Tempest - Finale

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And here… We… Go...

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Mercury was the first to notice them coming down the hall and pushed off the corner he was leaning on to square up with them. Smirking, he called, "Boss! Em owes me dinner."

"Fuck off!"

"And why is that?" Cinder asked in a lazy, somehow amused and agitated at the same time, which was… A trick, he had to admit, even with the blood roaring in his ears. She sauntered around the corner, cocked a hip, and rested a hand on it while the finger of the other toyed absently with a long strand of hair. "Neo… Why am I not surprised you'd turn out to be a little traitor?"

He caught Neo back up, just a step, beside him and stepped forward and to the side and turned his shield to block most of her from view, "She isn't."

"Oh?" Cinder practically purred in what would have been sexy, if not for the armed fighters to either side of her. And the distant droning of an alarm - Grimm on the attack, he knew.

"One can not betray what they never truly served." Pyrrha offered simply, "Neo was never yours. You forced her into servitude. This is her liberation, not her betrayal."

"You speak as if she were my slave…"

"She was forced to involuntarily serve your interests on pain of death." Pyrrha deadpanned, spinning her long spear through the air beside herself with a sharp whistling sound. "What does that make her but a slave? And you, the slaver."

"And slavers only have one justified response." Blake snarled, "The same as murderers, you psychotic bitch."

"Oh, you're feisty."

"I'll carve 'Wukong' into your ass!" Yang snarled, "And everyone else you killed, too!"

"That's a lot of names, and I only have so much ass." Cinder, chuckled, rolling her eyes and flicking a look across the five of them. Her eyes narrowed, then, and lingered on the blonde brawler and the Mistralian champion - the biggest threats, even to someone as strong as her, if only for the noise fighting them would make.

Which was exactly as he'd planned. And if he was right, that meant she'd-

"Emerald, Mercury." She sighed, stepping forward to stand between the two of them and spinning two blades that looked to be made out of some kind of glass - which was pretty interesting - into existence. "We need them dealt with quickly."

He'd seen both of them fight at least once - Mercury was a fast, agile melee fighter and Emerald was a skirmisher. So, he'd matched up his fighters to meet it.

Yang and Blake stepped to his side and forward to threaten Mercury while Pyrrha and Neo did the same for Emerald. Neither of the two pairings hesitated, or seemed to even think about it, and that implication drew the two to a wary stop. Even Cinder's eyes narrowed warily, flicking up the hall behind his hastily assembled team and then back towards the elevator right behind them, wary of a surprise. Of an ambush to match their distraction. Emerald hesitated, too, and after a moment, turned to Cinder for direction-

"Now." He ordered sharply, and both teams surged forward.

Emerald leapt as Pyrrha charged towards her and landed on the flat of her shield. Pyrrha shoved it forward and she leapt back and away, wheeling through the air to bring her twin handguns around to bear on Pyrrha. They bounced off Pyrrha's shield as she and Neo gave chase and forced her back, the Mistralian alone more than enough to keep Emerald under pressure and Neo enough of a harrier to keep her backing away on top of it.

Mercury fared better, at least.

As Yang came in, he ducked back to dodge the fist whistling through the air and brought a knee up to catch the crouching Faunus' thrusting sword. The blow glanced off and Mercury's leg snapped out and caught Blake in the forehead, hard enough to at least stagger her to the side while Mercury turned his attention to warding off Yang's fiery, enraged onslaught. Blow after blow came down, cracking against his Aura encased arms loudly and whistling by in equal measure, until, suddenly, Yang's downward punch curled in. She let the momentum carry her down to a squat, then spun and slammed a powerful kick upwards, into the man's sternum.

Or, into the arms guarding it. But he couldn't see beyond them and missed Blake ducking past him and spinning on a heel, slamming her foot into the back of his knee and pistoning it down. Yang followed through, her raised leg coming down on the man's raised arm with enough force to knock him onto his back. Both women rose, teeth bared and weapons ready to rain holy hell down on him, and he snarled.

"Fuck off!" Gusts of air from his boots sent him sliding along the ground and away from where Jaune was standing. He raised his legs and used the Dust powered maneuver to generate some thrust to flip him and came up with his fists raised.

"And then there were two." Cinder drawled and cocked her head, appraising him warily. "This has to be purposeful… A sacrifice play, perhaps?"

