Chapter 52: Setting Sun

See ya!

"Welcome, my friends, welcome! Today, we begin the first match of the doubles portion of this year's Vytal Festival Tournament. In one corner, we have Cinder Fall and Mercury Black, representing Team CMEN. Opposing them is the mighty Team SSSN, or Social Security Number, with Sun Wukong and Sage Ayana."

The monkey thing glanced at Mercury before his gaze settled on Cinder. Did…Did he know his fly was undone? Was this some kind of Mistrilian fashion statement? Mercury had no clue – he was only ever a fake student at Haven, and he'd no clue how real ones were supposed to behave.

"Sun's out guns out! So, you're the leader of Team CMEN. How was that said again? Is it pronounced phonetically?"

"I am the leader of Team Caiman."

"Team Semen, huh."

"Team Caiman."

"Well, Team Semen, behold my mighty pole."

Mercury made sure to keep his eyes on Wukong's weapon. His huntsman weapon. The staff was glowing all sorts of weird colors, shifting from red to blue to gold.

The idiot announcer hooted and hollered. "Quite the masculine staff! My own manly weapon is one of far greater girth, but young Sun has me outclassed in terms of length. Oh, I'm green with envy. Not unlike Sun's staff right now."

Cinder nocked an arrow. "Laugh it up while you can. This will be as far as you go in the tournament."

"Nay," cried Sun. "This is not the end of the line for me. Today is the day I beat out Semen with my manly staff. Mark my words – before the Sun has set, Semen shall lay on the ground by my feet. This I swear!"

The crowd cheered, and Mercury changed his mind about his preferred line of work. Maybe he could be an assassin after all. He certainly wouldn't mind murdering every single living person in this arena right now.

Or just Sun. That would work. Maybe the fat announcer, too.

"Begin!"

Before Mercury could move, Cinder was loosing arrows and casting fireballs are Team SSSN. Shards of glass swirled into a tornado and swept up Sage while explosive blasts from the arrows pushed Sun closer to the edge of the arena. Cinder Fall fighting on the battlefield was a wonder to behold. She ducked and weaved past attacks so easily that Team SSSN seemed lethargic by comparison. The Faunus leader sent swarms of glowing body doubles after her, but not a single one managed to land a tap.

Mercury looked at the scoreboard. Cinder's aura was at 97%, while Sun was already down to 50% and Sage was at 29%. Mercury would've bet cold hard cash that the 3% loss was from the use of her semblance. There was no doubt in his mind – Cinder was going to win this tournament. No force on Remnant could stop her.

Unbeknownst to Mercury, a head of orange hair was watching the fight intently.

The monkey was firing a flurry of Dust attacks at Cinder, gravity mixed with fire and wind, and even a touch of ice thrown in. The attack was so voluminous that Mercury wondered where he even got that much Dust. Still, Cinder evaded them all and sent her glass tornado out of the ring.

That chonk professor guy noted that Sage was eliminated, and Mercury suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be participating. He raised a leg and fired some potshots at Wukong. Perhaps if Mercury distracted him, Cinder would have an easier time–

"MINE!"

Something exploded, and Mercury was outside of the arena.

You know, with the benefit of hindsight, it actually seemed quite obvious not to help (aka: get in the way of) Cinder when she was immersed in combat. Why had he ever thought it was a good idea to target prey that was her?

Mercury noticed Sage Ayana, the other SSSN member, was sitting next to him. He elbowed him softly.

"Hey, why does your leader keep his fly undone? Does he not see that his dick is hanging out? It's super weird."

"Oh, thank the Brothers." Sage wiped sweat from his brow. "I thought it was just me who noticed."

Sun Wukong landed in front of the two of them with a thud, signaling that Cinder had emerged victorious once more.

"Oh, hey guys. Whatcha talkin' about?"

"Fishing," said Sage.

"Airships," said Mercury.

"Fishing out of airships," said Sage. "We were planning a vacation."

"Neat. Can I come?"

"No," said Mercury quickly. "The airship got shot down."

Sun flinched in horror at the news. "Just now?"

Sage nodded. "Just now. 'Twas a tragedy. Several families were on board. And all the fish died. F-From…"

"…unrelated acid rain," finished Mercury.

