelt down and summoned the shards of glass from her sword to her side, pretending to look vulnerable as she 'desperately' tried to forge the old glass with the new glass, forming a weapon.
"Oh, what have we here? Looks like Cinder Fall has the ability of Vidrokinesis." Port commented.
"Yes, this quite uncommon Semblance allows the user to manipulate, create and destroy glass. She can use it to fire it directly at her opponent, reform the weapons her opponent just broke or even transform them into something entirely new." Oobleck commented.
"What?" As she finished forming a bow with the glass from her swords and the glass from the stage, she put out her quiver of arrows and started to fire said arrows at him. "Oh come on!"
Sprinting for his life, he dodged multiple arrows fired at him, only to have them be pinned into his left boot. Then Cinder run forward, stepped on his left foot and punched the guy in the gut, knocking him through the air and knocking off the boot that was pinned down.
"Oof! That had to hurt!"
As he got up, the crowd started to gasp. The crowd was in shock. He looked down saw his revealed horse hoof, exposed for all the world to see. He put his hands to his beet red face in embarrassment.
"Well, that was... unexpected..." Port awkwardly stated.
Emerald blinked. "He's a Faunus."
"A horse Faunus." Mercury added.
"Most unusual indeed." Cinder began. "But it matters not. Take him down!"
Claire was in shock, while the other teammates said nothing. They knew the truth, but she had not. She looked sad and betrayed. "Ebony? Why didn't you tell me? You could have just told me."
"I..." he began.
Emerald once again fired at him, and he swiftly cartwheeled to evade her attack. Trying to hold on to his dignity, he retrieved his boot and put it back on. He then charged towards Cinder. Emerald fired her gunshots at the leader as Mercury fired his projectiles from his boots at Claire as Cinder kicked Ebony down. Neo, who was right next to him, shifted her eyes from green to light pink and brown, much to his confusion.
"Hmm... hmm..."
Then she stomped him in the face, knocking down his aura to zero. Her eyes shifted back to green.
"Oh, that's gotta hurt!" Oobleck commented. "In other news, this is looking bad for that poor little girl! It's one vs four! Hardly a fair fight!"
The young girl didn't appear to be afraid. As every member of CMSN approached her, she didn't step back. "I will not be defeated!"
"I hate to break it to you, little girl, but your time is up!" Mercury exclaimed, smirking as he kicked her down.
She then cartwheeled backwards as Emerald fired her guns at her. She avoided most of their blasts, but she was hit in the gut by the last one fired. Neo used her umbrella (which was camouflaged as a black sword) to wound Claire by striking her in the arm as she flew through air before crashing on the ground. As she began to bleed, she glared at her opponent and screamed in anger and agony. She fired a wave of fire at Emerald through her sword, which hurt her, but wasn't enough to knock her out. Then Claire gasped as her eyes widened in shock and terror. Cinder summoned more glass shards to her side as Claire summoned her aura to protect her in a snow blue circular disk force-field.
Cinder fired the glass shards against the leader, and try as she might, Claire couldn't protect herself. She was knocked off the ground and out of the arena, glass flying everywhere as she was eliminated by both ring out and her aura being completely depleted.
"And with that, team CMSN wins and moves onto the doubles round!" Port announced. The crowd cheered for them. Neo smirked and giggled in a childish, yet sinister manner. Claire, still in pain, screamed in agony. A piece of glass was accidentally shoved into her arm from the force of Cinder's attack and could easily be seen on the camera. The crowd gasped in terror. Someone even screamed.
"Claire!" all three of the guys on CRME shouted at once. They all ran to her side as she lied there in pain.
"Oh dear, somebody's hurt! Someone go make sure she's okay!" Oobleck commanded.
Ebony glared at Cinder. "You're a monster!"
Emerald was really worried, and Cinder smiled. "Oh, you're just jealous because of the power I possess. And you want to know something else? I was holding back. I could have done much, much worse."
He raised his fist, but the second guy grabbed his shoulder and nodded right to left. The medics swiftly came and put the leader of team CRME onto a stretcher.