"You're stronger than any two of us." He countered easily, sliding a leg back and bringing his shield around between them and his sword back and in, the way he'd been taught. "They can handle them a lot faster than they could handle you."

"But where does that leave you?"

"Right here." Buying time, but he didn't say that part. Instead, he smiled, and played into what Neo had always said was Cinder's greatest flaw - her arrogance. "I can handle you, don't worry."

"Oh, you think so?"

He didn't answer her - instead he squared his shoulders and took a deep, readying breath. And that seemed to make her all the angrier. Her eyes narrowed and she bared her teeth, dropping her hips and holding her wicked looking swords out to either side. Each seemed to glow, just a bit, like light had somehow been trapped in its curved, wicked edge. Or fire, he realized, watching her eyes flicker with literal flame.

Because that was a thing…

His heart felt like it raced to match every flick of the terrifying flame that circled her eye, flickering weakly and faintly, like a candle too near a fan. Even as frail and trembling as it looked, something in him… Chilled for seeing it. Like the first time he'd seen a Grimm up close, eyes full of burning red hatred. It was instinctive and raw, settling deep in his guts like a lump of coal, burning away at his insides and sending bile up into his throat with an acrid taste.

It was the fear a man felt when he knew he was probably about to die…

He brought his sword around to clang the flat against his shield and snarled, "This is for Roman, you bitch."

Teeth bared, Cinder stalked towards him. Less like a fighter coming to battle, and more like a killer, coming for slaughter.

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Normally, Mercury would have loved two women trying so hard to get their hands on him - he'd had a hundred and one dreams about that sort of thing. But this one was by far the best so far.

He stepped back and out of the way of a machete strike, but had to turn and catch a fist on his forearm before he could counter. His leg snapped out, but the blonde ducked to the side, arms pressed against her side and fists parallel to her head like the boxers he'd seen in movies. His shot split the wall behind her apart and he used the force to spin on his heel. Which was a good move - it forced the Faunus that had been rushing for his back to back off a bit.

But it left him open for a slug round that slammed into the back of his head.

He saw stars and staggered, but knew enough to tuck his arms up around his head before the inevitable machete strike struck home. Snarling, he sank to a knee and then rolled onto his back and began to spin, firing off shot after shot until his cylinders clicked empty and clattered away. The blasts of wind filled the air around him, and as he span, he watched the women duck and weave around the shots until-

There! The blonde had her back against the wall and the curve of the wall to one side. He grinned, spun onto a hand and swung his leg around - its directing mechanism steered the shots around and towards her. A dozen rounds slammed home, pounding her into the wall in consecutive, concrete-cracking blows that left her embedded in the wall as he came up and slicked a hand through his hair.

"So," he sneered, "how was that, babe?"

The woman breathed, and then flexed, igniting in a haly of fiery fury as the wall she had been pounded into exploded. Mercury brought his hands up to block the shrapnel, but felt it sear across his arms and legs regardless, and heard her bellow over it all. "There are only two people that can call me babe."

"What-"

Mercury never heard the Faunus coming for his back, he only felt the two biting blows of her blades searing across his Aura. He staggered forward, away from her, on instinct and his eyes widened as the blonde surged in to meet him. He could feel the heat coming off of her and brought his leg up as he leapt. Her fit slammed into it and he grit his teeth through the agony of his Aura trying to fend the blow off.

Her second fist caught him in the stomach and sent him high and into the wall with almost bone-breaking force. His hit the ground and rolled up onto a knee, just in time to catch the Faunus' knee on the chin and her hand in his hair, yanking him up. Surprised, he staggered up and past her as she threw him, right into the swinging arm that caught him by the throat and sent him flailing onto the floor.

He hit the ground seeing stars, and feeling the flicker of weakening Aura, but rolled for pure, training embedded instincts.

Which was good.

Because the ground he'd laid on for the barest second exploded as he went and sent him tumbling along the floor.

"What," he gasped as he rose, "the fuck even are you people?!"

"Angry-"

"-bitches." Yang finished for her partner as they formed up. They traded a glance and Blake slid away, circling towards one side while Mercury stood.

Mercury Black was an assassin, and he took pride in that.