"Hey!" exclaimed Sun. "My fly's undone!" He zipped it up and looked at the two other boys. "Why did no one tell me?"

Mercury walked down the corridor to where Morrighan was being contained. He'd tried to talk himself out of it, but in the end, he couldn't resist visiting her. Besides, even if she was obviously trying to get free, he still had the drop on her. If she tried anything, then…well, she literally couldn't try anything. She was chained up and he wasn't. End of story.

Mercury swung open the door. "Get out the fine china, dearie, because we're having a–"

The Grimm was free.

"–tea party."

Tails wrapped around his throat in a flash. Mercury kicked his legs up to defend himself, but the Grimm tore them both off in a single fell swoop.

She…She just…tore them off. Like they were no flimsier than the cheap faux leather boots he wore to cover them in public.

The last time Mercury had felt so utterly terrified was when he'd lost his flesh legs the first time around. The tails wrapped around his stumps and slammed him into the wall repeatedly until his aura broke.

Her tusks came far closer than he was comfortable, pressing into his cheeks. "Now, here's how this is going to work. I can't exactly have gotten free by my own devices, and we'd like to keep Penny's involvement a secret."

Mercury hadn't even noted the little robot girl. Penny closed her eyes and waved, a giant smile plastered across her face.

"Salutations, Mercury Black. I'm sorry to depart when you've only just arrived, but I have a tournament match in less than 30 minutes for which I must prepare. Goodbye, all!"

She nodded at Morrighan, then slipped out the door. Morrighan growled at Mercury, tusks pressing deeper into his skin until thick red droplets of blood popped out.

"You will wait until I'm long gone. Then, you will crawl out of here like a wounded insect. Then, you will confess to sneaking around Beacon, finding me, and freeing me out of curiosity, thinking I was a lower Grimm. You will tell them I maimed you, and you barely escaped with your life."

Mercury struggled to push his face backwards and get further away from the pincers on her face, but his back was already to the wall. "Cinder will kill me if I draw undue attention to–"

Tails wrapped around his neck. "It seems that you don't understand the situation you're in."

"Okay, okay." Mercury raised up his hands in surrender.

"Your team has advanced to the singles, no?"

"We did."

"Then no one will have reason to complain when you are unable to fight. At this point, victory is up no one be your leader. Anyhow, her or anyone's ire towards you is no longer my concern. You are on your own now, human."

The tails wrapped tighter around his throat, and Mercury began to gasp for breath. The Grimm's arm fins stood up, and she slowly used them to draw two long cuts across his chest. Mercury bit down on his teeth through the pain to hold in his scream.

"This brings me no pleasure, child. You could have freed me when you had the chance, and I would have aided you against your father. Now, you are but a pawn."

Morrighan threw him to the back of the room, leaving a long smear of blood in the defeated boy's wake. The pain was too much, and he yelped briefly in agony before getting control of himself. Gathering the last lingering dregs of his stamina, he weakly flipped himself over and limply pulled himself with his arms towards the corner of the room.

Turning her back on him, Morrighan made her way to the door. The door was too large for her, so she crouched down slightly. Before she exited, she paused for a second, emitting a low growl.

"Some free advice that you'd best heed if you are ever to break free of the chains others place upon you. One will always be a pawn for others unless they may resist the–"

BANG!

Mercury felt a slight tinge of curiosity as he watched Morrighan slump in the doorway. What would her advice have been? Guess it didn't matter now.

Dropping the severed leg he was holding, he pulled himself towards her body. It would've been nice to reattach the legs, but he didn't exactly have the mechanical skills to fix the damage that had been incurred when they were torn off. He was lucky enough that the gun mechanism hadn't been broken, and doubly so that he still had some live rounds loaded from his short fight with Team SSSN. Shooting someone in the back was an assassin's bread and butter – people tended to not raise their aura when they didn't see the danger.

Huh. I guess she becomes a regular Grimm when her power passes on.

Morrighan's body began to disintegrate as he dragged himself over it, starting at the point in the head where the shot had passed through. It was a real shame that she'd had to die, but it was necessary. After all, if he let her live…

Mercury stopped crawling from a moment.

If I let her live…

She had finished injuring him and had let him go. There was no more pressing danger.

Why had he killed her?