"I swear, she did not mean to...!" Emerald began.
"Don't worry, you guys are still in." one of them said. "Accidents like this happen more often than one would think. She'll be fine." She groaned. "Well, hopefully."
She breathed a sigh of relief. The medics dragged Claire away, her teammates in tow and Cinder simply just smirked. "Well done, girls and boy. Pretty soon, this plan will be fulfilled."
As the flashback ended, Mercury and Emerald had made it to the entrance of Beacon and walked into the doors of the deserted academy.
"Perfect." Mercury smirked. "From here, we're home free."
Pyrrha and Jaune were climbing down the stairs to the bottom of what was once Beacon Academy. She looked around as they stopped to catch their breath.
"Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Pyrrha asked her partner.
"Avoiding the Grimm was harder than sneaking in." Jaune remarked. "We were lucky finding that unguarded entrance."
"Now we just have to get the remains of the shield you br..."
Pyrrha's thoughts were interrupted as she heard another voice speak, "...We're home free."
"You so sure about that?" a feminine voice asked him.
The two peaked their heads slightly from behind the arch of the wall hiding them, seeing Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black roaming the halls of Beacon Academy. "I'm sure." The two continued speaking to each other as Pyrrha and Jaune watched on, really confused. "We just need to focus on our objective."
"Emerald and Mercury? What are they doing here?" Jaune whispered.
"I don't know. Let's follow them and find out." Pyrrha responded quietly.
The two stealthy followed them. Well sort of... Jaune was fine at sneaking around, but the swords around Pyrrha's waist clinked against each other and Pyrrha's belt, making a noticeable sound. She got scared and quickly hid behind a pillar while Jaune ran and hid behind a wall accessed from an open doorway.
Mercury turned around, followed by Emerald. "Did you hear something?" he asked.
"No. Maybe it's just more structure crumbling and falling apart." Emerald suggested. She shuttered. "Ugh... That's an unnerving thought."
They moved forward, Mercury motioned for his partner in crime to come along. "Come on, we better move before someone finds us."
She frowned and folded her arms. "Who would find us here?"
Jaune looked at Pyrrha with an annoyed glare. "Move quieter!" he whispered.
"I'm trying!" she quietly retorted.
As the villainous duo moved forward, the warriors waited a minute or two before deciding to resume. Pyrrha used her hand to hold up the swords with her Semblance, preventing them from clashing against each other. They moved forward as quickly and quietly as they could, trying hard not to lose them or let the swords fall down.
"Remind me, since we can't go to what remains of Ozpin's office, where is the nearest computer lab?" Emerald asked.
The two reached an elevator. Mercury pressed a button on the left side. "Third floor for this building." he answered. "Hopefully this elevator still works..." Using her right hand, Pyrrha willed the elevator doors not to open. He pressed the button again. The doors would not budge. "Well great." He sighed. "Looks like we have to take the stairs."
Emerald looked around, leery of something. Reluctantly, she shrugged it off. The two continued following the villains silently up the stairs. Eventually they arrived at a computer lab on the third floor. Emerald sat down at the desk and turned on a computer. "Hopefully, this will work..." Much to the surprise of Jaune, Pyrrha and Emerald, it turned on and booted up within seconds. "I'm surprised there's still power here."
Jaune and Pyrrha hid most of their bodies behind a floor bookcase, peeking up to spy on the duo. "Let's not question it." Then he remembered. "Oh yeah, the computers in this lab run on a separate energy source. Most students aren't aware that the computers here can last for 24 hours without power."
Emerald smiled. "Nice." She chuckled. "But this will be quick." When she logged into the system and pulled up the page displaying Beacon Academy's website, she smirked. "Alright, now we just find the right page." She clicked on something, leading her to another page and groaned. "Of course, there's a username and password required."
"Or insert scroll to confirm identity." The murderer's son sighed. "No way to guess the username and password. With the CCT down, Watts can't help us hack into the Beacon Academy files."
The thief slumped in her seat. "For once I wish he was here with us."
Mercury mused to himself for a few seconds. "Maybe there's something else we can do. Try the scrolls you stole."