Planning, skulking, even one-on-one dueling, he excelled at all of it. Hell, he'd used those skills to kill the Headmaster not an hour ago! Against the Schnee, or Neopolitan, or that Rose brat, he'd have been a damn shredder- Ripped through their brittle defenses like a knife through butter and outmaneuvered their attempts to escape like a trained hound. That was how he'd been trained, cull the weak.

Hell, one on one and with a plan laid out, he'd probably have been able to take the damn blonde, too.

But with the Faunus coming in every time she made a move that opened her up, he couldn't counter. And he didn't have a plan! Or gear to deal with either of them! A handful of shaped charges to stun and stagger, some sonic grenades for her Faunus partner's hearing, and he could handle it.

But here, in an empty hallway, alone, two on one and with no gear and low Aura from that explosion and fall earlier when he took out the Headmaster…

No chance in hell.

"Sorry, Babes." Mercury grinned and slipped a hand into his pack for his failsafe. He spun on a heel and threw it high. The smoke billowed around him and choked him, but he ignored the burn and rolled to the side to dodge the shots he'd expected.

Eyes watering and lungs burning, Mercury did what any outmatched assassin should-

He ran as fast as his advanced cybernetic legs could carry him, with a cloud of noxious tear-gas filling the hall behind him to keep pursuit at bay. A round managed to wing his shoulder, pure luck from the volume of shots coming through the smoke, and he snarled and rounded a corner.

He hadn't signed up for this shit...

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Cinder leapt over him and threw her sword towards his head. He ducked to the side of it and it punched into the floor but when the woman landed and handspringed away he felt his gut sink and turned. Black fire swirled around the sword, and something screeched as he turned, taking the brunt of the fiery, glass-filled explosion on his shield. He slammed into an armor display and fell in a heap of wood, glass and tumbling pieces of priceless armor that he kicked towards the woman in a vain attempt to buy space as he scrambled up and away, further up the hall he'd come down.

"You know," Cinder smiled as she stalked toward him, "I should thank you."

"For?" He grunted, pulling his shield around between them again and backing away. Space and time - if he could get her talking and stalking him, he could buy more of both.

"Stress relief." She laughed, spinning her sword in her hand to make it very clear what she meant.

"Ah." He smirked, "Afraid I'll have to turn you down there, Miss. I'm a one-woman man."

"Oh, Arc, only in your dreams."

"Dreams are kinda the same." He smirked when her eyes narrowed, "And sorry to say, you really can't compete with Neo."

"She's half my size, and in more ways than one." The woman chuckled, less affronted and more amused at his banter. "How could she possibly beat me?"

"She's actually beautiful in any way whatsoever?" He tried with a little shrug and a tremor up his spine when her eyes narrowed again and a trio of knives spun into being in her other hand.

She hurled them in a curved arc around him but Jaune knew enough by now to leap to the side, combat-rolling onto a knee and turning to bring his shield around to take the blast. This time, he was more braced and wasn't sent flying by the explosion. He caught movement from his side and flinched, sword snapping up to catch the downward swing of the woman's curved sword.

As the weapon shattered, her foot snapped out and caught him in the jaw, which forced his head up as she leapt onto him, legs wrapping tightly around his head. She leaned back and used her weight to pull him over so she could slam him into the ground. She rolled to the side and came up in a fluid motion, a bow forming in her hands, and Jaune, winded or not, scrambled away from her and brought his shield around in between them.

Three arrows embedded in the hardened steel by the barest inch, but it was enough for them to hold. Black fire swirled violently and Jaune's eyes widened.

The explosion drove him into the wall and he sank to his knees, coughing on smoke and arm hanging, bloodied and broken, beside him, like the shield that lay scattered around him in a thousand metal pieces. He snarled and forced him but as he rose Cinder met him, one hand closing around his throat while her sword snapped down and into his wrist, shattering his Aura in a golden flash. Still, he kept his grip and drove the sword into her chest with enough force to draw a hiss from the woman even through her Aura.

"I think we're about done playing." Cinder snarled, cracking her sword down and breaking his fingers to force him to drop Crocea Mors. "Any last words?"

"Yeah." He rasped through the grip she had on his throat, "Just one."

"I'll hear it."

He took a deep breath, hacked, and spat right in her face.

"That," Cinder snarled as fire crawled along her arm and Jaune's eyes widened, legs kicking frantically and hands beating against her grip, "was a mistake."

He felt the heat searing around his throat and agreed with her completely.

