Where the Loyalty Lies.

Chapter 26

Arthur's POV

"So what are you having me do exactly?" I asked Cinder.

We were in a dimly lit room. Emerald and Mercury  were sitting on the opposite side of the table from me.

"You are going distract your 'girlfriend' while I work some magic on miss perfect during her fight with the robot." Emerald said as she rubbed her forehead.

"Arthur we need her out of the arena during the one on one matches. We can't risk her ruining it by going into hero mode and saving that robot. Pyrrah destroying that robot will send a message to the rest of remnant, evil will rise and those who are good will fall." Cinder stood up and walked around the table.

"I could just kill her right?" Mercury asked as he pit his feet on the table. "You said her abilities don't protect her right? Then it wouldn't be hard to take her out."

"You can't kill her." I stood up and slammed my hands on the table. "I don't want her around as much as you do. But I can't leave my daughter without a parent." I took a breath and tried to calm myself down.

"Parents are over rated." Mercury took his feet down and stood up. "I killed my father and I turned out just fine."

"Fine is one way to put it." I spat my words at him.

"Look we aren't killing her," Cinder said softly to defuse the situation. "She is going to fit into the plan in time, but for now we need her out of the way. Do you get what I'm telling you to do Arthur?"

"Yes, throw the match. And get her to leave during the one on one." I said before sitting back down.

"Then you should leave and get some rest you have a tournament to throw. I'll talk to you more in depth about what you need to do Arthur " Cinder smiled and started to leave the room, "and you two should rest to. We have to get to win the first two matches."

Ancelote's POV

It was the first day of the tournaments and I couldn't be more excited. My daughter was coming to see me fight along with Arthur and the rest of the team then afterwards I have a date with Emily.

I quickly ran down to the locker room and I wasn't the only person that go up early. The locker room was almost full. It was full of people talking until I was noticed and everyone went quiet and watched me go to my locker. When I got close I saw the girl I saved was waiting  near my locker.

"Hey how is your head?" She seemed really nice. The room seemed to fill back with noise when people saw I wasn't going to cause them harm.

"Its doing great. I think that knock on the head was what I needed to focus on what matters in life," I said jokingly as I moved past her and opened my locker.

I took my clothes off and started to put my battle gear on when I stopped and looked at the girl.

"I'm glad you're not hurt." I started putting on a black tank top when I heard some yelling going on.

I walked over and a faunus was yelling and shoving Weiss.

"Hey save it for the tournaments." I said as I jumped in between them.

"Oh look the attention seeker is here to save the rich bitch." The faunus mocked before shoving me. "Your kind needs to stop abusing mine."

"Look here. She isn't like her family and not every human is against or abusive to faunus..." I started.

"Oh and how many faunus have you killed while working for the Barloc family?" She shoved me against a locker. A few people started to walk toward but I raised my hand to show them I had it handled.

"I've never killed anyone. I'm sure you aren't aware, my semblance makes it so I heal and protect those who need it. Yea I've hurt hundreds of people but I never killed anyone." I laughed a little as she shifted back a little bit. "What I noticed is it doesn'tnt matter who I fight I haven't been able to kill no matter how much I wanted to."

She was silent.

"I am a certified body guard and a warrior. I have been to hell and back." I went over to Weiss and grabbed her arm. "I am actually surprised she didn't snap at you for the things you have said to her." I said before taking Weiss over to my locker and leaving the faunus girl where she was.

"Why did you step in?" She seemed ashamed. "I deserved the things she was saying."

"You're too hard on yourself." I laughed as I put my armor on. "Just because your father did terrible things to other people doesn't mean you deserve the back lash. Plus, technically I was never relived of duty of being your body guard." I had to lighten the mood with a joke but it was true.

"I'm not some little kid anymore." She looked upset.

"No, you're just a little almost adult." I managed to get a laugh from her before she punched my shoulder.

"Hey guess what?" She whispered to me. I turned to face her after I grabbed my sword and shield. "I am going to go on a date with Ruby Friday." She sounded so excited.

"Congrats, I hope you guys have fun," I said closing my locker after strapping my shield band sword to me.

"Good luck today with the tournaments." She smiled at me.

"You too. I know you guys will do great." I grabbed my helmet and walked out of the locker room.  I walked to the arena and it was already filled with people sitting in the stands. I walked up to the board and saw the first battle was going to start soon. Then I noticed my team was the in the second battle.

I pulled out my scroll and sent a message to the team chat. 'We are the second fight make sure you're ready guys, our opponents look tough.'

Shortly Uriah and Quincy were here but Arthur wasn't yet.

"Ok so do you want me to cover you in case you get hurt?" Uriah asked sounding concerned.

"Well since Arthur isn't here I'll improvise a plan. Unless he gets here soon." I stepped forward. "Don't worry about protecting me, if I get out it won't be that big.  We won't know what the environment will be like until the fights so, Quincy when we start find a good secluded area where you can hide and do what you do best."

"Hide and take out. Right?" He asked  as of he wasn't sure.

"Yes, Uriah I need you to lure them to Quincy if Arthur gets taken out please be ready to jump into his place and make a smoke cloud to help hide Quincy, I can activate the protection part of my semblance, but I need a little bit of a warm up to get it to work, coffee dust might help."

"Coffee dust?" He looked at me like I was crazy.

"Oh, the healing dust, it healed me but it gave me a rush of energy. It was nice." I said calmly. "Ok if you don't like my plan, do what you think is best I guess."

Just as I finished talking Arthur came up to us. "Ok so here's the plan, Quincy you will be in the front line, get ready for the possibility to get hit, and Ancelote will more than likely go into protection mode and take them out. Uriah just in case be ready to use your dust to distract them from her. And other than that get ready to kick some butt."

We all looked at each other and I could tell we all didn't agree with his plan.

"Everyone ready?" Arthur looked around at us. "Let's win this for us and Beacon." He sounded a bit too enthusiastic like he had been practicing saying that in a mirror or something.