H-His cover! That was it. He'd killed her to prevent having to draw attention to Cinder's phony team. They were lying low, after all…

No, that didn't track. Even with Emerald's semblance, Mercury wasn't going to be able to hide his wounds and missing legs from the authorities. When Beacon discovered Morrighan was missing, they'd put two and two together, so he'd have to roll with the made-up story of discovering her and accidentally releasing her.

He'd killed her for nothing. The only being who'd shown any remote interest in him, even if it was fake, and he'd impulsively murdered her.

Welp.

Mercury continued to drag himself down the hallway towards freedom. Maybe he'd get lucky, and the robot girl would be there. She would help him.

Or would she? Mercury wasn't sure if where Penny's loyalties lay. He hadn't even known she was on Cinder's side until now. All he knew was that she had freed Morrighan, who Mercury recently shot dead.

…perhaps it would be better if I didn't bump into Penny.

When he reached the hallway, Mercury pushed on the door, but it was closed, and the lock was too high to reach. Propping himself up, he loudly banged on it with both fists. This was probably for the best. Looking pathetic would help him sell the mischievous-student-accidently-stumbling-upon-horrific-Grimm-monstrosity-and-barely-making-it-out-alive act that he would have to promote from now on.

The door opened, and Mercury spilled forward.

"Mercury?"

Ruby Rose was so ready, they shoulda called her Ready Rose. Neon Katt and Flynt Coal, her opponents in the doubles round, wouldn't know what hit them.

They had originally planned for it to be Yang to go in her place, but Yang + Weiss = Lose, so Ruby went in her stead. Weiss' Glyphs were too versatile to not push forward, and only Ruby could make up for Yang in terms of raw attacking power. Plus, the bird thing would definitely be a nice trick up her sleeve.

No, a nice feather in my cap! Because birb!

Flynt tipped his hat, drawing her attention back to the present. The match was moments way from starting, and she needed to focus.

Welp, time to get started.

Flynt fingered his fedora like a nerd. "Hey, you're Wei–"

Ruby pointed Crescent Rose at him. "Team Fucky! Prepare your anuses!"

The auditorium went silent. Team Fucky stared at her, wide eyed. Neo was right; this trash talk stuff was really good at getting into her opponents' heads.

"For we, the majesty that is Team Rainbow, shall soon be rummaging around within them! We're loud, we're proud, we're 75% lesbians, and the other 25% is 100% pain! It's a dog eat dog world, and I intend to be the dog! Your bones are brittle and frail, while mine are calcium-enriched by the vast volumes of milk I drink wholesale! Where's the beef? I am the beef! And I have a beef – with you! I float like a butterfly and sting like a butterfly with a gun! When you two are dead, I'll bang the collective sum of all your moms AND all your dads…but in three years, when I'm legally old enough to bang! You see this scythe? It's going up your butts, and then Weiss will shove her pickaxe down your throats, and we'll shake hands in the middle like that image of the two buff guys shaking hands in a cool way! And we'll arm wrestle!"

A text dinged on her scroll. Ruby quickly checked it.

Pint Size: Wonderful! Spectacular! Inspirational! ˘ ᗜ ˘ Team Fucky is going down down doodle-doo down!

Little Red: I'll bathe in their blood.

Pint Size: Smite the nonbelievers, sister! ( ͜`ʖ') One of them seeks to steal my name. Kill her last so she may see her friend fall first.

"Ruby, are you feeling alright?" asked Weiss.

"Never better! Now, let's show these punks why Valeans rule and Atlesians drool!"

Weiss stared at Ruby for a few seconds.

Ruby coughed. "Uh, 'cept you, old buddy old pal. You da bomb."

Weiss shook her head and drew Schachmatt. Team Fucky got out their trumpets and roller-skates.

Ruby did a double take.

Yeah, no, they were in fact wielding a musical instrument and wheelie shoes. Neon looked like she wanted to say something, but Ruby's words had obviously left her speechless. Her bottom lip eventually closed, without a single word having come out.

Professor Port and Dynasty Hamstringer Flipswitch called the match. Neon roller-bladed around them in a wide loop, and Flynt blew some sort of sound wave out of his trumpet. Weiss braced herself, but Ruby just sighed and placed a hand on her teammate's shoulder. His air waves or whatever were strong, but Ruby's semblance was stronger. She didn't even need to jog; just a brisk stroll was enough to drag Weiss right up to him. Flynt stopped playing and stumbled backwards in slow motion at the sudden appearance of his two enemies right in front of him.

