Fipp: Before I get to the actual story, there's a few things about some of the back story behind this fic I want to say. Be warned, there is some complaining on my part related to the SSSN team match and some issues related to it.

First, I originally had the idea to write something like this back during V3 when Pyrrha and Sun showed up in the finals, and we skipped their respective doubles matches. I wondered why they had skipped them, but then we later learned that there was supposed to be a Pyrrha/Nora vs Sun/Neptune fight, but it was cut for time. I'll talk a bit more about that in a bit.

Second, I was extremely disappointed in the SSSN/NDGO fight. Watching it, I get the impression that they wanted to make this a "fun" fight to contrast the later tone of the volume, but to me it was awful, and a joke in ways they didn't intend it to be. I was rather looking forward to this fight since it would have been a proper introduction to the team as a whole, but Sage is taken out in the first ten seconds, Scarlet is taken out by a hit to the balls, and Neptune is more of a detriment than anything else. I think this fight is so terrible, that it plays a large in my absolute confusion as to what their role in the show is supposed to be. I honestly can't think of a way they can write in Sage and Scarlet without it being awkwardly shoehorned in.

Third, because of how awful that fight was, it made me a bit happy that the NP/SN fight was cut because I felt that it would have been written in a similar way. Then a month or so ago someone on Tumblr made a post detailing the V3 commentary and I was completely right, that fight would have been just as terrible as I thought it would be. The two things that really got me was having Pyrrha mock Neptune for his fear of water, which seems fairly out of character for her, and Neptune having water wings installed in his jacket. The whole thing seemed like it was just going to be more ill-timed and ill-fitted humor for the sake of being "fun", and it really makes wonder if there any actual effort put into these fights.

So, this is my own solution to this, writing three 2v2 fights, one for Sun and Neptune, another for Pyrrha and Nora, and one more Sage and Scarlet because there really should have been a proper introduction for them at some point.

Enough of my complaining, please enjoy the story.

(Scarlet's semblance is based of somewhat reasonable theories, while Sage's is not so reasonable theories.)

Doubles I: Preliminary

Weiss felt like a headache was coming on, her eyes squeezing tight, a bad one at that. It had nothing to do with the fact that she had more or less exploded when she had pushed Flynt Coal into a geyser in a bid to save Yang from a sneak attack. No, instead it came from the voice that was by her bed in the nursing station in the Amity Coliseum.

"OH MY GOD DID YOU SEE THAT?!" Ruby cried out, jumping to her feet and gleefully bouncing up and down. "His sword is able to absorb the elemental energy from anyone's dust and transfer those properties to his arrow!" This was followed by a high-pitched squeal.

In the wall opposite of her bed was a screen displaying the current match that was going on in the area, though Weiss had to admit that at the moment she didn't care too much about which teams were fighting, or who was winning, only that this was directly after her and Yang's victory over Team FNKI. At the moment, all she wanted to do was sleep for about a half-hour.

Yang blew a raspberry. "So? Then don't use elemental Dust."

"I don't think you can just say that Yang," Blake then offered. "If someone is heavily reliant on things like that, then a weapon like that could be devastating."

Ruby gasped. "HER MACE TURNS INTO A BAZOOKA!"

"Nah, you can just brute force that kind of stuff. It's always worked for me, if it's something I can't punch, I just punch harder. Never failed me before."

"That's why you need to have contingency plans, be adaptable!"

While Weiss appreciated that her team wanted to be near her, she more or less wanted them gone. She just wanted peace and quiet, and the three girls doing nothing but talk amongst themselves while she tried to rest was not really-

"WHAT'S UP NERDS!" came a loud voice from the door, an Sun popped into the room, his entire team behind him.

"Hey Sun," Blake said, giving a small wave. "What are you guys doing back here?"

"Nothing too big," Sun said, shrugging his shoulders. "Just wanted to check up on you guys after that fight. By the way, good job on the victory, you guys earned it."

"One hell of a fight, I'll say that," said Sage, walking up to a wall and leaning up against it. "It was touch and go there for a few minutes, but you managed to pull it out."

"Honestly, I thought you guys were goners," Scarlet added, flicking his bangs from his eyes. "Once Weiss was taken out, I was almost positive Yang wouldn't be too far behind, but you did. Good on you mates."

"And why are you two so surprised they won?" Neptune said, sounding offended on her and Yang's part. "Of course they won, I wouldn't be surprised if they make it to the final one-on-one. Oh? How is Weiss, anyway? Her aura broke out there, so we're a bit worried about her."