Emerald dug the stolen scrolls out of her pocket and placed them on the table before picking them up and holding one in each hand. She looked left and right as she examined the scrolls in her hand. "Looks like their names are Brick Bond and... Charles Mustard? Who ends up with a last name of Mustard?"
Mercury shrugged. "Let's try the first one."
She placed the left scroll on the circular scanner in hopes of getting in. The scanner below flashed a red X, and beeped at them. She sighed. "Nothing."
"Maybe Mr. Mustard can help?"
She took his advice and the scanner flashed a green check mark. "Alright, we're in!" Once the page finished loading, it took them to a homepage for faculty where she then typed some words on the keyboard into the search bar. "Now we search Ruby Rose." She typed the words into the search bar and it soon loaded the results. It had at least five different results with Ruby or Rose in their name, but she clicked on the second one, loading the profile and personal information of the Ruby Rose team JNPR knew and befriended. "Perfect."
"Well, this isn't good." Pyrrha mumbled softly.
Jaune whispered, "Why are they doing this? What could Ruby have that they want?"
"I don't know."
Mercury looked around but saw no one, as Jaune and Pyrrha got on their knees to avoid being seen. "Did you hear those voices?" Mercury asked. "I think someone might be following us."
"Are we both going mad?"
Pyrrha, still on her knees whispered urgently, "We have to stop them."
"But how?" Jaune asked under his breath.
"I got an idea."
"Should we download or print the information?" Emerald asked her partner in crime.
"Well the Mistress of Darkness doesn't really care how we get the intel to her. Let's do both just in case." he answered.
Emerald clicked the mouse a few times, set the scroll on the scanner again and then got out a card from her wallet. As she finished retrieving the card, one of Penny's swords come flying towards the direction of her and the computer. Mercury then swiftly kicked it down, but then it glowed with a black outline and tripped Mercury before floating away.
"Ok, someone or something is here. No doubt about it."
Emerald started to make her way to the nearest printer. "Go check it out while I finish the download and printing job."
"The jig is up, Mercury and Emerald!" She came out from her hiding place by standing up and walking away from the bookcase, revealing the possession of Penny's swords to the villainous duo, much to their surprise. Jaune then followed her lead. She held the sword she used earlier in her right hand. "Stand down and no one gets hurt."
"Well, well, what have we here?" She spoke as swiped her card and choose to print out the file. "The murderess and the lost leader." Within seconds, the files of Ruby Rose were made in a physical form of two pages of paper. She picked up the papers, took out a blue folder and stored them inside.
"Shut up! It's not true!"
Emerald laughed at her face and smirked. "Is it a false truth, or is it a lie you tell yourself?" Pyrrha sulked, looking at the ground. Emerald picked up the stolen scrolls and shoved the folder into Mercury's hands.
"What are you up to? What did Ruby ever do to you?!" Jaune retaliated in anger.
"It's not what she did to us." Emerald answered. "It's what she did to Cinder." Both warriors looked at them with a collective 'Huh?' and Emerald shot them down. "We got the information we need, let's beat it!"
The two ran off as the warriors got up from the ground.
"After them!" Pyrrha ordered.
And so, the chase began. The villains ran from the computer lab and into the hall, the sound of Penny's swords clinking loudly as Pyrrha ran after them with Jaune by her side.
"Faster!" Mercury exclaimed.
The two increased their pace.
"We have... to slow... them down!" Jaune exclaimed between breaths.
Pyrrha activated her Semblance to take one of the swords from her belt and broke a flowerpot on a table in an attempt to trip them, but they simply jumped over it.
"We gotta lose em!"
Emerald pointed to her forehead with her index finger. "I got an idea."
Pyrrha and Jaune were now hot on their heels. As they went down the hallway, Emerald let her hand down and clinched her fists she and Mercury continued to run.
"This way!" Mercury exclaimed.
The four ran up several flights of stairs and chased up them up a spiral staircase.
"They're gaining on us!" Emerald exclaimed.
"No kidding!"
"Why are we even going upstairs anyway?"
