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Who: Team PPBY (Closed)
Broadcast: None
Action: On the Starlight
When: Now-ish, probably

[A couple students from the future have shown up, and that future sounds terrible. Blake hates it when things sound terrible. But, she thinks, maybe if they know things in advance, whenever they go back home, they can change things. Make whatever happened to them and their friends a little less awful.

But it's not something to talk about where they can be overheard, she can tell that much. And, well, the ships, overcrowded as they are, aren't offering much in the way of privacy. So, instead, she's heading down to the Starlight. She spent some time investigating the underground here, after all. Where there are people, there's going to be some shady types, and where there's shady types, there's going to be hidden, quiet places to make deals unobserved.

Blake has spent some time staking out some of the quieter places, before finding a small building she's confident is unused. It seems like it used to be some kind of shop, but now it's just a conveniently-empty building with a few chairs for them. She's settling inside, before sending a communicator message to Yang, Penny, and Pyrrha, telling them the location, and a quiet route to get there, and hoping that they can all get there without attracting too much attention.]

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It does not sound like something you'd do. [She can confirm that, at least. And her mind is racing through all of the information, everything that came out of the battle for Vale, and Beacon.] I think... there was something else going on. I do not think you would do such a thing, and there was... a message. It was meant to make everyone distrust each other.

[She's getting a little ahead of herself, but she wants to... try to make some attempt at assuring Yang that she doesn't believe it. That there was something else going on.]

[ Penny gives Pyrrha a quizzical look. Message? What message? ]

[Blake has been quiet this whole time. She's no stranger to her partners becoming monsters, but... Yang seems genuine here. And Blake hasn't seen what happened.]

Maybe he said something. Threatened Ruby, or... something.

What kind of message?

After...

[She stops, her voice wavering a little, before she starts to speak again once she can steel herself. It's obvious something happened, though, with how hard it's getting for her to control her feelings.]

After my fight with Penny, Cinder decided to use what happened against all of the kingdoms. To create as much discontent as possible. It was about how no one should trust our headmasters. She used everything that happened in the tournament as a way to prove her points. Cinder... wants everyone to distrust hunters and huntresses. She wants to ruin the peace our kingdoms have.

So after..... [ Yeah, Penny doesn't outright say it either. ]

...I don't understand. Was it planned? How could she have been responsible for any of that? What would she have to gain?

Edited 2016-03-07 22:54 (UTC)

[That's enough to snap Yang back out of her funk and back into anger.]

Cinder? She's the one behind everything?

As.... far as I can tell. The voice was the same, it had to have been her. I don't know what she would gain for destroying the peace that our kingdoms enjoy, but it was planned. Nothing... that happened like that could have been anything but planned.

But wait, why did she wait until after the match between you two?

[ Yeah, that certainly is a wide-eyed panicked look in Penny's eyes, as she instinctively wraps an arm around her torso.

She had tried to prepare herself for this, but it wasn't coming as easily as she'd like. ]

Our fight... ended.... worse than yours had. [ Glance over at Pyrrha... then glancing back to the ground. ]

[Her eyes widen, and her skin just goes white as her expression falls. She can't help but wring her hands as she relays the events, and it's obvious she doesn't take any of this lightly.]

Much... worse. Accidental as it may have been, I—I'm responsible for Penny's death.

[As she went on with saying that, her voice continued to waver and she can feel the tears at the corners of her eyes. And she's prepared to leave if no one wants her around anymore, too. She understands the gravity of what happened.]

It... I did not mean for that to happen, but it does not make me any less responsible. Penny and I have already... spoken about it, but...

[ Penny sure seems interested by things that are not looking at the others. ]

I know you did not mean for it to happen. And that does provide a little comfort...

[ She grips her own torso a little tighter, remembering what happened. It's too bad that she couldn't modify her own internal files, to erase that particular memory... ]

I... don't know how that's possible. It's not that I don't believe you, but... Even back in- ["the White Fang", she almost says, but catches herself.] - outside of the kingdoms, we'd heard of Pyrrha Nikos. The strongest human. Some even went so far as to say that if more humans were like you, we wouldn't have the problems we do.