"YYoouu ggoott tthhiiss?"

"YY – YYeeaahh. II gguueessss."

"GGoooodd. II'llll hhaannddllee tthhee ootthheerr oonnee."

She let go of Weiss, who fell out of the time bubble and slowly began to duel Flynt. Ruby scanned the arena for the cat Faunus. As cat Faunus went, Blake and her super cute kitty ears were better, but Ruby thought it might be racist to go around judging Faunus by their animal traits, so she held her tongue.

"–nevermissabeatnevermissabeatnevermissabeat–"

Was she talking to herself? Even without the slow motion that Ruby perceived, it sounded weird. Weiss, her mecha-mom, and General Ironwood were all super serious, but these Atlesians seemed as wacky and zany as, like, Nora. And one Nora Valkyrie was enough for the world. The sooner she ended Team Fucky, the better. Ruby aimed Crescent Rose and fired at Neon's head. The shot missed, but a small tuft of pinkish-orange hair fell to the floor.

"–myhairmybeautifulpigtailshowcouldyou–"

Ruby slowed down.

"–do this? It'll take forever to grow that back."

"I warned you. Your butthole is next, girl."

Neon shrieked and covered the back of her skirt with both hands as Ruby advanced towards her menacingly, gripping Crescent Rose with both hands. Suddenly, Neon was on the attack, roller-skated forward and swinging her nun-chucks at Ruby. Ruby dropped Crescent Rose and flew upwards.

Practically the entire arena gasped in surprise. Neon looked around in confusion, then glanced to the big screen. It took her a minute or two to figure out where her opponent had gone.

"Whaaaaaa? Is that you, crazy girl? You're a crow?"

A rook! You'll die for that, sinner.

Goodwitch's voice on the audio system caught her bird ears. "H-How…?"

"Bird Dust, my dear Glynda," said Port. "Copious bucketfuls of Bird Dust."

Ruby dove down towards her and cawed. Neon raised her arms to cover her head, but the foolish girl's head wasn't Ruby's target. Sailing past Neon's dumb face, Ruby stopped at waist height and began to peck at her cat tail.

"No! Not my butthole!"

"SKREEAW!"

Neon tried to flee, but it was futile. Ruby had discovered earlier that she could still use her semblance and aura as a bird. No pair of roller-skates, not even weapons grade ones, could outpace Rhubarb Rook Rose, superspeed bird bestgirl extraordinaire. Petals fell from her wings as she flapped. Neon fearfully tried to swat her out of the air, but her movements were frantic and uncoordinated.

Ruby pecked her tail and pecked her shoulders and pecked her all over. It was a heckin' peckin' bloodbath. She only stopped when the Faunus' aura dropped to 23%. One more peck, and it would be over, but Neo had asked her to leave Neon for last. Ruby slipped back into a human.

"Let this be a warning! Cross the Rainbows and perish to our just and noble wrath!"

Neon hunched over in fear as Ruby swung Crescent Rose. At the last moment, she changed trajectory and sliced through the laces of the roller-skates, effectively neutralizing them.

"I shall return to claim your soul."

Ruby realized afterwards that there might have been some unintentional implications when she said stuff like that and held a scythe, but it was too late to take it back. Ruby checked the scoreboard. Flynt's aura was…higher than Weiss'? She morphed, flew up into the air, and circled around to see Weiss duking it out with Flynt. And also Flynt. Not to mention Flynt, again. And how could she forget about Flynt?

"That's Flynt Coal's semblances, ladies and gentleman…and gentleladybirds. Killer Quartet allows him to create four identical duplicates of himself and use them in combat. Not dissimilar to Sun Wukong's Via Sun that we saw this morning, though there are some differences that might be noticed by combat connoisseurs like myself."

Ruby flew over to Weiss and Flynt and transformed into a human midair. She landed on top of the rightmost Flynt's shoulders and knocked him into a fiery pit of lava, making the other Flynts disappear. The trumpeter rolled out of the inferno just as his aura fell into the yellow and began to blow his horn loudly. Ruby entered her time bubble and sidestepped out of the Atlesian's airstream. Flynt tried to rotate his aim back to her, but Ruby was faster. Again, she didn't even need to run, just speedwalk. Professor Port started to say something about elimination, but Ruby could barely make it out as she kept walking.