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Emerald backed away and raised Thief's Respite to catch the whistling spear as it came down for her head. It shattered instead, as did the Pyrrha holding it as another, thinly smirking Pyrrha surged through it and brought her shield around to bludgeon Emerald in the side of the head. She hissed and saw stars, but brought her guns down to pepper the woman and buy her space as she backed away and turned, anticipating the small woman standing behind her and swiping with her curved blades to ward her off.

Then a shield slammed into the back of her head and forced her forward, into Neo's arm.

The mute wrapped her arm around Emerald's throat and leapt, wrapping her legs around one of her arms and tugging it out straight and then back against its joints. She groaned against the pain, Aura flaring to heal the damage as it was done, and turned. She met Pyrrha's eyes and focused, and the woman's eyes widened as she turned and hurled her shield at the murderous midget clinging to her arm.

Neo fell off with a surprised gasp and rolled away as Pyrrha stepped up to Emerald's side and hissed, "Are you alright?"

In Neo's guise, Emerald nodded and rolled her arm, feigning an injury and making it look even worse in the Mistralian's head while Neo watched.

"Hold back." Pyrrha advised her, "I'll cover you while you heal.

Again, she only nodded, and Pyrrha advanced as Neo stood and slid her gaze to Emerald. Smirking, Emerald backed away and turned, looking for Cinder. There was no way in hell she could need Emerald's help against the pathetic little noodle, but it didn't hurt to check. And maybe if she helped her then Cinder would thank her by-

"Agh! N-Neo!?" Emerald whirled, more than certain her Semblance was still in place as Pyrrha backed away, hands clasping her breasts and face scarlet. She rounded on Emerald, scowled, and raised her weapons, "An illusory Semblance, then."

"W-What?!" Emerald hissed, her illusion falling apart as Pyrrha turned to her. "H-How-"

"Neo has her ways of letting people know she's around." Pyrrha flushed, grimaced and shrugged as she advanced on her.

Emerald's twin guns snapped up and sprayed the woman as she came, but the rounds only deflected off her shield as the Mistralian accelerated. She stepped to the side to dodge the charge. A heeled boot slammed into the back of her knee after the first step and forced her down as a fist balled in her hair and yanked her head back.

She stared up at Neo, who grinned as Pyrrha's shield came down into her throat with all the power the Mistralian was capable of.

She collapsed, clutching at her throat and hacking as her Semblance flickered - her Aura spent on using her Semblance to slip by people earlier without them noticing and using it against the Mistralian. She scrambled away and rolled onto her back, spraying fire across Neo to keep her back and then turning as Pyrrha leapt.

Pyrrha backhanded her with her shield hard enough to shatter her Aura and cut her brow and then slammed her heel down on Emerald's sternum.

"I'm sorry," Nikos murmured as her spear rolled and shifted into sword-form and came up, "but there's no time for mercy."

Emerald's yes widened and she wheezed a scream as the sword came down on her.

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Pyrrha stood and turned, cleaning the edge of her sword with her waist-cloth and sighing to Neo, "Another tragedy…"

Neo only shrugged, which wasn't too unusual, and turned as Yang and her partner jogged up. Both came up short, eyeing the dying woman, and shared a surprised look as Pyrrha stepped forward.

"No time for kindness." She reiterated with a frown, "We need to get to Jaune and-"

"Aaaagh!"

They all turned and watched Cinder dragged the limp blonde towards them. She dropped him unceremoniously and flicked her hand to scatter the ichor and ash clinging to it. She flicked a look at Emerald's body, frowned, and asked, lowly, "Where is Mercury?"

"Ran like a bitch- Bitch!" Yang snarled and turned to catch Neo when she surged forward. She looked unhappy for it but wrangled the thrashing woman in and hissed, "Calm the fuck down!"

"What did you do to Jaune?"

"He was a mouthy one, so I ripped his throat out." Cinder sighed and looked down, then hummed and laughed, "Oh, and he's alive, too! Well, I can rectify that..."

"Over my dead body." Pyrrha snarled and leveled Milo at the woman, "Make a move, and you'll have all four of us all over you."

"Ah, I have a better idea." Cinder purred, "I let him live, and let you leave to whisk him away for rescue. And you let me go down the-"

"Not a chance." Yang growled, resting a hand on Neo's shoulder to keep her under control and frowning deeply. "Jaune would hate us for it if we let you win. You want whatever the fuck you're after, you go through all of us. And we all know you can't do that."

