And we're back again with another chapter. Chapter 91. Here we go, hope you all enjoy.

Beta: CrowSkull

The Blind Huntsman

Chapter 91

Volume 3, Episode 10

The role of the Jester is to play the Fool

Kai cracked his neck as he wandered about the employee-only section of the festival. There was much less action than he was comfortable with. Only the occasional stupid faunus that thought he was going to try and hurt them. It seemed that Roman was right, it really was just him and his own men disguised as members of the White Fang, but what he couldn't wrap his finger around was why? Why would Roman do this? He must have known that at the very least he was going to be sent to prison for the rest of his life because of what he has done to help Cinder and her allies. So why bother? At that point, Kai would have assumed that the criminal would have thrown his lot in for good with Cinder. The fact that he didn't just expect to be hunted down by him and Winter, but he wanted it didn't spell anything good.

It went as far as him going down to sit on a nearby chair just thinking about it. There really wasn't much else to do until he was called by Winter or Ironwood or anyone from Beacon. He kept his scroll in hand just waiting for that call. His work was done here, now he just had to keep sitting and waiting for his next assignment or to be picked up. There wasn't any White Fang here, not any real ones anyway. Everyone around that he sensed was all normal people just enjoying the festival, and none of them were people he recognized.

"Hah…" Kai sighed loudly, letting his head rest into his other free fist after sheathing Silver Ebony for what seemed to be the last time for the day.

"What a waste of time…"

"Strange," Penny commented as she looked at who everyone else in the arena saw as Kai Matsuoka. "Everyone is cheering you on as if you are Kai Matsuoka, but I can see through your illusion." She pointed out.

The imposter Kai shrugged his shoulders as he turned to look at her, a smirk on his face that she's never quite seen before. The way he moved as well, it just all didn't fit well. At least that's what Penny would have seen had she'd not been an android. Artificial brains were not affected by illusions the same way as real brains were. While the others all saw this illusion as reality, Penny saw who this person really was.

"What is your goal in this, Neopolitan?" Penny asked, tilting her head curiously as what she perceived to be the girl notorious for being the reason why Roman Torchwick was able to escape trouble time and time again. "I can end this match myself, you know. All it takes is one call- Agh!" Penny yelped as she felt a spike of shock in her head. She keeled over for a second and placed both hands on her head. When she cracked her glowing green eyes open, she saw some kind of device being held by the multi-colored girl before her. She continued to smirk cockily at her as she pushed the button again, causing Penny to tense up as she felt her very mind get invaded by some kind of virus.

"I-I've been hacked?" Penny guessed as her body began to move on her own. It was a terrifying feeling. She knew that she was still conscious, but her body was acting is if it had a mind of its own. "How? How is this possible? Father, you promised me this couldn't happen, you promised." Penny felt her back open up, and all of the swords that she kept in there came flying out, each connected by a near-invisible wire in which she controlled them with. She assumed the stance that her father downloaded into her, all the while her eyes were widened with terror.

The girl just smiled wider at her and winked. She hovered a finger over the button and assumed a stance of her own. Her thin sword came sliding slowly out of a sheathe Penny could barely see.

What made it worse was the countdown that started ticking from ten as their presumed match continued to be an event despite the obvious trap. No, Penny had to correct herself. Everyone in the arena wouldn't know what she was seeing, they weren't androids, they were being fooled by the illusion. And she was just a puppet now, she couldn't even speak on her own anymore. Her body just acted and she felt her mind begin to drain away.

Adam hovered over the controls with Oobleck at his side, he had a sword up to his neck, and Mercury aiming a pistol at the tied up Peter Port behind them. "Say it," Adam demanded, pushing Oobleck toward the microphone. "Start the match, or we'll kill your friend."

Oobleck swallowed nervously and closed his eyes, muttering a quiet apology to the headmaster. He nodded slowly, agreeing with Adam's demands. Adam took the bag off from over Oobleck's head and pushed the button down on the microphone for him. He gestured for Oobleck to speak, and he did.