"Oh, she's fine," Ruby answered, keeping one eye on the tv.

"The nurse just gave her some medicine that will help replenish her aura," Blake said, taking several steps closed to Team SSSN. "She's just a bit exhausted, but she'll be up in the hour, maybe even less."

"She would appreciate it if you didn't talk about her as if she wasn't here," Weiss spoke up, in a soured tone, catching everyone's attention.

"You're awake?" Yang asked in surprise. "I thought you were asleep!"

"It's hard to sleep when everyone keeps talking," she growled in response.

Ruby the knelt down next to Weiss' bed, trying to catch her at eye level. "Weiss, do you want us to leave so you can get some rest?"

"...No Ruby, in fact, I want you to get JNPR in here to so you can all have a big celebration party for our win in the tournament."

For a brief moment, Ruby's eye lit up, before she frowned. "Wait, are you being sarcastic?"

Yang then walked up behind Ruby and placed a hand on her shoulders. "C'mon kiddo, let's get going and give Weiss some time to herself, and go watch the fights." Her eyes turned briefly to the tv. "Looks like that one is getting close to being done anyway."

"We better get going too," Sun said. "Neptune and I need to get to the locker rooms in case we're called to fight.

"You two are going to the doubles?" Blake asked, curiously.

From his corner, Sage gave an annoyed mumble before he stepped out of the room.

"Dude, I called dibs! That's how we roll, you've known that from day one!" Neptune called back to him, before turning back to Weiss. "Get better soon Weiss, hope to see you in the stands." He then gave a wink and exited through the door, and soon everyone else filed out behind them.

Now that she was alone, Weiss allowed herself to sleep.

000

Most of RWBY and SSSN walked out of the nursing station, but Blake gave pause.

"Is something wrong, Blake?" Yang asked when Blake stopped just outside the door.

"No, it's nothing," she said, turning back to the office. "Actually, I'm going to stay here for a bit, just in case Weiss needs something. You guys enjoy the fights, and Sun and Neptune, good luck in your upcoming fight."

With that, Ruby and Yang walked in the direction of the stands, Sun and Neptune made their way to the lockers, and Blake herself went back into the nurse's station. The first thing she did was walk over to the small table in the waiting room and pick up one of the magazines scattered on the glass surface.

"What are you doing?" asked a voice from behind her, causing her to fumble with the magazine. Turning around her met with Scarlet's face, carefully watching her.

"What are you doing?" Blake nearly hissed. "You don't just sneak up on people like that?"

"And why not?" he said, dropping into one of the chairs, crossing one leg over the other and propping one arm up and resting his head on his hand. "There's nothing to do until Sun and Neptune go out and fight, so I'm free to do whatever I like?"

Blake huffed in annoyance, then unable to stop Sage from taking her magazine from her grasp.

"Anything good in here?" he asked, sounding rather bored. He flicked through the pages for several moments before turning his attention to the cover, before Blake took the magazine back herself.

"If you must know," she said, her voice on edge. "I saw this as we were leaving; it's a popular literature magazine, and there's an interview in it with one of my favorite authors."

"The smut series?" Scarlet asked, throwing it out causally. "Whatever it's called."

"'Ninjas of Love'," Sage replied simply, sitting down and picking up a magazine of his own.

"No it's not!" Blake defended. Though, there were some rumors that the author being interviewed, who had written many of the books she loved as a child, had also written 'Ninjas of Love' under a different name. Personally, she liked to believed that they were separate, for fear of her childhood. "How do you even know about what I read?"

"Sun told us about it," Scarlet said, giving a small laugh. "Said he wanted to get you a gift, so he ended up looking what you read. He had a very amusing look on his face when he told us about your tastes."

"And you weren't supposed to tell her that," Sage added, flicking a page. Scarlet ignored him, and Blake deiced to ignore them both, and proceeded to sit down to her magazine.

She wasn't certain how much longer it had been, maybe close to thirty minutes, but she was able to tell that the latest match was apparently come to an end as she was half-listening to the television. Blake also heard a pair of foot steps walking up the hall, and putting down her magazine she was able to see Weiss round the corner.

"You're looking refreshed," Blake said, putting the magazine back onto the table.

"Thank you, Blake, and I feel refreshed," Weiss said, a content smile on her face as she dusted off the sleeves of her jacket. "My aura is back to an acceptable level, and the nurse says that I'm more than fine to go back and watch the tournament."