Eventually, she reached Weiss and helped her up, extending the time bubble around her.

"WWaallkk wwiitthh mmee. AAss lloonngg aass wwee kkeeeepp mmoovviinngg, hhee wwoonn'tt bbee aabbllee ttoo ccaattcchh–"

Ruby's aura broke.

"Miss Rose! Miss Rose! Can she not hear us? Miss Rose, you were eliminated five seconds ago by aura loss. Please exit the arena."

What? How?! She hadn't taken any hits. Neon and Flynt had been entirely unable to touch her while she'd been using her semblance.

Oh, riiiiiiight. Semblances drained aura. Ruby tended to forget that her aura was consumed at outside speeds when she was in a time bubble. It was pretty much the only downside to her otherwise super-powered semblance. Darn it! Blake had even reminded her before the fight not to overdo things.

Flynt was kind enough to hold off on using his semblance until Ruby had exited the arena. The second she stepped out, though, he unleashed a tidal wave of force straight at Weiss.

Weiss was now fighting two against one, and she'd struggled with just Flynt. At least Ruby been able to push both members of Team Fucky into the yellow and give Weiss a fighting chance. Weiss was currently using some kind of wind Dust tornado to hold back Flynt's attack.

Darn it again! After all that bluster about butts, Ruby had gone and been a butt herself. Now Weiss was in trouble, and Ruby would be forced to sit back and watch her friend in need without being able to help. Darn it all to darnland!

Weiss inched towards Flynt one step at a time, thrusting forth her pickaxe with one hand. Flynt, on the other hand, hadn't broken a sweat as he fingered his trumpet. He seemed to have learned from Ruby's mistake and was holding off on the use of his semblance until it was necessary. Weiss was slowly gaining ground, but she truly seemed to be struggling.

Ruby caught it because of the angle from which she viewed the fight, but it was hidden to Flynt. Weiss was creating a small Glyph with her free hand behind her back. Clever girl…perhaps Team Rainbow still had a chance.

A shimmering white Ursa rose from the ground behind Flynt. The trumpeter had just enough time to turn around before it wrapped its arms around him. Weiss fell to one knee as the tornados ceased and held her hand to the side. The Ursa looked quite ungainly as it walked on two legs to the edge of the arena and threw both itself and Flynt out.

Weiss threw one hand into the air in victory. Looking around the audience, she seemed startled that there was no cheering.

"Weiss!" screamed Ruby. "There's still the other one!"

"WHAT? You didn't eliminate her while I was fighting Flynt?"

"Er…no."

"What were you even doing in all that time?"

"She's super weak right now. One hit and she'll go down."

"One hit and I'll go down, dunce!"

Ruby looked at the aura monitors. Weiss was at 25%. Ruby shrugged sheepishly and waved. "I believe in you, Weiss! You can do it!"

"Dunce! Dolt! Dummy!"

"I know, right? You Rainbows are such idiots." Neon Katt rolled in, balanced on one foot. She held her nun-chucks in one hand and the roller-skate that Ruby had cut up in the other.

Weiss scowled. "How rude! We are not all idiots. Just Ruby."

"Hey!"

Neon smiled and twirled her nun-chuck. "She is a bit of a dunderhead. Your teammate didn't finish me when she had the chance. Not exactly the brightest, is she?"

"I'll have you know that Ruby can fight just as well as any Faunus. Better even."

Ruby heard the words, but it took her a second to interpret them. Members of the audience and even some of the other students froze in place for a second, then began to quietly whisper amongst themselves.

Whuh?

Neon placed a hand on her hips. "Better than any Faunus? Wow. Just…wow. I didn't want to believe it, but Flynt was right about you Schnees. I'd heard that you all were bigots who hated the Faunus, but I never expected you to be so blatant about it."

Weiss shook her head and folded her arms. "Hmph. Well, I feel how I feel about human-Faunus interactions, and I'm not embarrassed to admit it."