"B-Begin!"

Before he could say anything else Adam put the bag back over his head and shoved him back to the corner where the other professor was bound. He nodded to both Emerald and Mercury, who nodded back while the latter finally started to Livestream what was happening in the arena itself.

Neo pushed the button as soon as the match 'officially' began. Penny felt her mind shut off, and although she was no longer in control, her body continued to act. Now with a deadpan expression on her face, Penny attacked the imposter with all of her weapons.

"Training mode, active," Penny mumbled out robotically.

Neo continued to smirk while wearing Kai's face. She had to put up a good show for the audience so she couldn't kill her opponent just yet, she had to wait until later to do that. Instead, she bent over backward and twisted out of the way of the first three mechanical swords that came flying at her while two more came from her left. Neo deflected the other two blades out of the air and flipped backward, causing the audience to scream their approval. After creating a good amount of distance between her and the android, Neo bent down at ducked under the small beam of green that came out of Penny's chest. The audience went silent for an instant at that, Neo scoffed silently, she barely had to do anything other than pushing a button.

Penny might as well be screaming that she wasn't a normal girl as she continued to fire those green beams of energy at her. Neo dodged them easily, sure, they looked fast and was probably much faster if they were being fired at full strength. But Penny was forced into a training subroutine, and as such even if one of those attacks hit her Neo was sure that her aura would deflect it easily enough. Sure, it would hurt. But Neo didn't get as flexible as she was now without experiencing a decent amount of pain.

She broke down into a split and pushed herself into a handstand before thrusting herself into the air. Penny continued to attack her, but as she got close enough she switched back to using those mechanical swords of hers. They were much too slow to pose a threat, however. Neo made sure to adopt a bit of Kai's style for this part. Simply dodging at the last second when she felt the wind displacement by the blade brush past her body. Since Kai was supposed to be super strong as well, she even went as far as to catch one of the blades that Penny swung at her. The crowd screamed in their excitement, though a decent amount of them was skeptical about their opponent now. Good, let them be. That would just make her job all the easier.

She yanked on the sword and grabbed the cable that was attached to it. She swung her blade into it and cut it, tossing the sword behind her with an uncaring glint in her eyes as the android barely registered the fact that it just lost one of its swords and simply retracted that cable back into her back. Neo continued from there, dodging and weaving through the mirage of blades that would have destroyed anyone else if they weren't prepared for it. For Neo, it was essentially a game.

It was fun for her, in all honestly. She imagined it was fun to watch as well. Using Kai Matsuoka as a face didn't feel strange at all, interestingly enough. He was one of the few people who could actually keep up with her, and when he was going out he could definitely defeat her. Even if it was just his insanely overpowered semblance, Neo couldn't really complain about that, could she? Her own semblance basically made any normal opponent unable to really keep track of her without some kind of prior knowledge of her semblance and even then it was near impossible to really know what her next move was going to be. Against a blind person like Kai, that was different. She noticed that she could at least fool him into thinking there was something there where there wasn't, but that was about it.

Thinking about fighting someone else while fighting an android made Neo laugh silently. Perhaps if Penny was allowed to fight at her full strength she would most likely defeat her since she assumed correctly that her illusions don't work on androids like her. She wouldn't want to fight something like that anyway. Originally they were going to do something much different, like using that girl with the polarity semblance, but things changed and Cinder's old plans got figured out. More drastic measures were taken into consideration, and, well, here she was now.

Sure, Penny wasn't that bad, Neo thought as she cut off two more of her blades and kicked the android in the stomach three times in quick succession, driving it back. She was just in training mode, why there was a training mode for an android like her was a mystery, but Neo assumed that it was so she could be taught different techniques by other Specialists and the like. An artificial mind that could learn and sharpen its own knowledge was a dangerous weapon for anyone to have. Though she wasn't going to be a big issue soon enough.

