Remnant's Guardians

Rising Conflicts

Tia's PoV:

I held Bolt-Caster out before me and took a deep breath. Lunging forwards, I clashed with another blade and opened my eyes to see my brother standing before me with a smirk. The two of us clashed blades dozens of times and I flipped away, over his strike. Spinning mid-air, I slashed him shoulder-to-shoulder and he fell to a knee, an orange glow surrounding him.

"The winner is Tia Goldshot! Sam, your Aura has been fully depleted." Glynda stood off to the side, as did JNPR, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Ozpin.

Wincing, Sam stood up, using Young Wolf's Howl as support. "Nice going, Tia. You're definitely getting better."

I nodded, then watched as Erica triumphed over Luke. We went through one more round of sparring (same results), then we decided to go out. Stalker-5 chose to stay in our dorm, though. As we walked, I pulled out my Scroll and decided to watch Yang's match with Mercury. The 11 of us sat down at a cafe and I narrowed my eyes as Mercury got sloppier and sloppier, to the point he let Yang hit him full-force, totally getting rid of his Aura.

"Guys, I've got a bad feeling 'bout this match." I didn't take my eyes off my Scroll.

My teammates pulled out their own Scrolls and watched.

I saw Mercury say something and Yang turned, her weapons extending into fighting position. She spun around and I saw a smirk form on Mercury's lips as he stood perfectly still in the path of the Dust round. It hit and he took a little too long falling down to be natural. He grabbed his leg and I saw not bleeding/burned flesh, but rather scorched metal.

I bared my teeth. "That faker!"

My fellow Guardians nodded. Well, Sam and Erica nodded, Luke just drew Ace of Hearts.

Crota seemingly took over Erica. "I can see the metal, and smell his malicious intent. If I may, I believe it'd be wise if we head back and Sam be there to comfort Yang Xiao Long while the rest of us get to the bottom of this."

We all nodded and stood up. Transmatting back to Beacon, Sam rushed to Yang's dorm while the three of us got into our own ships and flew up to the stadium. The sight of Luke's revolver told the soldiers to stay out of our way and we entered a maintenance hallway, wanting to cut off the medical team so we can make our deduction. We hopped down from the vents to see Emerald, Mercury, and two medical officers get into the ship and Cinder got in as well. The door slammed shut before us, but Crota was able to hear the officers grunt on the other side of the door. The ship took off and we fell down, panting.

I laid on my back. "Damn it, we were so close!"

Erica looked at me. "Maybe next time. C'mon, let's go watch Pyrrah and Penny."

I got up, scowling. "Fine. Nothing we can really do now."

We walked over to the stadium and sat down, waiting for the match to begin...

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Sam's PoV:

I held Yang close, letting her cry into my shoulder. "I'm here for you, Yang. My team's trying to figure out what happened, alright?"

She nodded, but continued to cry.

Ghost popped out of my head. "Guardian, I'm receiving a transmission from the team."

"Put it through."

Erica's voice came through my Ghost. "Tried to intercept the medical team, but Cinder, Emerald and Mercury got away. When we checked the area, our Ghosts picked up no blood with their scans, nor did Crota smell it. I'm still firmly in the 'faking with a prosthetic leg' corner, as is the rest of us. Also, I have a feeling we're being played."

"Got it. I'll see if Ghost and I can't contact Hawthorn."

"Oh, and before you go."

"Yeah?"

"Crota and I are trying to access my Ascendant Realm."

"Wait, your's? As in, nit the one we defeated him in?"

"Yep. Makes sense that we'd have one, we've killed gods."

I chuckled. "Good to know. See you soon."

Ghost killed the feed and went back to my head. Yang stayed attached to me and continued to cry into my shoulder and I held her as close as I could. Eventually, her cries turned into sniffles and she looked up at me.

"Do you believe me?"

I looked deep into her lilac eyes. "I don't believe you, I know he planned that. All four of us Guardians saw him stand calmly in the way of your shot, and we saw him do it with a smirk. So yes, I believe he's in cohorts with someone in... the... audience..." I just realized what his friend was really doing.

"Sam?"

"His friend, Emerald, she must be conspiring with him. Ghost says her Semblance allows her to trick a target by making them hallucinate. I think something big's going and we don't know the end play, and I don't like that."

Yang clung to me harder. I began to stroke her hair.

"Don't worry, I'm not leaving 'till the Festival is over."

Yang placed her head on my shoulder and I pulled out my Scroll, which is honestly going against Atlas authority because they had us patted down for Scrolls and anything of the sorts that Yang could use to escape.

"Wanna watch the match?"

"Which match?"

"Pyrrha vs Penny."

She sat up right. "Sure."

I opened my Scroll and tuned into the broadcast.

And that was that chapter. We all know what happens in the next.