Chapter 194: Farewell

Chapter 194: Farewell

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Farewell

Emerald and Mercury looked surprised to find my waiting when they reached the airship that would be taking them to Atlas, immediately dropping their bags and readying themselves for a fight.

"Enough," Cinder said, for her part merely looking annoyed as I eyed her minions with amusement. "This is Jian Bing of the White Fang. I assume you don't need any introductions yourself?"

"Emerald and Mercury," I replied, giving each a brief glance before focusing back on Cinder. "Yes, I'm well aware of your subordinates. Why don't the two of you go get the ship ready?"

Cinder's henchmen exchanged a look between themselves and then glanced back at Cinder, who watched me expressionlessly. To their credit, the two of them didn't back down despite no doubt knowing they were outclassed and didn't move until Cinder gave them a slight nod. I remained at ease as they filed past me into the ship, keeping a close eye on me all the while, and Cinder didn't speak until they were gone.

"I assume there's something you want," Cinder spoke at last. She didn't seem angry or uneased, instead simply looking at me with the usual calm.

"Nothing much," I answered. "I simply wanted to continue our discussion and I thought you'd appreciate a lack of witnesses."

"Oh?" Cinder asked, tilting her head slightly. She didn't bother looking around, but I was fairly certain she didn't believe I'd come alone.

In fairness, I hadn't. Raven was watching us through a portal with Adam and Gou waiting on the other side.

Still, I smiled calmly at her and nodded.

"I had several questions I wished to ask you that were of a, let us say, personal nature," I confirmed. "Given their nature, I believed some privacy was warranted."

Cinder took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"Very well then," She answered. "Ask. I make no promises as to answering, however."

"Of course; I understand," I assured her with another smile. "And I appreciate the courtesy. Now where to begin?"

I hummed to myself quietly, making a show of considering it, drawing things out. I knew at least something about Cinder's past now, but I had to be careful about what I said, both to avoid making assumptions and to keep from giving away how much I did or didn't know. Though we had some common ground due to our past experiences, the fact remained that I'd been shielded from the things she'd endured as a child and was powerful enough to mostly ignore them nowI didn't know how she might react to the subject if I brought it up. At the same time, however, this was a chance for me to see her while she was caught off-guard, to poke and prod and see how she reacted both as a person and, potentially, as a Rider. I'd spent the last few days considering the matter closely and plotting out my attack.

As such, I began by approaching the matter in my own subtle way.

Just as Cinder started to lookwell, more annoyed, I tilted my head and felt my smile widen.

"Why is it?" I wondered aloud. "That you prefer to go by Fall instead of Rhodopis?"

Cinder hadn't been moving much beforehand, but she froze stock still at the question, gazing at me with a face like a mask. Inside, however, I could feel the spike of sudden emotionsurprise, concern, old anger, and evena hint of fear?

I let my smile widen, keeping my gaze amused even when she didn't respond. There was that confirmed, at least.

"Mayro Rhodopis' only daughter," I continued to press before chuckling under my breath. "Only biological daughter, I should saypity what happened to your stepsisters and stepmother, wasn't it? A woman forced to eat her own children and then burnt alivenasty business. And then you just seemed to vanish when the Families started looking. One wonders where you might have gone."

I had a few ideas on that front. Once I had all the dates, it was easy to start making connections. Starting with the death of her stepmother and her subsequent departure from at least Mistral, there were only so many places she could have goneand there was a place I already knew she was connected to.

For her part, Cinder opened her mouth as if to say something before shutting it quickly, staring at me with cold eyes.

"Come to think of it," I mused when she didn't answer. "Didn't you mention you were familiar with Mountain Glenn? I hope you weren't caught up in anything dangerous, Ms. Rhodopis. I heard that even once the people hid themselves underground, it proved for naught. An explosion opened up a passage filled with subterranean Grimm and everyone within died."

"Tragic," Cinder replied, otherwise unmoving. But her mask of calm did little to hide her growing emotion. "Truly. What of it, though?"

I chuckled again.

"I was simply musing over how interesting your past was," I replied. "I'm certain I wouldn't be the only one to think so."

She looked at me quietly for a long moment, but even now refused to react physically. She was angry in a distant way, quietly concerned, worried, but still remaining controlled.

"What do you want?" She asked at last. "I assume you didn't come here just to ponder the past."

Also, I was still as a statue, unable to even move my eyes. Were it not for my altered view of the world, I wouldn't even be able to look at her, as she was nowalthough, quite frankly, the view wasn't particularly reassuring.

Cinder hadn't moved from her place yet, her body shaking slightly as more and more crystals pushed their way out of her skin. The black markings on her skin reminded me increasingly of vines, as Dust grew from them like the fruits of a bizarre plantbut with each new crystal that appeared, more power seemed to flash through her system. I could see inside of her, were dark material had begun to line her nerves and veins, lighting up in time with her heartbeat as they grew to look more like wires than anything organic. Black crystals spread across the surface of her heart like ice across a lake, growing out at strange angles until it began to look like a misshapen star, shining from within.

Both inside and out, her transformation progressed, twisting her body with each passing second. I supposed that was at least partially the reason for the Time Stop; keeping people from interrupting her transformation sequence, as well as sucker punching them afterwards. Given how badly this was going, waiting for her to finish transforming seemed like it would beunwise.