Penny fell flat on her back as the imposter Kai slammed the flat of his sword into her face, cracking the androids face entirely. Green sparks came out of the open wound in her face and right there the world saw what Neo needed them to see. Penny Polendina was not a normal girl and in fact, she was not even a person at all, but an android. The fake girl stood up anyway despite what would have been a devastating wound for anyone else. She didn't even regard it as an issue. Good.

Neo had turned off Penny's aura a long time ago. The fact that it was a function in the first place made her wonder how Atlas' greatest genius got to where he was today. Cinder's ally Watts was all too happy to help them with this idea once Cinder called him and asked him to make a remote to control the key functions of Penny's combat capabilities.

"I-I am C-C-Combat Ready." The android stammered.

Sure she was. Neo shook her head and rolled her eyes. Again and again with that same saying. Not that she'd ever actually heard of it before but Mercury once commented that she said that before the two of them fought each other. From what she heard, Mercury had a bit of trouble with her. She could imagine why since her body was made of metal and while Mercury was practically a cyborg himself it had to hurt constantly clashing his metal leg which was attached to a soft, fleshy body. She had to respect him a bit for that, his tolerance for pain was top of the line.

Neo grabbed on to the last sword that was remaining and held it taught. Penny was riddled by cuts and slashes to her body, something that had the crowd shocked into silence. She pulled it taught and slashed at the final cable. With no more blades left and her aura deactivated, Penny could barely even stand up straight. Though that was mostly because Neo slashed at the back of her knees and heels to make her easier to pin down and demolish. With Kai's face, Neo flourished her sword and walked closer and closer to the defeated Android. The remote Watts made for this very occasion was useless now, and she threw it over her shoulder without another care in the world. She kicked out one of Penny's legs and the android tripped over herself and onto her side, landing hard on the ground.

The world saw Kai Matsuoka stomp down on Penny's head and crush it deeper into the ground. Her robotic skull proved to be much harder to destroy than she thought, and instead, he simply thrust his sword into Penny's shoulder and popped off one of her arms. The Android didn't scream, she couldn't even feel the pain. One by one, the imposter cut off each of Penny's limbs. Kicking them all away to show the world that Penny was an android made by Atlas and put into a tournament to fight children. Thankfully, Kai Matsuoka was there to put an end to it.

At last, Neo had enough with her games and stabbed her sword directly into Penny's chest where the heart would usually be. She didn't think it'd do anything really, but when the glow from Penny's eyes faded away and her eyes dilated Neo knew that Penny was as dead as she could be. Stepping back, Neo, still wearing Kai's face, turned to face the crowd and gestured to the robotic mess.

From inside of the room where Adam was, he called Cinder on his scroll. She answered almost instantly.

"Now," He told her.

He put the scroll up to the microphone and put it on speaker and left it there.

"Thank you for your assistance, Kai Matsuoka," Cinder's voice said as it echoed throughout the entire arena and on every television channel in Vale. "The world is made just a little safer due to your actions, I am glad that we could work past our differences and make this moment possible, together."

Down in the arena, the fake Kai nodded and bowed toward the source of the sound. The crowd immediately began to get riled up, confused, shocked, and unable to believe what they were hearing now.

"I am Cinder Fall," She addressed the crowd. "And all of you are fools. Look, look and see what Atlas, the undoubtedly most powerful kingdom in the world, has created. Artificial humans are what they'd call them. Abomination is what I'd call them. And you all think that I am the monster? Hmph, you don't know what a monster truly is."

"I will tear down this corrupt and outdated society that you created, and you will know who is the real monster. The ones you rely on in high government, the council, would rather let thousands of innocent people die than risk themselves to protect the people they are sworn to protect. Take Mountain Glenn for example,"

On the screen where it would usually show the aura gauge of the competitors within the arena itself shifted and flickered. A recording popped up and it started playing automatically. Within it showed a man within the tunnels of Mountain Glenn, bodies strung about, torn asunder, but with people still fighting and running away for their lives. He looked back at what seemed to be his own teammates and shook his head, dark, dead eyes staring back at the one who was recording what was happening. The man pushed a button on his scroll and the explosion that collapsed the tunnels ensued, killing the ones lucky enough to be close to the explosion and trapping thousands of people on the other side of the rubble. The recording when black quickly after.