"Well, then let's get going, shall we?" Scarlet pushed himself out of his seat, adjusting the jacket that sat on his shoulders. "Who knows, maybe one of our friends will be on next." He was the first one out the door, followed closely by Sage. Turning to Weiss, Blake gave a nod before she too left, the heiress following closely behind her.

000

"AND THE TEAMS FOR THE NEXT MATCH HAVE BEEN SELECTED!" came Professor Port's voice, booming through the speaker system. "AND THIS IS CERTAINLY GOING TO BE INTERESTING AS BOTH TEAMS ARE FROM HAVEN ACADEMY!"

The halls of Amity were mostly abandoned, save for the four students walking through them, as everyone had already been long since seated to watch the fights.

"Both Haven teams?" Sage asked, looking up to the ceiling. "Think they're up next?"

"Maybe," Blake answered. "How many teams from Haven are left?"

"FIRST UP, WE HAVE SUN WUKONG AND NEPTUNE VASILIAS OF TEAM SSSN!" called out Doctor Oobleck's speedy voice.

"Hey look at that!" Scarlet called out, clapping his hands. "There they are! Do us proud boys!"

"AGAINST TIAMAT KAMPF AND ONRAC KRAKEN OF TEAM KAOS (Chaos)!"

"KAOS?" Weiss asked, before turning around to look at Sage and Scarlet. "Do you two know them?"

"You could say that," Sage said, burying his face into a hand.

"Well, there goes that victory then," Scarlet sighed, his shoulders slumped as he trudged forward.

"What's the problem?" Blake asked, worried about the sudden change in their demeanor. "Do you two know KAOS?"

"You could say that," Sage, his voice deepened. "Sun mentioned that there's a team you guys tend to have run ins with, called CRDL, right?"

Blake scowled. "A bunch of bullies that like nothing to pick on anyone who can't defend themselves."

"Well KAOS is are our CRDL," Scarlet huffed. "They're a second year team that's been out for us since day one. I'm a bit ashamed that they've more or less beaten us at every given chance. They're not terribly nice people."

"Well that certainly sounds like they have a challenge ahead of themselves," Weiss said, arms folded behind her back. "But I'm more than confident that they'll manage to pull out a victory."

"Like those two idiots stand a snowball's chance in hell against out team."

The four came to a stop at the sound of the melodious voice, and before them two figures came from around the corner. The first one was a tall, lithe boy, almost skeletal it seemed, with deathly pale skin, deep yellow eyes, and not a single hair on his head, but there are been two large curved horns. A goat faunus maybe, thought Blake. His chest was bare, better showing off his thin frame, and a purple longcoat was draped over his shoulder., clawed gauntlets on his arms, and purple armor cladding his legs. The second figure was a girl, much shorter, dark skinned with orange eyes, and a head of thick blonde hair woven into numerous braids, and a dark green bandanna wrapped around her head. Her top covered very little, wrapping only her chest, while her pants were loose and baggy, and a purple waist-cloth trailing behind her, covered in red spots.

"And who are you, might I ask?" Weiss said, stepping forward.

"That would be the other half of KAOS," Scarlet answered, his voice tense, raising a hand up and pointing towards the pair. "That guy is Arwan Liche, and the girl is Marilith Shaktari."

"What are you two doing here?" Sage said, sounding more tired and annoyed than anything else.

"What?" Shaktari gave an exaggerated shrug, slowly stepping forward. "I mean, here we are, just on our way to the stands to support our teammates, as they advance their way to the singles."

"However, such support may not be needed," Arwan said, his voice deep, almost hollow sounding. "Kampf and Onrac don't really have much in the way of a challenge. They might as well just advance us to the finales."

"Right, right, we get it," said Scarlet, waving a hand in the air, impatiently. "You think we're going to lose, so you came here for a pre-battle gloating, right?"

Sage folded his arms over his chest. "If that's all you have to say, we're leaving. Now." With that, he turned around, as did his three friends.

"Nu-uh! We're not done with you yet!" called out Shaktari, waving a finger around, and a sly smile on her face. "You see, Arwan and I were talking a few minutes ago, about how much fun it was going to be to watch our teammates utterly wreck your inept little friends, but then we got an idea of our own!"

Behind her, Arwan approached slowly. "Why should they be the only ones who get to enjoy themselves? We came to this tournament for the purposes of fighting, did we not? So should we not be allowed to indulge in ourselves?"