On the other hand, I wouldn't be doing anything about her unless I dealt with this Time Stop, first. My options on that front were unfortunately limitedreally, there were only three, and none of them were very good. I suppose it was a bit odd to be weighing cost effectiveness while frozen still and standing next to a transforming death machine, but given that it seemed I'd need to fight for my life momentarily, I needed to be careful now more than ever. It'd do me no good to escape the Time Stop only to die because I exhausted myself, then.

Time Stops were tricky business in generally, as I'd come to learn recently. While an extremely powerful effect in various ways, it came with drawbackfor me especially. First of all, my naturally ability to regain enormous quantities of MP every second were sadly inapplicable when seconds stopped passing. Similarly, my Accelerationa skill I'd come to rely upondidn't function during stopped time; maybe it was a little too much to ask to be able to stack absolutely everything, but it was still a bit saddening that I could stop time and accelerate it simultaneous. Yes, I knew it was a contradiction in and of itself, but I still wanted to do it.

All of which meant that even after I broke out, I'd be at something of a disadvantage. I'd need to depend entirely upon my stores of Dust crystals, which wouldn't normally be a problem in and of itself, butwell, maybe I was being paranoid, but it seemed like the Dust Master who was currently growing Dust out of her skin with the help of an ancient Dust-based superweapon might have a slight edge on me when it came to using Dust; call it a hunch. And while I was by no means helpless or slow without my Acceleration, being able to move twenty to thirty times faster than normal was pretty damn useful.

And, putting aside whatever else she might use against me, I was going to have to fight Cinder without either. I wasn't too keen on that idea; I preferred to fight my enemies with every possible advantage, but the tricks I'd brought to the table were already being chipped away at. As it was, I was going to have to fight here one on one, relying solely on my own powerwhich might have been fair, yeah, but fuck that shit; it greatly increased my odds of losing.

But there was no choice now. After pressuring her and pushing her into revealing her true nature, there was nothing I could do but fight.

Or was there?

A thought occurred to me as layers of crystal turned Cinders fingers into lethal-looking claws that were oddly jointed. She flexed them once, a rubbing of her finger blades sending up a sudden surge of sparks, before approaching me carefully. As I watched her approach, absently noting that her glass heels had been replaced by almost identical crystal shoes, I considered the possibility. It was a long shot, but if talking had gotten me into this, could it possibly get me back out? Certainly, it would be far better than being forced into a disadvantageous fight, butcould I actually pull it off?

No way to know except to try, I suppose. If I failed, I'd be no worse off than I was now, and if I succeeded

Had I been able to, I'd have taken a deep breath as I watched Cinder approachbut I didn't act. I'd only have one chance at this and there was only one thing I could think of that might actually work, but I'd need to do this right. I waited until she was right in front of me and watched her carefully. Cinder didn't say a word, now that she seemingly had me did to rights, she just lifted her claws as they started to glow. Space rippled oddly around them, outlining blades that were there, but I didn't have time to think about it as she swung them towards my face.

Now, I thought, using a new trick. Expending an enormous amount of MPso large, in fact, that it was only useable at all thanks to the effects of my cost reducers and was still almost cripplingly expensiveI felt things change as I revealed one of my trump cards. It was something I'd kept in reserve to give myself a major advantage in a crucial moment, butto think I'd need to use it just to have a chance.

By raising Acceleration to level 99, you have gained the skill 'Tachyon.'

Tachyon (Active) LV1 EXP: 7.94% MP: 100000

The ability to temporarily remove oneself from the normal flow of time. By warping time and space around himself to exist solely within a specific 'moment,' the user can seemingly cause time to stand still.

Additional 100000 MP spent per 'moment.'

All of a sudden, I could move within the frozen world and I immediately shed a Skin to escape the attack. Cinder's claws swept through only an afterimage, distorting the space around them as they went. I analyzed the attack even as I escaped from it and knew I'd made the right choiceit wouldn't have been my flesh those blades would have cut; they'd have carved straight through the space I'd occupied.

But I didn't have time to worry about things like that. Acceleration was still too expensive and brief to be useful, so I needed to make this moment count. Even as one hand swept into my Inventory to grab a handful of Dust crystals that I immediately devoured, I spoke.

"Now, now," I said with a laugh, making sure I sounded like I was making light of the attack. I did my best to maintain my confident demeanor, but given how much energy stopping time for even a moment had taken me and how easily Cinder was able to do the same, it was a little difficult. "There's no need for that, Famine."

After the words left my mouth, I froze again, Tachyon running its course. All that mana for a literally momentary effectthe sad part was that it was still cheaper than using my Dimensional to accomplish the same effect. But it had its uses, so long as it was handled with care.

Cinder froze so still that for a moment, I almost thought she'd fallen prey to her own attackbut then she turned around slowly, staring at me hard even as crystals began creeping into her eyes.

"And how is it that you know that name?" She asked coldly. "Who are you, really?"

Suddenly, I realized I could move. So she could not only freeze time, but even exclude specific people from the effect at will? That wasfrightening, I had to admit.

But I couldn't let something like surprise or fear take away this chance.

At once, dark spots began to appear on my skin in growing patches, expanding quickly across my flesh. At a glance, they might have seemed similar to the artistic designs that were still visible on Cinder's skin, but there was no pattern to their expansion, no shape to be revealed. They simple spread and consumed until they covered me entirely.

This was the product of nigh-endless training with Accelerationmy almost maxed-out Metamorphosis.

"Isn't that a cruel thing to ask, 'sister'?" I replied in hopefully real-sounding amusement.

Cinder looked at me for a long moment, watching as layers of Grimm-bone armor began to appear without the slightest change in her expressionand then she clicked her tongue.

"Conquest," She said.