The Grimm with a soul

The dreaded day

(Prepare for massive timeskip, because I'm lazy and didn't want to write any other chapters)

Days passed, as they do, with nothing uneventful happening. Well, nothing out of the timeline that is.

Yang and Weiss were sent forward for the duos rounds, and won. Putting Yang on her path to fight Mercury. Violet knew this, but still said nothing.

Pyrrha and Nora had also progressed to the singles rounds. Winning phenomenally against their opponent's.

Team SSSN had also won, moving Sun to the singles rounds as their representative. Thankfully, the arena didn't have any water when they fought.

Team CFVY had lost their match, with devastating results. Coco having been hospitalized, and their opponents Team CLME given a earring about their behavior, even though it would get worse.

Pyrrha still held her own concerns over Team CLME, her suspicions still being persistent.

Blake was still worried, having still not received any word from Shadow about Team CLME.

On a happier note, Nora and Ren were now together-together as they put it. Even though that was outside the timeline, Violet was happy for them. The two would need the support for the events to come.

They found themselves in their tournament seats yet again, waiting for Yang and Mercury's match to begin.

...

As the final minutes ticked away before the start of the Singles Round, Mercury was already in position in the Mistral locker area. He gritted his teeth as he made sure that Talaria was fully loaded, as well as that his legs were properly attached. He had taken some over the counter painkillers to help deal with his fractured ribs, but they were a drop in the bucket it terms of what was needed to dull the pain. The small amount of rest he managed to acquire had done very little to heal his injuries, which did leave him wondering just how he was supposed to pull off his part of the plan. He only needed to wait for Emerald to do her part of course, but to be this injured before the true show was to start, did leave him in a rather tight bind. At least he could say with certainty that he had concealed his injuries well enough that Cinder hadn't noticed. Emerald may be loyal to her for getting her out of life on the streets, but he was not so naive. He had alarm bells going off the moment he had met her, and he was only going along with her plans because she had given him new legs, and had promised him to give him back what he had lost if he was successful with his mission. He wasn't indebted to her, nor did he feel any inclination to be, but he would continue, as she had kept her side of the bargain thus far.

Furthermore, there was something odd about the relationship between Cinder and Neo. It had developed after they had convinced Roman to join them. Well, she had convinced him. How Cinder had managed that partnership, he didn't know, but ever since, when Neo wasn't with Roman, she was by Cinder's side; which was at a constant these past several weeks.

She was like a loyal lapdog, always at the half-Maiden's heels, and doing what she was told. It was more than Emerald's level of obedience, but what made him wonder what was truly going on, was the fear she would let slip every so often.

Her face would never betray her, but her eyes were a different matter. What Mercury wasn't able to shake, was that he felt as if he knew exactly what kind of fear she was hiding; and that it was uncomfortably familiar.

He would have remained consumed with his thoughts until his match began, when a voice emerged from the silence.

Emerald: Merc?