This didn't make sense. Weiss, at her worst, had never hated the Faunus. And she was actively pursuing Blake's hand in girlfriendiage! Why would she say she hated the Faunus? If Ruby wasn't hearing it out of her teammate's own mouth, she wouldn't have believed it. Even now, she wasn't sure she did believe it…

"I despise people like you," said Neon. "Anyone with a single brain cell knows that Faunus and humans are equal."

Weiss threw down Schachmatt with such force and it embedded itself into the ground in front of her. Ruby rarely ever saw her so passionate. "No! You're wrong! That kind of thinking is what's ruining Remnant."

"You and I have different definitions of what's ruining Remnant," the Faunus said with a wide scowl.

Weiss narrowed her eyes and balled up her fists. "So it would seem. I believe this conversation has run its course. Let's just get this fight over with."

Neon skated towards Weiss, but a single well-placed high heel to the torso knocked the Faunus down before she could hit Weiss. The buzzer rang as her aura entered the red. Weiss harumphed and sauntered away from Neon, her head held high. Both girls were fuming.

Yay. Team Rainbow wins.

Ruby felt sick to her stomach. This was wrong. This was all so very very wrong.

"So the Grimm you found is really dead?"

Mercury sipped his drink. "Yep. Shot it dead as soon as it broke free and attacked. Dead. Deader'n a doornail." He made a shooting motion with a finger gun. "Bang, yer dead."

Ren suspected that there was more to the story than what he'd been given. Mercury was very cagey with details, and he seemed to be fixated on the fact that he'd killed Morrighan. That was more or less impossible.

Their peace was uneasy. Ren knew Mercury was a criminal of some sort due to his association with Team Caiman, and Mercury knew Ren knew, and so on and so forth, but he couldn't just leave the crippled Havenite to bleed out in the hallway. Ren still left one hand on Mercury's shoulder to allow his semblance to ease the boy's pain from the cuts across his chest.

I shouldn't call him boy. He's older than me.

"If you don't mind me asking, what were you doing snooping around like that?"

Mercury swished his beverage and stared at the ice cubes as though they contained the answer. Ren had carried him to a refreshment stand in the Vytal Festival booths. Mercury had been very adamant that he not be returned to his dorm.

"You want to try this?" he asked Ren.

"I'm not old enough to drink."

"I am. Have some of mine."

"I'll politely decline. How exactly did you find the Grimm?"

"I was restless and looking for trouble. It was an accident."

"I'm sure. When an opponent goes down to easily, Nora often has excess energy that she works out in a gym afterwards."

"Exactly. After the fight with that Wukong guy and the other one, I went around hoping to bump into someone and pick a fight. Wrong place, wrong time, I guess. Now I'm the proud owner of two mangled up stub feet." He wiggled his injured legs.

"I guess you got what you were looking for. She's a tough opponent."

"Damn straight. My legs are made of reinforced steel, and Morrighan plucked them off like drumsticks from a chicken."

Ren exhaled. "So, you did speak to her."

Mercury sipped his drink again. "Speak? It was a Grimm. They can't speak."

"You knew her name."

Mercury froze. "Her na…I think I'd like to leave."

Ren lifted his hand off Mercury's shoulder for just a fraction of a second. The boy winced.

"You're unarmed. Rather, you are unlegged. I don't believe you're in a position to make requests right now. I have a few questions I'd like answered."

Mercury laughed. "Well, well, well. How the turntables. This must have been how Morrighan felt, tied down while I flaunted my freedom. What do you want to know?"

"What's Cinder Fall up to?"

"Fuck if I know. I don't get told shit."

"Why are you here?"

"You carried me here."

Ren sighed. "In Beacon."

"I'm not sure. Cinder needed me and Neo as the muscle for the singles round of the tournament. She's good, but she wasn't going to win on her own against four. Now, Emerald's told me to sit back and relax until the singles. That's when we'll strike."

"Why did Neo…"

"…screw with you guys? I pieced it together a little while back. See, she had a little fight with the robot and Weiss Schnee that ended poorly for her. She was trying to off Weiss' team leader as payback, you know, titties for tatties and all that. Teenage girl stuff. Oh, and she'd get even for a criminal friend of hers that Ruby put behind bars. Two Nevermores, one stone. She chose to do so by siccing your attack dog on Red."

"Nora?"

"That's the one. It would've worked, too, if not for that cat Faunus getting in the way."

