Cassiel POV
(Ozpin's office, the next day, early in the morning)
They are fucking useless! How have they managed to run an entire kingdom if they can't even provide decent security? Ozpin, Glynda, Ironwood, Qrow, and now they're trying to involve Pyrrha?
"I fucking warned you this would happen! But you would rather sit in a corner and beat each other off than take any preventative action what so ever!" I shouted, rage being the only thing I'm feeling right now.
"Cassiel, now's n-" Ozpin started.
"No! I'd say the time is perfect! I know what I saw damnit! Yang never even looked at Mercury while he was downed, Emerald was using her hallucinations to screw with the outcome of the match!" I interrupted.
"You saw what happened, I'm sure it-" Glynda started.
"One of the most kind hearted, fun loving people I've ever known was tricked into becoming a monster last night! She's hot headed, not sadistic!" I interrupted again.
"Even if what you say is true, who would believe you anyway?" Qrow asked. "Besides, Mercury and his team left for Haven last night, that basically rules them out as terrorists, though cheaters is another matter entirely if you're right about this."
"Video footage aside, millions of viewers saw the same thing. Th-" James started.
"I'm done." I told them.
"What?" Qrow asked.
"I'm done. I'm out. I refuse to help people who clearly can't be bothered to help themselves. Clearly someone is going to have to take the fall before you finally do something! I'm just going to laugh when it all finally comes crashing down on you before I do whatever the hell suits me. All that blood will be on your hands, maybe Salem is on the right side if her enemies are this incompetent. Not that I intend to involve myself anymore than I already have." I turned around, about to enter the SR.
"And where do you think you're going?" James asked.
"Yang needs someone right now, someone who knows she is innocent!" I said, coldly, before leaving.
If the person taking the fall is on my team, there will be at least 4 more heads on my wall!
(hours later, team RWBY's room)
The whole team is here, Yang is... Distressed to say the least. The rest of the team is silent, not making eye contact.
"Yang, as much as everyone might say otherwise, I know you're innocent, I know what happened." I broke the silence.
"You believe me?" She asked, hopefully.
"You're not brutal, certainly not sadistic. I have an idea of what you saw, and why you attacked." I answered.
"What do you mean? I know Yang would never do that, but I also know what everyone else saw." Weiss said.
"I have reason to believe his teammate, Emerald, can cause people to hallucinate."
"What? How can she do that?" Ruby asked.
"Her Semblance. She made Coco see Yatsuhashi in the forest, but he lost in the geysers on the other side of the stage. Her Semblance also has good range too since she was able to affect Yang from the stands."
"How can you be so sure of that? A Semblance as subtle as that would be almost impossible to figure out." Blake said.
"Emerald looked like she was struggling with something even though she was doing nothing besides watching. Yang never looked down at Mercury, she was looking at an upward angle and struck what was at about head level with her. Not only that, but she shoots AFTER her fist makes contact. Her fist never touched Mercury while he was downed. Emerald's look of alarm after I confronted her is the last bit of proof I needed." I explained.
"You mean..." Yang started, her shoulders shaking, her voice cracking. "To tell me... That they tricked me??? And for WHAT???" She shouted, her eyes red and her hair on fire. "Because they lost??? WHY?" Her eyes and hair turned back to normal as she fell back onto the bed and broke into tears. Ruby immediately pulled her into a hug. Before I could grab some tissues for her (I would do what Ruby's doing, but there's no room on the bed), someone knocked on the door. Weiss grabbed the tissues instead as I opened the door, revealing James.
"Get lost." I told him.
"I have ma-" He started.
"I don't care. Leave! You're not welcome here, you useless fuck!" He glared at me.
"I will once I say what needs to be said."
"Okay... Let me try this again. This time, in a language we both understand." I drew Lionheart, turned it into a gun, and summoned Nightfall as a scythe. The gun was at my waist, pointed at him at point blank, and the scythe blade was behind his neck. "Leave, or your corpse will be impaled on the statue outside. If I can't do that, then I'll simply dump your corpse in a random forest no one goes to." Both the robots following him pointed their weapons at me.
"Cassiel!!!" The others shouted. James didn't react to my threat.
"I'll make this brief." He said. As I was about to shoot, Blake and Weiss got up close without me noticing and lowered my weapons, concern on their faces.
"I already explained the situation from my standpoint. You might not believe me, but I know what I saw, what she was made to see, and I can guarantee you, there's nothing you can say that we don't already know. There's nothing you can say that we can't figure out ourselves. You hope it was a case of stress and adrenaline, and she's disqualified. Good summarization?" I asked impatiently.
"..."
"..."
"If you already know the situation, that means I can attend to other matters. Farewell." He walked away, his robots in tow, I closed the door and sat on my bed.
"What was that??!!" Weiss asked, shocked by my conduct.
"That was me properly dealing with an imbecile." I answered. "Yang?"
"Y-yeah?" She choked.
"Anything you need. Right now. Name it." I told her plainly.
"I think-- I think I'd like to be alone right now." Not a good choice, but not mine to make. The others left the room first before I stopped at the doorway.
"Coming from someone who spent half his life alone, this isn't a good choice you're making, and probably against my better judgement, I'll respect it. I'll be at the forest by Beacon Cliff until the next match starts, call if you need me." I looked down at Zwei and knelt down to pet him. "Do what you can, alright?" He barked in response. I put on my mask and left the room, closing the door and entering the SR afterward.
(Beacon Cliff)
Back at the ruins, just sitting down and waiting. A Nevermore just flew by and fired it's feathers at me, only one came close to hitting me. I took my time getting up and let out my darkness before looking up at it.
"Land." I commanded. It made a u-turn first, but otherwise it did it.
*CAW*
I reached up and after a few seconds of hesitation, it lowered it's head and let me scratch it's chin.