"No?"

"There's four of us, and one of you." Blake explained lowly, eyes hard and narrowed, like a cat with prey in front of it. "We've both fought and killed out there. And we both know that it's more than easy to take down a stronger opponent if you out-number them. Flank, surround, and hit them from every side and you will wear them down."

"Not to mention if anyone else shows up to investigate the screaming and gun-shots." Yang added, patting her chest, "Or notices my text and sends the cavalry."

"You want to live through this, you walk away." Pyrrha threatened hotly, stepping to the side to let Cinder see Emerald where she lay in a far more real threat. "We'll be too busy between tending to Jaune and guarding the elevator to chase you."

"And you can always try again later." Yang added, flexing her fists and grinning, "If you can get through us then, that is. Somehow, I doubt it."

Cinder growled, flicked a look between the four of them and a lingering look on Emerald on the floor and, after a long moment, took a step back. Then another, and she turned, stalking away with her hands curled into fists and shoulders squared angrily. The four of them held their ground until she rounded a corner and vanished, and then surged towards the downed knight.

"Lift his head. Carefully." Blake ordered sharply as Neo knelt beside him and did just that, as gently as if she were cradling a newborn. Blake went to work wrapping a strip of cloth ripped off of her shorts around his bloodied, burnt throat. She saw his open eyes and assured him, "You're alright, Jaune. Just try and breathe."

His hand came up, bloody and filthy, and Pyrrha caught it as it came down.

Then she felt her Aura… Flow out of her like water out of a cup with a hole bored in the base. His arm shimmered gently and she let out a shuddering breath and ran her hand through his hair, smiling, "Take what you need."

Neo gave her a look, looked at the shimmer of his hand, and grabbed his other to offer herself up while Yang kept watch and called for help, and Blake did her work.

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So, we can add Emerald to the list of KIAs…

As for the fights themselves, I'd like to stress this isn't an action oriented story. It's more drama and romance. Elsewise, these fights would have been chapters unto themselves almost. As it was, I abbreviated them.

Also, yeah, I imagine Mercury as the assassin who relies on plans and prep to win, and wrote him like that. So why would he stay and brawl? Running seems to fit him more, in my opinion.

As does withdrawing when Cinder is outnumbered, and expects to face even more people if she stays. Brawling her way through three of Beacon's best and Neo to get to the basement at Amber and then getting the powers and getting away before every motherfucker in the Kingdom she's scared of shows up? Not exactly Cinder's modus operandi, at least at this stage of her development.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and are ready for the final chapter of the story! Unless I do, like, an epilogue or something. Lol.

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Joe Cola :

RIP Sun indeed.

Also, JuniperBerry. XD

Takadonta :

Most of them are actually bi, but-

Ruby is Ace-Demiromantic, and likes Penny enough to experiment with dating.

Weiss is bi with a strong male preference, but… Pyrrha.

Jaune is straight.

Neo is bi, but that's not relevant.

Yang is bi, Blake is bi, Sun is straight.

Nora is pan, Ren is straight (in this fic).

Roman is straight.

Qrow and Irondaddy are bi, Oz is pan - because he's been in too many heads to be straight lol - Glynda is straight.

And none of this is weird in any way. :D

Fate-RWBY ODST :

And I used to say I was straight. I wasn't. I was Ace-Demiromantic, just like Ruby is. I spent two decades and change forcing myself to conform. Many gay, bi, pan, etc, people spend decades doing similar. In my head, based on her behavior elsewhere, Ruby is just doing that.

Anonymous69420 :

No one should look at your name and take you seriously. Lol.

Tanya Von Degurechaff :

Yes, person named after a character that was a man and reincarnated, and identifies, as a woman, please tell me how weird it is. XD

Rakkis157 :

Among a BUNCH of others, yes. DOZENS died in the attack, and others were wounded. I rolled dice for casualties. Fun fact, Ruby also almost died. And Nora did, too. As it wasn't important to this story, I left it up to chance.

OmniTracker :

Yeah, Jaune is super lucky. Also, I'm testing the three-way ship with them. Seeing how people feel, and how the idea feels. It will almost definitely pop up elsewhere.

7Skydragon :

You're welcome~!