Penny did say what happened, before, but... I don't understand how Pyrrha of all people could be tricked into... killing.

[ Penny is wringing her hands here. She has something to say, and now is really the only time to say it. ]

It... It probably made things easier for them that. [ Urk. ]

I have, had, been keeping a secret from everyone.

I am... not actually a real girl.

[ Not looking anybody in the eyes now for sure. ]

While others are born, I was created in a workshop. I'm made of metal, plastic, and dust, not flesh and blood.

It was... not a good match-up for Pyrrha's semblance.

[ SHE IS READY FOR THE JUDGMENT TO COMMENCE. It was nice being almost-friends, though, before this ruined everything. ]

It was not. And—... I saw hundreds, perhaps thousands of blades. I had to do something to protect myself, but... it did not end well. And I did not know. Had I known, I would've exercised more caution with the use of my semblance, but—... I did not, and it ended in the worst possible way.

What? [ That does. That does not compute in the slightest. ]

[She glances up in surprise when she hears Penny's confusion.]

... You didn't... see what I saw, did you?

[Everything is a huge mess and people are robots and there are illusions everywhere. And they probably took advantage of robots and polarity. And she hopes that Blake and Yang don't mind Penny the way she is.]

[Blake's eyes are starting to droop a little, but she's still engaged in this.]

I saw Penny fight Team CRDL in the doubles round. There were a lot of swords- too many for any one fighter to keep track of- but there weren't that many. I'd say ten or twelve.

[Of course Blake was watching to see Team CRDL get their asses kicked. She may or may not have recorded that to watch for her own amusement more later, even.]

I do usually keep a couple in reserve, and they can split, but the most I could have is sixteen. [ She actually looks at the others in confusion before

oh yeah

they know she's a robot

Head back down. ]

But wait, back up a second. In my fight against Mercury, I saw him attack me, but no one else did. I reacted, hurt Mercury, and, as a result, we got disqualified. Obviously, spectators would be upset, but it was really how your match-up ended that set everyone off. In both cases, Pyrrha and I saw things that no one else did, and that caused things to go wrong. Cinder capitalized on that. How could she have known what the match-ups would be?

[Then Yang realizes the answer to her own question.]

The break-in at the CCT Tower during the dance!

[She turns to Blake.]

Remember? Ruby said something about fighting someone inside the CCT tower, but that they just vanished. At the time, no one could figure out what the point of the break-in was, but now...

[Yang then scratches her head again.]

But that still doesn't answer why Cinder would want to do all this. I mean, what could she possibly gain?

[Blake can only look away from the others as she speaks.]

When Sun and I infiltrated that White Fang recruitment rally, Torchwick mentioned having an "employer". Someone able to provide Atlas military technology before it was really unveiled.

If those are related at all, it's possible that the end of Huntsmen and Huntresses is the end goal- the end of a very... human power structure. But that doesn't explain much. Cinder is a student, right? Our age. I don't know how a Mistral student would be that "employer" providing Atlas tech to Vale criminals. Maybe they aren't even related.

You're right. It seems ridiculous that someone our age, a student from Mistral, could get access to Atlas tech like that. Much less, have the kind of clout to be able to get both Torchwick AND the White Fang to take orders.

[Yang thinks on Blake's words for a moment. Then she has a chilling thought, considering whether or not to vocalize it for a second. Ultimately, there was no point in keeping it to herself, so she airs it out loud.]

What if it's someone else? This "employer" of Torchwick's. What if it's not Cinder, but someone else that they're both answering to?

There's something going on, but I don't... I'm not sure what it could be, and I followed her to the top of the tower to stop her. [She stops for a second, considering the events that happened, before remembering one very crucial detail that strikes her as odd, too:]

Does everyone know the story of the Maidens?

[Cinder stole the Fall Maiden's powers. How would she know that was more than just a story? Who could have told her? Why did she need that power so much?]

{Well, that was an odd transition, but Yang's willing to go with it.]

You mean, like, the fairy tale?

[SHE KNOWS WHERE SHE'S GOING WITH THIS ~~PROBABLY~~]

Yes. It's not... a fairy tale, though. It's real.

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