A grunt left him as his heavy foot hit rocky ground, Marcus turning to look over his shoulder.
A narrow but tall network of caves ran through the mountain behind him. Its dark pathways weren't easy to navigate, the uneven rock as likely to trip as they were to skewer or scratch. With so many different ways to go, all but a handful of paths leading through the entire network, it was a maze. One he'd trapped up himself.
Those lucky enough to trigger one of the earlier traps might find themselves injured or knocked out. If he wasn't around to take care of them and that wasn't enough to send them running, the rest were far more lethal.
Anyone following him would've had to be right up on him or relying on unique tools to keep track of him.
Either way, they wouldn't be able to avoid the vast array of traps, even the path he walked full of them.
He trudged forward, lightly rolling his shoulder as he looked uphill.
His house sat at the top of the grassy mound, the old wooden building in desperate need of a thorough cleaning and some repairs but exactly like he left it, a number of sizable trees partially concealing it. Good. The place was hidden within a valley of mountains not far from Mistral's city walls but with that trapped cave being the only way in on foot, a tiring hike needed just to reach it, no one should ever come across it. There wasn't anything close by worth struggling over these mountains for.
He'd delayed as long as he could with these wounds, taking detours and waiting to see if anyone had been chasing him, going as far as to backtrack just to be sure no one had picked up his trail. If he was being followed, they'd yet to show themselves.
Another grunt slipped out as the incline grew steeper.
He'd take a few days, restock, let his aura fully replenish, then head into the city to wait for his target and those that accompanied him. Targeting them among crowds was going to be the easiest way to bypass any scouting abilities and-
His right leg suddenly gave out on him, a hit to its back forcing Marcus to a kneel. Pressure sealed tight around his neck as his hands shot up. He grabbed hold of the source, attempting to pry away the black covered forearm wrapped around his neck, that effort only increasing the pressure.
"You have one chance." The voice of his target came from behind. "Answer my questions and I'll give you a quick painless death."
This fucker. Marcus seethed as the hold loosened enough for him to speak. This boy was foolish and overconfident to be using a hold like this rather than his weapon, that damn semblance of his keeping from ever experiencing what a real struggle was like.
But that could rectified.
"How did you get here?" Marcus struggled out while focusing what little aura he'd built up on his way here towards his left hand. All it would take was one-
The pressure around his neck vanished.
Marcus blinked, metal rattles filling the air as he tried to move.
He hadn't been released, rather, the entire world had suddenly changed. The orange rays from the rising sun that'd just been beginning to peak of the mountains had vanished, nearly all color drained from his surroundings. The trees, grass, ground, and his distant home just up the hill had been reduced to little more than white outlines as if drawn onto the endless darkness all around him.
And he was cuffed to some kind of post, arms spread out in opposite directions and legs fully straightened down, a set of skin digging cuffs forcing them together despite his struggles.
What was this?
A click joined the rattling of his cuffs, struggling stopped to look at the source. His target stood in front of him, made of the same void like blackness all around them, his form outlined by white. Separating him from all else were the distinct red glow to the markings on his mask and matching dual glow leaking out from beneath its outlined slits where his eyes were.
He broke up the giant sword stabbed into the darkness, a serrated blade pulled from it, then walked up to him.
"Answer my questions-" He said, sword pulled back. White hot pain flashed out from Marcus' gut, quickly spreading across the rest of his body. He gritted his teeth, biting down as the blade was twisted then viciously ripped out. His blood, pure white, spilled free, leaking down his body, along the post, then down to the pitch black ground, coloring in all the outlines. "-and this will come to an end."
Marcus glared down at him.
Another stab, this one to the thigh, sent a fresh wave of pain through him, the blade's serrated edge cutting up more of him as it moved.
Something was wrong with all this. Was it the semblance of the fourth that traveled with him? Or did his telekinesis go beyond simple object manipulation, allowing some control of his target's minds?
Either way, this was no more than an illusion.
That first stabbed would've pierced plenty on its way through to his liver. If this was a real interrogation with worries about him dying that would've been the worst place to start. The blood loss and pain alone could've caused anyone to pass out in seconds.
More stabs followed, each one slower than the last.