"What are you talking about?" Sage asked, adjusting his footing slightly.

"What I'm saying is simple." Shaktari lowered her hand, grabbing the hilt of her weapon at her side. "While our friends wipe the floor with your friends, we beat you two down." She gave a sharp grin. "Doesn't that sound fun?"

"What?" Scarlet gasped.

"Are you honestly talking about attacking us right in this hallway?" Weiss snapped. "You can't do that! That's against so many rules and regulations!" She then pointed right at them. "Why do you even have your weapons in the first place? Shouldn't those be in storage right now?"

"Shut it Schnee," Shaktari snapped, throwing a biting glare towards Weiss. "This has nothing to do with you, just Artichoke and Fancy Pants here. You and the goth cocktail waitress here and screw off for all I care."

Weiss fumed where she stood, while Blake could only look down at her attire in confusion.

"Also, if you hadn't noticed, they have their weapons as well," Arwan said smoothly, gesturing to the fact that both Sage and Scarlet had their own weapons. "Since all four of us are in reserve in the chance that one of our teammates is unable to take part in their match, we are able to carry our weapons."

"He's right Weiss," Blake said, glancing to her shorter friend. "Both Ruby and I had our weapons in case something went wrong with either you are Yang, but now that the match it over, we've all sent out weapons back to the school."

"Don't you think this is a bit much?" Sage said, trying to be reasonable. "You could get in serious trouble for this, maybe even get disqualified,"

"And who's going to notice?" Shaktari said, arms waving to the empty halls. Everyone is waiting for the match to start, so we're all alone in here."

"We can put a stop to it?" Blake said, her voice level and defiant. "At the very least, we can get help." Blake really wished to avoid a fight, Weiss' aura would still be low at this point, and her own skills without her weapons were acceptable at best.

"We can stop you, it would not be much of a challenge for us to fight both of them and keep you here." Arwan reached over his shoulder and grabbed the weapon at his back.

"So, what's it going to be boys?" Shaktari taunted. "I mean, we're going after you no matter what, but maybe you can make it easier on yourselves by just going along with the flow."

"What is it with you guys anyway?" Scarlet groaned, rubbing at his eyes in exhaustion. "Can't just leave us along for once? Seriously, what's your deal with us anyway?"

"You're weaker than us, isn't that enough?" Shaktari answered, simply.

Scarlet glared at the pair, giving off an agitated groan of his own when a large sword entered his view, and turning to his side he saw that Sage had drawn his weapon and pointed it right at the two members of KAOS. "Sage?"

"You know what?" Sage said, more aloud than to Scarlet. "They way I see it, we don't have much to lose here. Yes, you can beat us, but what's that going to be, another notch under your belt? But if we beat you?" He gave a brief chuckle as he stared them down. "Then maybe we can convince you guys to back off once and for all."

"Oh? So you choose to fight? How very welcoming." Arwan then turned his gaze towards Scarlet. "What of you, Scarlet David? Will you let him do this alone, or will you assist him, knowing the likelihood of defeat?"

Scarlet looked between Arwan and Shaktari, before looking to Sage, and then rolled his eyes, before grabbing his jacket, hanging loosely over his shoulders, and threw it into the air, and before it could even hit the ground, he had already drawn his sword and pistol. "If Sage is going in, I might as well." He glanced over to Sage, who held the stares of the opposition, and gave his own smirk. "Couldn't leave my boy hanging, could I?"

"Blake? Weiss?" Sage said to the two girls, though not turning around to face them. "These two aren't going to let us go, and trying to resist them could land us in more trouble. You're both either still too tired or ill-equipped to be of any real help, so you two can head back to the matches if you want to."

"Are you two really doing this?" Weiss asked, baffled. "You're just going to fight them here, in the halls?"

"Yes."

Blake turned to Weiss. "At least he's straight forward."

"Good to see you guys are getting into this," Shaktari laughed, as both she and Arwan drew their weapons, and both Weiss and Blake saw the similarities they had to Scarlet and Sage's own.

Like Sage, Arwan held a giant sword, though his had a thicker blade, and was a deep black in color, with a skull decorating where the blade met the handle. They could also see deep lines running across the blade, leaving them wondering what secondary form it could take. Shaktari's sword was similar to Scarlet, a long curved sword, a scimitar to his cutlass, though like Arwan the blade was thicker, and around the handle there was a complicated mechanical system.