"An unnamed man tasked with destroying the tunnels and did so without so much as a second thought. Those are the men in power, the ones so willing to let thousands of people die in order to protect themselves. How does this relate to our current leaders, you might ask? Well, allow me to explain."

"Kai Matsuoka, the boy you see before you right now, is naught but an eighteen-year-old child, and yet he was chosen to be the one to go after me and kill me. His childhood was taken from him early, and he began to truly understand the darkness of the world before he even understood what his role in it was. He came for me, time and time again, but I showed him the way," Cinder laughed much too loudly for anyone's comfort. "Together, we agreed to change the world. Starting today, we will show you who your true allies really are. Who will stay by your side and protect you? Who will sacrifice you in order to save themselves? I know who I can trust, I wish I could say the same for you."

Flying-type Grimm began slamming into the protective shield at the top of the Amity arena. Causing panic to ensue. Causing negativity to flourish and take hold. Just what Cinder needed. The scroll hung up and the damage was done.

Ruby punched the force field keeping her out of the arena. "STOP!" She cried out futily, her friend was already dead. "LEAVE HER ALONE!"

"Ruby!" Yang grabbed her sister and pulled her away from the shield. "She's gone! There's nothing we can do about it now!"

"Penny!" Ruby screamed, kicking and struggling to get out of her sister's grip.

"She's an android!" Orchid pointed out. "She can be rebuilt! You can't! Blake, where is she now?"

"The imposter is leaving through one of the connected locker rooms," Blake said as she narrowed her eyes at who she knew was definitely not her partner despite having the same face. "She's probably going to get away through there."

"Should we go after her?" Orchid asked.

"Hell no!" Yang exclaimed, hugging her sister tightly from behind. "By the time we get there, she'll be long gone. We should meet up with Ren and Weiss, they are nearby."

"What about Rick?" Blake asked.

"Rick is in Vale somewhere with his brother, they'll be fine," Yang replied. "Ruby, it's okay, Penny's a robot, she'll probably be back before you know it."

"P-Penny…" Ruby sobbed, finally calming down and sagging in her sisters hold.

"I know baby, I know," Yang stroked her hair and kissed the back of her head. "I know it hurts, but I- no, we need you to be strong right now. Cinder is making her move and I'm willing to bet she's about to attack Beacon."

"We… can't let that…"

"Exactly," Yang turned her sister around and looked into her eyes. "We have to stop her."

A nearby sudden explosion had the girls nearly falling over. They all turned to see the giant ball of fire rising into the air, smoke bellowed out into the arena and the shields flickered out. People began to panic even more as the Grimm that was trying to break through the shield in the ceiling finally had a way to get to their prey.

"Shit…" Yang said as she let go of Ruby and activated Ember Celica, never really got rid of it since her first spat with Vernal the other day. "Looks like we aren't going anywhere just yet."

"My weapon should be here soon," Blake said as she put her scroll back into her pocket. "It'll take a minute, though."

"Same here," Orchid said as she typed her passcode into her own scroll and called her weapon. "But I can still fight," She closed her eyes and her fists clenched at their sides. When she opened them again, there was a different kind of glint to them. Yang nodded to the different personality of Orchid and she nodded back in turn.

"Ruby," Blake placed a shoulder on her leader's shoulder. "Can you fight with us?"

"I…" Ruby shook her head and wiped away the sorrowful tears. "Yes, I definitely can. I just have to call my weapon. Sorry about before…"

"Don't be," Blake smiled at her. "I know what it's like to lose friends. It's not easy."

"Get ready!" Yang exclaimed as she hopped onto the railing. "We have to protect the people in the stands and make sure the Grimm doesn't get into the halls of Amity."

"We aren't going to be the only ones fighting," Blake pointed out, gesturing to the teams that were already assembling in the arena the moment the shield went down. "Team COCO and others are already down there, we should focus on the people in the stands first since they are the ones in immediate danger right now. They should take top priority."