The two went up several flights of stairs, the sound of clinking swords, heels and boots against the stone steps, heavy breathing echoing as they ascended upstairs. Pyrrha's eyes narrowed as they were focused on her targets. This continued until they reached the fifth floor and Mercury kicked down the door before they ran down a hallway of dorm rooms. This was actually the floor where transfer students participating in the Vytal Festival Tournament. They passed by what was their dorm room, and then team SSSN's old dorm as they swiftly dodged a pile of broken glass and stone.
Jaune was worried they would escape. "They're getting away!"
"Not for long!" Pyrrha exclaimed.
She activated her Semblance again to try and throw the swords at them, but they all missed. Pyrrha picked them up with her Polarity and then continued to pursue them with the blades levitating after them. Eventually the two criminals entered another stairway, this time made of metal. Pyrrha put her swords around her waist and then used her power to make some of the stairs break off and fall to the ground below. As they reached the top of broken staircase, the criminals stopped dead in their tracks.
As Emerald stopped, her blood turned to ice. "Oh no. A dead end!"
Pyrrha and Jaune had finally caught up with them at the top of the stairway. Both Mercury and Emerald were nervous. The warriors heaved for a few seconds before glaring at their opponents.
"End of the line, villains!" Jaune shouted.
Pyrrha pulled one of her swords from the string belt. "It's over!"
Charging forward, she swung her sword, only to have them disappear in a flash. She almost stumbled over the edge and fell, but Jaune swiftly grabbed her wrist in time.
"Gotcha!"
"Thanks Jaune."
He pulled her forward and then they stepped down a few steps to get away from the edge. "What... what just happened?!"
Pyrrha lamented. "We've been tricked."
He raised an eyebrow. "Pardon?"
"I was thinking about this a few days ago. During the singles round, I thought that I saw Penny create hundreds of swords in front of my eyes, but in reality, there weren't that many blades. Before that, Yang attacked Mercury when he approached her calmly, but she claimed she saw him about to attach her. At first, I thought it was an illusion, but if it was an illusion, everyone would have seen Mercury approach her intending to fight her and Yang wouldn't have been eliminated and blamed for attacking a student. Emerald's semblance isn't illusions. It's creating hallucinations..." She paused for a moment. "And that's even more dangerous."
Jaune had no words, but instead gave his partner the most confused look he had ever given her.
In a deserted dorm room, their old dorm room actually, Mercury still held the folder in his arms as he and Emerald panted and closed the door behind him, the latter pressing her right hand to the door as she heaved for breath. She then put her scroll back in her pocket.
Merc smirked. "Well done, Em."
"I think we lost them." Her breathing slowly became more steady. "That was too close." Sweat laced her forehead. "But we did it. We got the information."
Mercury sat down on the bed as his breathing became more steady. "If it weren't for the fact that we're exhausted, trying to get to Beacon for hours and then the chase in which we almost got arrested, I would suggest getting to Salem's realm immediately."
She wiped off the sweat with her arm and exhaled her breath upwards, attempting to cool herself. "You make a good point. Besides, no one would even find us here anyway. But just to be safe..."
She shut the curtains as Mercury set down the folder with Ruby's information on his bed. "Although since we're here and have a chance to catch our breath and rest, I'm curious; What all this does this contain?" He opened the folder and examined the papers. Emerald sat down beside him and began to read silently along with him.
"Well, this is even better than I could have thought." Emerald remarked.
"Oh, yes. Salem will be very pleased with us."
Flying over the land, a crow landed on the ground before shifting and standing up in the form of a human. Qrow Branwen had finally arrived at the Xiao Long-Rose family home. As he entered, he saw Taiyang Xiao Long tuning in to the radio, trying hopelessly to get a signal, radio static heard in the living room as he did this.
Taiyang sighed. "Nothing."
Qrow said, "Just turn it off. Without the CCT, there's no point."
"Communication down across the entire kingdom, no way to contact the outside world... and Ozpin's still missing."
"Yeah."
"This is bad, Qrow."
Taiyang turned off the radio and hung his head as Qrow looked down in somber agreement. "Yeah, this is bad."