All the while, Port's voice blared though the loud system.

"AND THE MATCH BEGINS IN 3... 2... 1... START!"

The members of SSSN and KAOS charged at one another, Scarlet and Shaktari gaining ground over their partners before they met in the middle, their blades clashing together briefly before parting, they each struck again, the hits only lasting less then a single moment before they hit again in a flurry of sparks. Shaktari struck harder though, batting away his blade and swinging for his head, but he was able to duck before the blade could connect, leaving room for Sage to swing his own sword, forcing her to roll backwards, and Sage to jump after her. Scarlet was about to follow after them when Arwan stabbed his sword forward, piercing the ground where Scarlet had jumped from, giving him time to land on the sword, then run up it in an attempt to attack Arwan, but the taller boy merely heaved the sword up, sending Scarlet flying over his shoulders and into the air. While in the air, Scarlet spun around and drew his pistol out and fired at Arwan's back, but his sword had swung over his back, protecting him like a shield.

Shaktari quickly jumped backwards from Sage's attacks, then cartwheeled out of the range of the second swing. The movement was to quick for Sage to notice, but her free hand glowed a bright orange for a moment as it touched the ground in the instant they were in contact, leaving the glow on the ground. As she sailed backwards through the air, Sage stepped on that spot and was thrown back by a pillar of erupting fire.

"What was that?" Blake asked aloud, surprised by the action. "I didn't see her pull out any Dust."

"It wasn't Dust," Weiss explained, keeping her eyes on the fight. "That was her Semblance. I've been keeping my eyes on the other teams in case we have to fight them, and her Semblance is able to light things ablaze through direct contact with her hands. Though, I can't figure out why she's keeping her distance from Sage though, she's a lot quicker than him, and she's had plenty of times to strike."

Before Blake could give a response, Scarlet crashed to the ground in front of them, only to roll out of the way as Arwan's blade was brought down on him, then jumped up immediately and made to swing his own sword at him. Arwan was quicker however, blocking the attack with his gauntlet, before swinging his hand, now glowing a deep purple, and attempted to grab at Scarlet, but was only able to briefly scrap at his face, before he was able to jump back. Scarlet's fall back had not been graceful, he stumbled backward, almost tripping backwards and bring his hand to the side of his head. Arwan swung his sword down overhead at Scarlet, and Scarlet was only able to recover just in time to fire off his hook shot onto a nearby light fixture, and yanking him out of the way as the sword came crashing down.

"And that's Arwan's Semblance," Weiss explained, answering Blake's unasked question. "Like Shaktari, his Semblance relies on physical contact, but instead he is capable of sapping away a person's Aura. The longer he takes hold, the more he takes."

Scarlet reached the wall, planting his feet firmly against it, before looking down below him and saw Shaktari jump backwards, putting distance between herself and Scarlet, so he unhooked himself and jumped down at her. She caught him in the last instant, and blocked his blow, and continued to do so with each following strike as he floated above her. Meanwhile Sage, seeing her distracted, readied himself to attack, but Arwan was able to get the drop on him, swinging his sword at his back, sending Sage into the wall. Sage was able to recover quickly enough to deflect Arwan's next blow, but not so much to avoid the open palm coming directly for his face, he could almost feel the hand grabbing at him-

Arwan grasped at nothing, and pulled his sword up to deflect the blow that came from the side, where Sage now stood.

"Okay, now I'm confused," Weiss said, eyes darting between the floating Scarlet and Sage's disappearing act.

"Those would be their Semblances," answered Blake. "I've been spending time with these guys recently, and theirs are fairly interesting. Scarlet can manipulate the gravity around his body, making it seem like he can fly to an extent, or at least appear floaty, or even let him do things like walk on walls, while Sage can stop time, though he can only do it for a single second, and he can only use it three or four times before it becomes too difficult to use. Five if he pushes it."

Shaktari blocked another blow and locked blades with Scarlet, pulling him closer to her and delivering a punch to his chest, which created a small explosion of fire that to, where he tumbled to the ground, but was able recover into a kneeling position.

"You annoying sack of pirate garbage," Shaktari growled, cracking her neck as she stared down Scarlet. "God, I hate you and your stupid twinkle toes-floaty bullcrap!"

"What?" Scarlet stood up and gave a nonchalant shrug. "A bit jealous that you can't do it, when all you can do is light things on fire? Yes, real impressive. I bet people love you are birthday parties."