"Sounds like a plan," Yang replied.

"Wait," Ruby called in her weapon and stopped her friends before they could runoff. "What about Kai? We know that wasn't him, he could be in trouble right now!"

"Ruby, the last person I'd think wouldn't be able to take care of themselves would be Kai," Yang said. "He can take care of himself. We know for sure he'd never betray us and join Cinder-"

"No, no, it's not that." Ruby corrected. "Everyones going to think that he's working with Cinder now, sure, we know for sure that he's not. But they framed him! People on our side might be gunning for him now!"

"The headmaster won't let that happen, trust me," Yang scoffed. "He needs him, after all. For his stupid little something that's going on."

"Ruby's still right," Blake pointed out. "You said he's on a mission in Vale right? He has no idea what is happening right now, and when he shows himself people are going to panic first and ask questions later. As far as the world knows, despite it being a clear lie, Kai is now a terrorist and working for Cinder."

"Rick and Brick are in Vale as well," Orchid pointed out next, despite being in a relatively brutish personality, she still knew what to say. "Tell them the situation and have them try to find him. That way he can at least have some people to vouch for them."

"I'll call Brick and let him know what's happening," Yang accepted, finally convinced. "The rest of you go and take care of the Grimm, I want to be able to explain this without having to juggle them on my other hand."

"Deal," Ruby turned to Blake and Orchid, nodding to them. "As soon as our weapons land in the arena we'll grab them and protect the people in the stands. Once they are all safe, we'll all go back to Beacon and help defend it. As Yang said, Cinder is probably going to try attacking the school. We can't let her win, not anymore. The world has already been through so much, and if Beacon falls the other schools are bound to come following like dominoes," Ruby spared a glance toward Penny, who was still torn apart by Neo unlike what her imagination wanted to tell her otherwise. She closed her eyes and sighed, reigning her emotions back under control. "Rick and Brick will help Kai, so we shouldn't have to worry about him."

"What if we run into Cinder?" Blake asked. "Ozpin recruited Kai because he's so powerful… Ruby, do you think you could…?" As she posed the question she notably stared into her eyes.

Ruby gulped and really thought about it. She never had to face Cinder before, but all of a sudden it was a very real possibility that she might be the one who has to. She looked away and down to the floor before raising her head and nodding. "I have to be, I am a silver-eyed warrior," she proclaimed. "Kai has been training me to use them for a reason, no one else bothered to even tell me about their power in the first place. It wouldn't make sense if I didn't share some of the same powers that he did."

"Good to hear," Orchid nodded to the sky. "Our weapons are coming now, I can see them. Get ready to for a fight, I don't know when we'll be able to stop."

"Fine by me," Ruby got onto the railing with her two teammates. "Let's go, we've stood here talking long enough."

"Brick!" Yang exclaimed into her scroll once the other girls jumped into the arena to retrieve their weapons. "Listen, I don't have time to explain but you have to go find Kai! Help him, he's in Vale somewhere - probably the festival part of it. Make sure he's safe, and stay with him. Bring him back to Beacon if you can!"

"I don't understand, what's happening?"

"I said I don't have time to explain!" Yang shouted. "Just do as I say! I'll explain it to you as soon as I can, but Beacon is about to be under attack!"

She hung up the scroll before any more questions could be asked. Taking in a deep breath for herself, she looked into the arena as Ruby and her team collected their weapons. Steeling herself for a long night, she hopped over the railing and joined them in the fight against the Grimm.

"What the hell is happening Torchwick!" Ironwood asked as he slammed his robotic fist into Roman's jaw, knocking out several teeth and cracking through aura. "You said that an attack on Beacon was coming, not anything like this!"

"I- hack - was getting to that you little shit!" Roman exclaimed, spitting out blood as he shifted to try and get more comfortable in his tiny cell with a very angry General screaming in his face. "You didn't let me finish, and for your sake, I really hope you do. There isn't much time left until the next phase starts."

