The 1-on-1 Finals.

The one thing that most talented Huntsmen and Huntresses look forward to when attending the four academies. The main event, if you will, to showcase you have what it takes to be a true Huntsmen or Huntress out in the wild. For one particular contestant, it was a means to show he wasn't weak.

Hedge walked to the center of the arena along with the other Finalists that were chosen from their teams. He was able to see that Yang and Sun had made it to the Finals, along with Penny, and the silver haired guy from the Breach, Mercury if he recalled his name. To no one's surprise, Pyrrha was there to represent her team as well, but Hedge was able to see that she had a rather timid look on her face, almost like she didn't want to be there and had something on her mind.

Hedge: "Wonder what has her all worked up?"

Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck were going over the rules once more on how the rules worked for the Finals. Hedge already knew how they worked, being a 3-time Finalist. No prep time, if you were chosen to fight next, you and your opponent were to meet in the center of the arena, and fight straight away. Hedge liked it that way, no dilly-dallying, straight to the point. Port and Oobleck said it best: it was like any good hunt.

Hedge was right next to Sun, so he decided to speak with him while the contestants were being chosen for the first match. "So Sun, not to be rude, but..." He looked around at the other contestants' weapons and back at Sun's. "You sure you would be able to contest against everyone? The rest of us have a version of long range to keep you at bay, whether that be with our weapons or our semblances."

Sun: "That may be true, but I never let a challenge stop me. What about you though?" He took on a look of empathy. "Aren't you afraid of you losing control?"

Hedge brings up his hand, small sparks of lightning show. "I'll be real, I am. But I won't let the power control me." He smiles at his fellow Faunus, who returns the smile.

Sun: "We're here for you, remember that." Hedge nods in thanks.

Port: "Yang Xiao Long versus Mercury Black! Everyone else, please exit the arena."

Hedge and Sun look at each other. "Anything Yang should expect from him?"

Sun: "If I'm being completely honest, I don't know much about him or the rest of his team." They start to exit the arena, passing by Yang with a thumbs up for good luck. She gives them a wide grin and a wink.

Hedge grows a tad concerned regarding what Sun said. "Wait, I thought they were students at Haven?"

Sun: "That's the thing. Neptune and I know pretty much every team from Haven, but we've never even heard of them. Unless they're transfer students."

Hedge: "I see." Hedge barely knew how Mercury fought. Yes, he watched his and Emerald's fight against Coco and Yatsu, but he wasn't fully committed to watching that due to dealing with the illusions of the dark mast and Doctor Badnic. Plus, he had small chats with Pyrrha after their training sessions with Jaune, including about the brief fight she had with Mercury before Hedge and his team returned from their mission. Hedge had found it strange that Mercury had asked to fight her, and while he did put up a good fight according to her, the fact that he just upped and forfeited without completing the fight was not something he expected to hear.

Sure, Ruby had forfeited against him and his team, but that was a 1v3 situation against a 4th year team as a first year. Not to demean Ruby's fighting accomplishments, mind you, but she was pretty even with Hedge, without pushing himself farther by removing his limiters. Even if Hedge was the only one left, removing the limiters would've sealed the match for HAZL, at the cost of Hedge being heavily winded.

For his and Pyrrha's fight, it sounded like to Hedge that Mercury wasn't trying back then, and then with him and Emerald fighting CVFY, it was like a switch was flipped. Something didn't seem right, but he'd have to put that on the back burner for now. Hedge and Sun returned to the stands and were with their friends and teams. Although Amity was split for the kingdoms to be in their own sections, it wasn't exactly frowned upon if the students decided to hang out with friends they made from the other academies.

With the ok given by Port and Oobleck to start, Yang and Mercury started off their fight, both using punches and kicks to see who broke first. To Hedge, it seemed fitting, Mercury's choice of weapon, his boots Talaria, seemed to have the same force behind them as did Yang's Ember Celica. Even when it seemed like Yang would knock him out via ring out, given that the arena's center ring rose to give a smaller fighting area then how the previous two rounds worked, Mercury was able to blast himself back to the ring thanks to a shot from his boots.

Hedge: "So he can use his boots to get back on to the ring, however he has to use his ammo to do so."

Ruby: "Isn't that just like your shoes?"

Hedge: "Close, but no. My shoes don't use any dust actually." Every one of their friend group looked at him like he just grew a second head.

Weiss: "How?! Dust is able to power everything! Does your shoes run on a different power source or something?"

Hedge: "More or less. Whatever the Doctor used to do so, they have an unlimited power source installed in them, allowing me to use them however long and whenever I want to."

Weiss: "You wouldn't happen to have his notes on hand, would you?"

Hedge: "On me? No. In his lab? Probably. I never returned to the lab after enrolling in Shade, so if there's anything there that reflects that, I can try to look for it. It's just, that place most likely will bring up some bad memories."

Weiss cringed a bit at that. "I know what you mean." When Weiss didn't continue on, Hedge had looked at her and could see that she had some unpleasant memories from her past, most likely from home. Hedge noticed that Zion had caught on to what she said too, and took on a look of empathy. Hedge remembered Zion saying he and Weiss were childhood friends, and when both of their parents became business partners, they were probably really close, close enough for Weiss to probably share some details about her home life. Zion, taking respect to Weiss' wishes, had shared a brief summary of it to the rest of HAZL, with Weiss filling in some of the blanks or confirming some of the info that Zion was stating.