"I'm going to love breaking you, I want you to understand that." She flicked a switch on her weapon and the mechanism on the blade began to generate electricity and hum, she grabbed the handle with both hands, before pulling the sword apart. There was now a sword in both hands, and four blades floating in the air between them. Scarlet never really liked magnets.

Sage and Arwan clashed their swords against one another, both managing to hold onto their positions.

"You are certainly strong, Sage Ayana," Arwan pushed his sword, causing Sage to struggle. "But are you strong enough? You can buy yourself a free moment to strike at me, maybe even do it a second time, but you and I both know that you would not be able to deal enough damage to me to pull this battle in your favor."

"I'm saving up." Sage held his position, even with the force bearing down on him.

"It won't matter in the end however." Suddenly Arwan's sword began to transform, the blade splitting in half width-wise, and folding itself over, creating an axe that had hooked Sage's sword under its own blade. With the new position, Arwan was able to easily knock Sage to the ground, and grabbed at his hair, sapping the energy from him before Sage retaliated by swings his sword at the offending arm, causing it to release him. Even though he had managed to quickly escape the grasp, he still felt drained.

That's when Scarlet was thrown at him from the side, knocking him down.

"Now having a good time either, huh boy?" Scarlet strained to ask as he pushed himself to his feet.

"You could stay that." Sage stood up, pushing Scarlet off of him. "I'm getting annoyed by this."

"Then I guess we just have to be smarter by how we go about this."

"Got any ideas then?" Scarlet asked, pushing himself to his feet and readying his weapons as as Shaktari and Arwan approached them.

"Maybe. Tell me, is that thing loaded up to fire?" Sage looked down to Scarlet's gun.

"Always. Why do you ask?"

"Good, then get her near me." He then walked away, strafing around KAOS half, getting Arwan's attention.

"What does that even mean? Ugh!" Suddenly Shaktari was on him, swinging at him with six swords against his sword, spinning in a dancing flurry of blades, giving him no room to attack or retaliate, each blow forcing him to take a step back. She then jumped back and let go of one of her swords, letting it float in the air, and she swung them down, having them act in a whip-like fashion, but Scarlet was able to roll out of the way and fired a Dust round, fire-based, at her. However she quickly threw up her free hand, and his shot, and the following explosion, was exploded harmlessly against her hand as she covered it in her own Semblance, protecting her. She was not prepared for when he fired another shot, this time the grappling hook, which attacked itself to the thick bracelets that adorned her sword-arm.

Quickly, Scarlet looked from Shaktari and over his shoulder to Sage, and his battle with Arwan, before back to his opponent. Not really knowing what he had planned, Scarlet jumped into the air, floating for a second before he began to fly backwards, changing the gravity around his body and refocusing it on the wall, taking a swearing Shaktari with him.

Sage felt his entire body shake as Arwan's axe came down on the flat side of his sword.

"Are you prepared to surrender now, Sage Ayana?" Arwan taunted, a think grin on his lips, a dark glow around his hand.

"You're still standing."

Arwan dryly laughed. "Excellent, it won't be any fun should you just give up." He then charged, and Sage made to defend himself

Suddenly Scarlet flew between them, forcing them both to stop, and for several seconds it was the cord of his weapon, and then a screaming and cursing Shaktari zipped by. As she was passing, Arwan had already made the move to grab him with his hand to drain Sage even further-

Everything stopped. Everything was absolutely frozen. Shaktari was still, flailing in the air, Arwan with his outreached arm, and Scarlet was already up-righting himself to land on the wall.

Sage on the other hand could move, and he only had one second to do so.

He dropped his sword, leaving it hanging in the air and in one fluid movement, detached the hook from Shaktari's bracelets and elbowed her backwards, right in front of Arwan.

Time then flowed again.

Arwan grabbed onto Shaktari by the throat, and immediately began to drain her Aura, to his own shock, and before he could even let go of her she began to panic at the feeling, and wildly swung her arms, grabbing at his cloak, setting it on fire. He then yelled in a panic, and ended up throwing her across the hall, but not before her array of swords came down on him, cutting him down him shoulder and chest before they went with her. The tall boy grabbed at his coat and tossed it off his shoulders before the fire could spread, but as he threw it in front of him, it suddenly came back at him and hit him to the floor, like a heavy solid weight, and as he tore through the flames, he could see that Sage had attacked him through the coat.