"You really are just animals, aren't you? Just more aggressive?" It made some kind of noise, can't exactly pin point what it was. I heard a noise behind me and saw a pack of Beowolves, the alpha growled at me and howled, telling the others to attack. I drew Lionheart and shot the alpha before the others could reach me, causing them to stop the attack. "Begone." I told them, they obeyed immediately. I turned back to the Nevermore. "I might have a favor to ask later. I'll call when I need it."
(hours later)
The sun is going down, the next match should be starting in an hour or two. As I was about to leave the Nevermore and enter the SR, a voice stopped me.
"So ol' Oz was right, you can control Grimm." Qrow said.
"After I establish myself as a 'do not fuck with' person, yes it seems."
"The world wouldn't take too kindly to someone who can make the curse of the world do whatever he wants."
"A curse is what you make of it. I'm called the 'Cursebearer' for a reason, my selection of curses to accept into myself was pretty diverse. A curse that takes away my magic, but makes me immune to it, or a curse that cuts my power in half, but makes me improve much faster for two examples."
"Heh, fair enough." He took a long chug from his canteen. "Tell me, what is your team to you?" He asked seriously.
"Family, your nieces, the heiress, the Faunus, I for the first time in years actually love someone, several actually."
"You truly believe Yang is innocent?" He looked between me and the Nevermore. "That she was set up? Tell me why again, your reasoning behind it."
"You really want to know? I'm more of a sadist than the others if given a reason. I've already explained this multiple times, so I'll just give the important details from the stage: Yang never looked down at Mercury when she struck, she was looking at an upward angle. Second being her fist never touched him, that really does not fit her CQC fighting style with her explosive or incendiary shotgun gauntlets. Her look of confusion, of horror after the fact." I explained.
*CAW* I looked back at the Nevermore.
"That's enough of that." I said to it softly. For extremely dangerous creatures, they can be surprisingly docile. It rubbed it's head against me, almost knocking me over.
"You really think that team specifically will attack?"
"The White Fang too probably. A tragedy will probably happen during the singles and be broadcasted across the world. The negativity will drastically increase the already high Grimm activity and lure hordes of them to Vale. Next comes the White Fang using Atlas weapons and vehicles while someone hacks into the robots and turns their guns against everyone. Finally, the assailant finishes the job with the Maiden. That's how I'd do it. Oh, and shut off communications with the rest of the world."
"I don't know if I should be impressed, or disturbed by how quickly you thought that through." He commented.
"You should've been there when another friend of mine was pretty much forced into a what should've been a completely one-sided duel that would've earned him nothing, but costed him everything he had left to hold onto." I laughed internally at the memory. "Qrow?"
"Yeah?"
"I know of a Raven, but not the one you know, if you're still curious." I started practicing my Semblance. A smaller projection of the Nevermore appearing on my shoulder, the drain noticeable, but not much. Testing the limit, I did the same using a projection of Qrow. The drain was much faster so I dismissed the small Nevermore and focused on the other projection. I can probably keep this up for a while, not to mention Cure/a restoring aura.
"What's this?" He asked.
"Me testing something." I answered. 'Attack that tree!' I thought, the fake Qrow drew it's sword and did exactly as I ordered. It dashed to the tree and to my surprise, it was copying Qrow's fighting style, or as much as it could with my memories.
"Okay, I'll bite... What is it you're testing?"
"My Semblance. Blake helped me figure it out yesterday and I'm testing a few things with it." I dismissed the fake Qrow and tried creating a fake Ruby, but got nothing. The same result with Blake, Weiss, and Yang. "Maybe?" I recreated the fake Qro. "So I need visual, alright then. Qrow! I need you to fight the copy of you. If I'm right, it will adapt it's movements until it's just like you."
"What makes you think- whoa!" The fake attacked him.
"I wasn't asking. Cure!" I restored my aura.
The fake kept getting better as time went on, but Qrow hadn't brought out his scythe during this time. Dark was upon us, and it was about time to return to the coliseum. Come what may, I'm not backing down.
(Amity Coliseum)
I'm waiting just outside, above the energy shield, sitting on it actually. The first fight for tonight is between Penny and Pyrrha. Bad match, very bad match. Penny is certainly a tricky opponent just with the number of weapons alone, weapons that are also laser cannons. I can do the same with my wingblades, but minus the flying, she's better with that weapon than I am. Pyrrha on the other hand having a crazy advantage when metal is involved, she could easily turn those weapons against Penny.
The match just started. Both seem to be on par with each other, but I'd still put my money on Pyrrha and her magnetism bullshit. Pyrrha is actually holding her own better than I would, kind of strange seeing my kind of bullshit from the angle of the viewer. Pyrrha does seem to be a bit sluggish during this fight, probably not mentally or emotionally prepared either since her weapons just warped greatly, her sword looked like it became a flamberge for a second. Penny was eventually launched back, Pyrrha just stood there like she was a little dizzy. So this is the match then, Emerald is still here, guess I can keep my promise if I see her and the rest of her team.
Penny launched a counter attack and disarmed Pyrrha. Penny prepared to launch her swords at Pyrrha who was left almost defenseless, Pyrrha only looked like she was getting worse. Penny launched her blades at Pyrrha, who reflected them, and in that instant, Penny was dismem- dismantled?... Damnit Atlas! Even she's a fucking robot? Screw it! Not even going to bother with it. Besides, now that someone has taken the fall, the big event can finally begin. The TV screens turned red with a black chess piece in the middle.
"This is not a tragedy." A voice sounding like Cinder said through the speakers.
Weeellll it depends on what a psychopath like you calls a tragedy. Me? I call this the expected result when incompetent fools have too much power. I guess it's almost time for me to get started.