"Where is Morrighan right now?"

Mercury shrugged and downed some more of his beverage. "Most of the story was true. I ran into her cell by accident and…freed her when I learned we were on the same team. Team Evil."

So, Cinder served the same 'queen' to which Morrighan had referred. This was indeed distressing news. Ren suppressed a shudder as Mercury went on.

"She insisted on roughing me up to keep my cover in Team Caiman, and I took exception. Next thing I knew, bam." He clapped his hands together. "Deadarooni."

"Don't lie to me. There's no way you could kill her."

"Her back was turned. I was bleeding out on the floor. She thought I was beaten, and she didn't have her aura up. I crawled over to my severed legs and popped her in the back of the head."

Ren wasn't exactly sure how he felt about this news. True, Morrighan was evil, but she wasn't just another Grimm. In a way, she was no different than a human prisoner with a soul and feelings and a life of her own. If Mercury was to be believed, that was all gone forever. Plus, her power would now transfer to some new Grimm. They'd had her completely contained before, so this was definitely a turn for the worse.

I suppose the old Mantle proverb was right: you can catch the devil, but you can't hold him long. Rather, her.

"You're upset," noted Ren.

"No, I'm not," lied Mercury.

"I'm relieving the distress you feel with my semblance. You're really torn up about this."

"Look, I just…I shot her on impulse. I might've felt better if I'd done it to defend myself, but she was already leaving. I think back on it, and the only reason I can remember for killing her is that I felt like I was supposed to, because we'd just fought. It's what my father taught me to do – hurt the people who hurt me. I wasn't even angry or vengeful, I just did it as an instinct. Before things got nasty, she was kind to me. She talked to me. No one ever cared about me before." Mercury gripped his hair and rested his elbows on the counter of the drink stand. "I just wish someone cared."

"You want some advice?"

"I'd love some."

"People often think that acai berries make the healthiest smoothies, but pitaya is actually more nutrient rich per calorie."

Mercury looked up and furrowed his brow. "What?"

"Also, you ought to stop letting other people tell you what to do. Cinder, your father, Morrighan…what does Mercury Black want out of his life?"

"…"

"Think about it."

Mercury dumped out the remainder of his drink into the grass. "Let's go back. You know that I'll have to do what Cinder asks. She still pulls my strings."

"I suppose I shall have to hone my skills to prepare for the day when we come to blows." Ren gestured to his legs. "Though I doubt I shall have to hone them very much if you remain in your current state." Ren wrapped his arm around Mercury's torso and hoisted him up.

"I'm going to die in Beacon, Ren," said the crippled assassin, wrapping his arms around Ren's neck for support. Ren could hear the conviction in Mercury's voice. He sounded absolutely confident of this, as though it were a foregone conclusion.

"How are you so sure?" he asked back.

"Assassin's sixth sense. Folks have already started dying, Cinder's soon to lose her marbles if things keep going like they are now, and I can see the walls closing in as each round of the tournament draws to a close. Neo and me, we're at the bottom of the totem pole. Cinder hasn't even told us why we're here, which makes me think we're not going to like what she has in store for us. We'll be the first to die."

"I'm sorry."

Ren was surprised to find that he actually meant it.

Omake

Sun: Well, Team Semen, behold my mighty pole.

Mercury: Not bad, but you've no idea just how much firepower I'm packing between my legs.

Sun: Damn, I've met my match.

Next Chapter: Negative – In which Yang struggles to keep it under control, and news of Morrighan's death spreads.

Author's Notes

Two tournament matches in one day? Satisfactory!

Sun didn't last long, but can you blame him? He was going at Cinder Fall, poor guy...

First blood has been drawn in Volume 3, and it's...the bad guys? Dying to one another? Does that mean Pyrrha might have a chance of not deading? Does Penny? Do I?

Also, I guess this means my Mercury x Grimm ship is deader than a x Grimm. And they didn't even sex - so sad.

Hmmm...trash talking Ruby...Ruby Roast, I guess.

Weiss' tomfuckery returns, but it's far worse this time. She's openly revealed her secret hatred of Neon Katt...because of the rainbows! Weiss, you homophobe! What does this mean for the ship war? Bumbleby people are probably rejoicing in the comments right now as their ship surges ahead.

Happy rats, and don't do crime!