"What next phase?" Ironwood asked as he cleaned off his fist. "Tell me Roman, or else I'd have a full mind to execute you here and now."

"Straight to the tyranny route eh?" Roman chuckled. "Relax, I'm not going to hold anything back from you. As you can guess, Cinder, Adam, and the bulk of the White Fang are headed to Beacon to start some chaos there. The negativity will bring the Grimm, and when it gets bad enough, she is going to come and start the next phase of the invasion."

"Who is she?" Ironwood asked.

Roman laughed. "Do you really have to ask, Tin Man? Who the hell do you think?"

Ironwood grit his teeth and turned to a nearby Specialist. "Pass this message to communications and inform all of our men to get ready for a fight. They are authorized to use whatever weapons they have in their arsenal."

"Yes sir!" The Specialist saluted and ran off down the hallway.

"I'd get that fucked up maiden of yours to Beacon too as soon as possible if I were you." Roman continued. "Without your pet warrior, she's gonna be your best bet."

"Why am I not surprised that you know about that?" Ironwood asked, glaring at the criminal.

Roman shrugged. "I got my secrets and you got yours, lets leave it at that for now yeah?"

"Who was the one who framed Kai in the tournament?" Ironwood asked next. "That will be useful in clearing his name after that last stunt."

"Sorry, that one I'm going to have to take to the grave," Roman said with a blood smile. "You'll have to figure that one out on your own."

"Tch," Ironwood wanted to hit the man again, but he refrained from doing so. It wouldn't be unlike Roman to shut off his aura right as he was about to hit him so that he'd either render him unconscious or kill him entirely. "Is there anything else I should know or are you completely useless to me now?"

"A bit of the latter right about now, yeah," Roman said. "I could tell you what Cinder likes to eat for dinner but I imagine that isn't really that important to you at the moment."

"Damn it," Ironwood looked at another nearby Specialist. "Stay here and make sure he doesn't escape, restrain anyone who enters this hall. Right now, nobody but you or I should be here."

"Sir!" The second Specialist saluted.

"Torchwick," Ironwood looked the criminal in the eye. "At the very least you will get a life sentence because of your cooperation. Or I could be merciful and end it quickly with a death penalty."

"Charming," Roman yawned, having expected this outcome a long time ago.

Ironwood stormed off to help man the battle stations.

"What the hell is going on out there?" Kai asked as he placed his hands on the ground, focusing all around his immediate area. "It's chaos out there… Is the White Fang attacking? No…" He listened carefully to the panicked screams, zoning in on the words that some of them were able to reasonably speak. "Grimm? Both?" Even then, it was hard to make it out. Kai huffed and stood back up, unsheathing Silver Ebony and getting ready to cut through the tent and to the outside.

A portal opened up behind him before he could.

"Raven?" Kai turned to face his teacher, who stepped through the portal and stared at him with a strange expression on her face. "What are you doing here all of a sudden? It's been a while, but I don't think we can-"

"Come with me," Raven said as she placed a hand on Kai's shoulder. "Come to my tribe, live there with me."

Kai widened his blind eyes, shocked and confused. "W-what are you saying?"

"Leave Vale," Raven continued. "Leave Beacon, leave Ozpin, and this stupid war you've been dragged into. I'll take your mother and sister too, I'll give you all a chance to finally live a normal life."

"You're serious," Kai didn't know what to make of this, out of everyone he has ever known Raven was the absolute last he'd expect to make an offer like this to him. Not even Qrow or Tai bothered. Ironwood did in his own way, but that didn't offer him an escape from the war. "Why are you serious? And your heart," Kai felt his brow scrunch as he turned his face up toward Raven's. "Why are you panicking? You never panic about anything, this doesn't make any sense."

"Just do as I say, boy!" Raven's other hand cupped his other shoulder. "I put too much effort into you just for you to die here defending people who will never thank you or even show a scrap of gratitude. I made a promise to Malikai and I am going to keep it."

"You promised my dad what?"