This was fake, some kind of illusion. One powerful enough to induce something like this must've demanded a massive amount of aura. All he had to do was endure. He was already positioned to seal his target's semblance. He didn't have enough aura for a direct fight, especially against four people but he had entire cave full of traps he knew like the back of his hand.
Dealing with them in there would be manageable if he was smart.
He just had to endure.
"You're right, all of this is no more than an illusion." Marcus lifted his head, eyes widening. As the one standing in front of him prepared another stab, another identical version of his target appeared beside his main blade, those words having come from it.
"Right now, my arm is around your neck." Another clone appeared beside that one.
"Your aura shield isn't up to protect you." A third formed, outlined by white like the others.
"And you're already too weak to break free." Two more took shape, the red glow where their eyes rested beneath that outlined helmet, staring up at him. "You will die."
The five each picked up one of the swords and moved forward, surrounding the original who'd been silently staring up at him, holding back on a stab. "Its up to you how much pain you endure before that." The original said. All at once the group of six sent their blades forward, a scream ripping free, white hot pain searing its way across the entirety of Marcus' body. "Answer my questions and this ends."
He curled his hands into fists, gritted his teeth as blood flowed up between them.
This was fake.
More stabs sunk into his flesh.
He just had to hold on.
Yet more stabs came, crossing into other stab wounds.
He'd suffered far worse than some physical pain that wasn't even real.
Soon it'd be over and he could kill this one and all those that were with him.
The world shimmered.
Dozens of posts, all with a clone of him cuffed to them had taken shape around them. In front of each one, stood six clones of his target, different blades in their hands.
His already thumping heart, beat harder, raging against his chest.
It was just an illusion.
They pulled back their blades in perfect unison, his breaths picking up.
He had to endure. Endure. End-
A scream so horrendous and deafening he didn't even realize it was his own filled his ears. These weren't stabs anymore. An ungodly burn filled him as the blade plunged deep. His bones, skin, and everything between had been set aflame, the horrifying burn indiscriminate in what it targeted. Even his aura felt as though it turned against him, now a raging flame that wanted to sear its way out of him just for a chance to escape the pain.
It didn't wane, the twisting of the blades further igniting the incomprehensible burn.
This-This was an illusion?
XOXO
My brow furrowed, aura steadily draining.
I hadn't tested Emerald's semblance out to this extent on anything other than wandering Grimm, but the differences were like night and day. I'd cut corners, no attempt made to make the illusion a one to one match with the world, but even with that, overwhelming and hijacking another person's senses to the point of immobilizing them required both extensive focus and aura.
Managing the torturous illusion that Marcus Black was experiencing on more than one person would be daunting. Possible but probably not worth the aura cost outside of specific circumstances. Any more than that and I was better off using other semblances if I wanted to subdue them.
"…Rufus…" In seconds for me but what must've felt like endless torture since I secured my stranglehold on him, Marcus muttered a name. More subdued answers for questions revolving around his semblance followed. I would've asked more, specifically about Mercury, but loose rocks fell around me, noise coming from above.
With just a bit more force, a sickening snap I was all too familiar with left his neck. Pushing him forward, his limp bodied laid still in the dirt, my mint green aura changing back to Glynda's purple.
The aura sigil on his neck hadn't vanished no matter how many times I switched my semblance, only now fading away along with his aura. Whatever chance he thought he might've had didn't exist, his ability to seal semblances lost to him from the first hit I got on him.
I turned, looking up.
Rushing down the side of the mountain I'd carried us over, Qrow was the first to get low enough to jump off and land beside me. Cinder and Emerald were next, not as steady with their landings, but quickly readying themselves.
All of them noticed the body.
"Is that.."
"Yeah. Killed him." I bluntly answered Emerald's unfinished question. She couldn't see much of the body behind me and decided not to try getting a better look, forcing her eyes back up. Cinder was the opposite, silently walking forward and passing me, only stopping once she was beside the body.
"Got anything out of him?" Qrow asked as Cinder kicked over the body. The limp neck and motionlessness satisfied her, her grip on her weapons relaxing.
"The name of the person who hired him and a few others things."
"And he just gave up that up?" Cinder asked.
"My semblance can be dangerous when used on people." I explained. "That can make it persuasive." Technically speaking, even as resilient as Marcus had been, with enough time I probably could've used telekinesis to force that information out of him but there was no point in using something like that to draw things out.