Hedge decided to not pry anymore, Zion's facial expression locking that notion in. He put his hand on her shoulder, which startled her at first, but he put a small smile on his face, silently stating that she didn't have to worry. Another hand was placed on her, that being her hand from Zion. He nodded at her with a smile, solidifying Hedge's silent claim. She took a deep breath and exhaled, feeling like a huge weight was taken off her shoulders and nodded at both of them, thanking them.

They returned their attention back to the fight and things really started to heat up, literally. Mercury seemed to dish out one of his stronger attacks, using his boots to shoot out multiple projectiles that spun around the air while he fought Yang, and as he knocked down to the arena's stage, all projectiles dive bombed her. With the huge dust cloud, it seemed like Yang had been eliminated, however there was no buzzer. Mercury even looked smug by dusting off his shoulders and walking away from where Yang landed.

Hedge: "Oh Mercury, you are in for a treat."

With an explosion of her semblance, Yang appeared from the smoke and went ham on Mercury. Even with him trying to block her strikes, Yang showed no remorse with her strikes. With a blast of her gauntlet to his gut, Mercury's aura shimmered over his body, and Yang added in a right hook to his face. The buzzer signaling the end of the fight. And boy, was Yang close to being eliminated. Everyone was so focused on the actual fight, they didn't notice Yang's aura was one tick away from defeat, while Mercury's at the current moment showed completely gone.

Anne: "Could Yang have cut it any closer than that?"

Leonidas: "Well we all know she is very reckless when she fights, so this tracks."

Zion: "Hey at least it was Mercury getting a fist full of smackdown on him."

Weiss: "You're still spiteful over Yang beating you, aren't you?"

Zion's only response is a pouty face and crossing his arms while turning away from everyone, causing everyone to laugh.

Hedge smirks at Weiss. "Does that answer your question?"

Weiss: "Yes, yes it..."

BANG

Everyone's attention was drawn back to center arena. Gasps from everyone in attendance. Smoke coming off Yang's gauntlet and Mercury screaming in pain, clutching one of his legs. This in turned leads to multiple Atleasian Knights and guards to surround Yang, ordering her to stand down. While Yang was trying to plead her case, everyone's attention went to the video screen.

Mercury was shown standing right behind Yang, not in any attacking motion, as Blake was able to hear Yang try to plead that he attacked her, causing her to retaliate. However, that wasn't the case, as the screen showed her turning around and attacking him at a downward angle and firing her gauntlet, hitting Mercury in the leg.

Zion looked to Ruby. "I think your sister took your 'break a leg, sis' literally." Ruby looked horrified at that, as that was indeed what she said before the match began.

Hedge could see the sorrow on her face as she looked over to their group, but on the back of his mind, he tried to wonder what this all meant.

"Why do I get the feeling this is the start of something really drastic?"

A/N: Hello all. Yes I'm still around, sorry for the long period of time between last chapter and now. As previously mentioned, I do want to take time on the chapters so I don't run myself dry of ideas for future chapters. Plus, I don't have anyone proofreading the chapters to see if they fully make sense.

While I do have some people liking what I have put out with the previous chapters (and some knowing somewhat what I have planned for the future of the story), this is all a one-person "project." While I do appreciate constructive criticism/feedback in the reviews, I won't tolerate belittling of what I have put out.

Speaking of reviews

arasbuen: I do appreciate the follow and favorite of the story, and no that last part of the author's note isn't to what you put, let me be clear on that. To your comment though, the reason there are so many timeskips in the prologue is simply because it is as such: a prologue. It establishes some history of Hedge and the Doctor as well as their "relationship," but also there are reasons why the Doctor isn't established as much there, most being of course spoilers for the future (I don't know how far you've got into the story since posting the review, but maybe you might be able to see why that is later on.) As for the timeskips themselves, they are mainly so it doesn't have as much attention from the main story (Volume 1 and onward). Early RWBY had a lot of timeskips happen, namely between each of the first 3 volumes and going into Volume 4.

Again, didn't want to single you out or anything. Just wanted to explain my reasonings for not putting as much backstory for Doctor Badnic in the prologue. I do hope you stay along for the ride.

Speaking of RWBY itself, I'm happy that it has found a new home with Viz. Hopefully we as a fandom can get some closure on seeing RWBY finish, and not be stuck unfinished. As for this story regarding V10 and beyond? I'm not really sure. At first, I intended to go up to the end of V9 and then stop there. The reason is because, as of now, we don't know how they plan to proceed with the story: who the Summer Maiden is, what and where the Sword of Destruction is, how Theodore truly is handling the situation. Anything I would put would be speculation, or continuing off things I establish for the plot of the story.

I'm glad I'm barely at V3, because this gives me time to work on the other volumes and the main story plots I have planned (do I really think it'll take me another year possibly to get to V9, if V10 does come out in 2025? Who knows really, and I really hope I don't take that long to get to V9).

We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Till then, enjoy the rest of your day/afternoon/evening, stay cool (this summer weather is hot), and drink plenty of water. Catch you all next time.