With the end of his sword pressed against the ground, Sage spun around, maneuvering so that it was now over his shoulder, and swung again, throwing his weight into the swing as he directed it back at Arwan, hitting him in his injured side, sending him flying.

"Goddammit Arwan," Shaktari seethed as she pushed herself to her feet unsteadily. "Goddamn idiot and his stupid aura-draining bullshit seriously what the f-"

"You certainly took a hit, didn't you?" She looked up to see Scarlet walk up to her, a smug look on his face. "Then again, trust me when I say what's a few bits of friendly fire, huh?"

"Shut your stupid mouth and your stupid accent..." she hissed. "Do not mess with me."

"I mean, did you see my team match?" He shook his head. "I really had to give Sun an ear-full about that."

"Shut up...!"

"Though, I saw what Sage pulled there, and I have to admit that was funny an-"

"I SAID-!" Shaktari then snapped her swords back into a single form, and she grabbed her hand around the blade's flat end, lighting the whole blade on fire. She then separated it again, and now she had six flaming swords. "DON'T SCREW WITH ME!"

"Uh oh..."

With a scream, Shaktari launched herself at Scarlet and swung the blazing barrage of sword, and he was forced to block at best he could, but the combined force of each weapon was too much, and when all six hit him at once, he was sent flying back, and Shaktari chased after him.

Scarlet crashed to the ground, tumbling to a roll, and looked up to see the looming form of Arwan, who had only just recovered from his own fall. He then raised his axe over his shoulder, Shaktari was charging after him, leaping into the air and ready for another attack, and off to the side he could see Sage running up to them, but he was too far away.

He then raised his gun and fired off the hookshot, spearing it through the air until was just outside Sage's grasp-

Time stopped, and Sage reached out to grab the hook and pulled hard, drawing Scarlet out from between Arwan and Shaktari. Then time resumed.

Arwan hit the ground, his axe leaving spider webs in the concrete, but as Shaktari came down on him, hitting him with all six flaming weapons, engulfing him in a blazing cloud. Screaming he pulled his axe from the ground, accidentally hitting Shaktari and sending her flying back into the wall. Stabbing his weapon to the ground, Arwan pushed himself to his feet, the muscles in his body beginning to scream out, when he felt something tug at his belt, and looking down he saw the hookshot hanging them. Looking up, he saw Scarlet standing next to Sage, and the redhead jumped into the air, lingering there for a moment before Sage swung his sword, allowing Scarlet to kick off the flat of the blade, sending him flying.

The rope tightened around Arwan's body as Scarlet flew around him, once, then twice, and finally a third time, before he landed back next to Sage, and held up his gun, before pushing a button. Arwan was then yanked into the air as the rope began to retract into the gun's hilt, and he could see Sage running towards him, sword ready to strike at him.

He tried to break free of the rope, to grab at his weapon, to try anything to defend himself from-

Suddenly, Sage was on him, now much closer then before, and slammed his sword into his side, sending him flying away from him and-

Sage was suddenly at him again, repeating the previous swing into Arwan's gut, and more force was added to his flight, crashing him even harder into a dizzy Shaktari.

The both struggled to look up to see Scarlet pointing the muzzle of his gun at them, before letting loose a shot of Dust and exploded into a large fireball when it hit them.

When the smoke cleared, they didn't get back up.

"Well, that was easy," Scarlet said, holstering his gun and sword, then turned around to Sage. "You okay mate, looks like you pushed yourself there."

"I'm fine," Sage said through heavy breathes, leaning against his sword. "Five times, five seconds of stopped time." He gave a groan as he rubbed his face, then pushed it through his hair. "Just need better time management."

"Good job you two!" Both Sage and Scarlet turned around to meet Blake and Weiss, both of who had been running up to them. "You managed to do it," Blake said, sly smile on her face, as she looked to te defeated forms of Shaktari and Arwan. "You took them down a peg or two."

"Great, now that's done, can we leave now?" Weiss said impatiently, her eyes darting around. "Someone would have heard that by now, and I do not wish to get into trouble because of this!" She then stormed away, leaving for the arena.

"She's right, at least about getting to see the match." Blake then took after Weiss, and Sage and Scarlet followed. "If we're lucky, we'll be able to catch the tail end of Sun and Neptune's match. I hope they're doing well."

"Don't worry about them," Scarlet laughed.

Sage gave his own nod. "Those two are doing fine. They're probably about to win any moment now."

000

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Mrfipp