"That I'd take care of you whenever I could damnit!" Raven revealed, uncaring for the consequences that may follow. "That I'd train you, turn you into something Ozpin couldn't control, and I did that. But I am not going to let that go all to waste. I care about you now, I can't let you fall here."

Raven admitting that she cared for him… something was definitely wrong.

"Raven…" Kai reached up and intertwined his fingers into her hands. "You don't need to protect me anymore, I'm strong enough to protect myself now. Why are you panicking so much? Are the White Fang attacking? The Grimm? We can handle it, Beacon, Atlas, and Vale are here and stronger than ever. We pushed them back once at the breach, and we can push them back again."

"Not this time," Raven said in a tone Kai almost didn't recognize at all. "This is not an enemy you can beat. I… I flew around Vale, Kai, in my bird form. I've seen what is coming and it is coming fast. More Grimm than I've ever seen in one place before. No amount of military strength can beat this force back. If you stay, you will die."

"This isn't like you, Raven," Kai pointed out. "Dancing around points like this… just tell me what's coming, I'll take care of it myself if I have to. I'm a silver-eyed warrior, remember?"

"There's a reason the silver-eyed warriors were nearly wiped out," Raven said. "Better men and women than you have tried to end the war, and they all failed. You will fare no better."

"What's happening Raven!?"

"Come with me and I'll explain later-"

"No!" Kai tore his hands away from Raven's and jumped away from her. "Not until I get some goddamn fucking answers for once! Why are you so panicked? What's happening? Who is coming? Tell me! I am sick and tired of these fucking games and unanswered questions."

"Salem."

Kai's temper died down just as fast as it flared.

"Salem is coming. Is that what you want to hear?" Raven asked, crossing her arms and making to stop herself from her shaking body. "Salem is coming and she plans to not only destroy Beacon but everyone in Vale. If you stay, you will die. Nothing will change that. But I can offer you a way out," She explained. "I can get you and your family out, it'll be years until they get to Mistral, or maybe they won't even go there at all, who knows."

"Heh…" Kai chuckled darkly to himself, shaking his head and silencing Raven. "Fate really is cruel to me… isn't it? First, it took my childhood away, then my father, then my sanity bit by bit and now it wants to take away my home?"

"Kai?"

"You know the answer already, Raven," Kai said as he clenched his grip tighter around Silver Ebony's handle. "You know what I am going to say. No, I won't go with you, I can't, I'm the only one who even has a sliver of a chance at stopping her. Even if it's less than one percent, it's odds that I am willing to take to put a stop to this once and for all."

"Kai…" Raven took a soft tone with him for once in her life. "If you do this… I won't be able to help you and safely guarantee the protection of my tribe. This is now or never, you won't be able to get an offer like this again." Shutting her eyes and swallowing her pride, she continued. "Please, don't go out as Summer did, don't follow that same stupid path that all the warriors under Ozpin's control took and died on."

"I'm sorry…" Kai said as he turned his back on Raven. "I have to at least try."

Raven nodded her head before turning her back on him as well. "T-then…" She grabbed her forearm and refused to get emotional. "That's it then, you're on your own. I can't help you anymore."

"That's fine," Kai smiled sadly. "It's not like you and I were ever meant to continue this relationship forever. But for what it's worth, thank you." Silver Ebony began to glow its silver color as Kai took in a deep breath. "If it wasn't for you, I would have never been able to get this strong. And… I…"

He stopped when he realized that Raven wasn't behind him anymore. She'd left through the portal as soon as he thanked her. Typical Raven, Kai thought. She was always the type to never let him get the last word at her.

Steeling himself for the umpteenth time, Kai cut through the tent to the outside and stepped out.

And the chapter is finished. I'm going to take it easy with these next few chapters as they are the really important ones. Things are happening, as they say, and as such, I need to be sure that everything is the way I need it to be. In the meantime, enjoy it. I may take a break for a week or two from this just to recover a bit of brainpower. We'll see what happens.

T w itter . com (slash) genatools

P a treon . com (slash) Genatools