Better Emerald and Cinder didn't have to see or listen to something like that.
"Besides, we'll be double checking things ourselves." I added while kneeling down to search Marcus's pockets. "That's his home up on the hill. Between his scroll and that I'm sure we'll be able to figure out whether or not he was telling the truth."
I found said scroll quickly, pocketing the plain white thing, before standing back up and leading the way up towards the distant house. Qrow followed, that sidelong look of his shouting his concern at me. Cinder fell in too, the corpse behind us forgotten. Emerald was the only one who lingered but she forced herself to rush after us, a wide berth given to the limp body.
On the surface the place didn't look like anything special. A simple wooden two story building among an isolated gathering of trees that provided it some coverage. I focused my telekinesis on it as we stopped before the porch's first steps. Two stories. Empty of people. A few different rooms.
And doors to some kind of cellar or basement around its back. There was someone in the spacious room down its stairs.
"I don't think there are any traps." I said. Luckily it didn't seem like Marcus was paranoid enough to booby trap his house the same way he did those tunnels I'd flown us over. At least not in any obvious way. Any piece of furniture or door could be modified in some subtle way. "Someone is the basement around back though. Chained up, I think."
"Chained up? Like a prisoner?" Emerald asked and I nodded. "You sure this is his house? Why would anyone have someone- you know what, I'm better off not asking."
"Yeah, that's probably for the best. I wouldn't want to know what a guy like that got up to in his spare time." Qrow said, drawing his sword and beginning to round the building. "We should start by freeing them just in case it turns out this place is rigged to blow."
Grass crunching beneath our steps, we made it around the back, aura shields up, weapons drawn, and a good distance between us and a set of slated metal doors built into the back of the house. Rather than flat out breaking the lock or forcing it off its hedges, I spread my aura all around it, half searching for any signs of a trap and fiddling with the several locks spread across it.
After being sure there was no trap, I focused entirely on the locks, undoing them one by one. Finally, as the final one came undone, I walked forward, swinging one of the doors open with a nudge of my head and aura.
"You know, with a semblance like that, you could make a lot more lien than I ever did stealing." Emerald said, probably trying to ease her own tension.
"I wouldn't need it to make more lien than you." I said, going along with it.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
I left the answer to Emerald's imagination as we reached the doors and peered down into the opening. Old stone stairs that led that to stone ground, all smoothed out over the course what looked like years. The darkness that shrouded it all wasn't a problem for me, but I pulled out my scroll, flashlight lighting it up. Emerald put away one of her revolvers, pulling out our lamp from her hip and turning its knob, a soft reddish-orange glow lighting up the area.
Other door pulled open, I led the way down alongside Qrow, our steps beginning to echo as we descended.
A large stone chamber. Empty of anything distinct, the only thing that stood out about the big room was the damage spread across its smoothed stone. It was a training room of the most basic kind, no equipment anywhere.
But it only made up a majority of the carved out space.
Chains rattled and we angled our lights in the direction I'd been looking, a frown forcing its way across my face.
Pale skin. Dark gray hair. Dull grayish eyes to match that short messy hair. Fully tensed up with his eyes narrowed as it bounced between us, Mercury Black stood on the other side of a set of metal bars, ankles cuffed and chained.
Marcus was another thing the show never went into depth on, Mercury not quite important enough for his backstory to get any more than a quick flashback and a passing line or two. He was a drunk deadbeat malicious enough to seal away his son's semblance and beat up on him to the point of being killed by him.
What I was seeing went beyond that.
I wouldn't have lost any sleep killing someone after my life. That mental torture though? I'd just considered it necessary to finish things as quickly as possible and avoid having to do anything too brutal in front of Emerald and Cinder but not anymore.
Marcus Black deserved that torture and more.
XOXO
Powerstone Goal: 800
(A/N: And we're finally getting a better look at the more crueler things Talon is willing to do people he considers to be more on the evil side and has no relationship with. Aka, people in which thoughts of Summer won't even pop up for. No matter the reasoning, torturing people, especially to the extent he took it, takes a certain something that the average person just doesn't have. Or at least I hope don't have.
Oh, and Mercury. Buddy will be making a proper appearance next chapter.
And, here's the link for those who want to read ahead for anything I'm writing:
patreon .com/ thirdratewriter
Let's start this week off strong!)