Jaune
Unaware that the murderer of the woman he adored is here...
He, Nora and Ren walk through the streets of Mistral, searching for Winter. Jaune clutches onto the hilt of Crocea Mors, the gleam of the sun reflects off its metal blade. He is the only one with his weapon drawn since he is at the front. Nora and Ren walk side to side behind Jaune. Nora looks up at Ren and he looks at her with a small smile. They have been concerned about Jaune recently; being here is hurting him deeply, being in the hometown of Pyrrha.
He just walks and walks, not saying a word. "Well...I guess we are team Junior after all!" Nora says, trying to help lighten the mood. But when she says that, Jaune stops walking and he turns to stare straight at her with anger in his eyes.
"We are always Juniper!" He shouts in anger at her, which makes Nora recoil slightly at his sudden outburst. Ren steps in front of her.
"Jaune?" Nora quietly asks.
"You need to calm down, Jaune." Ren states.
Jaune looks right at Ren and he scoffs.
"Me?" He exclaims, pressing his own hand against his chest plate. He then points right at Ren. "What about you?" He questions which makes Ren raise an eyebrow. "When we fought the Nuckelavee, you were acting like a damn idiot!" He shouts. Ren stands there, letting him yell like that, despite what the Nuckelavee took from him.
"That was different, Jaune." Ren says, showing little emotion in his face as he says that.
"The hell it isn't! Just because Pyrrha is gone, it doesn't mean that we cut her out of the team. She will always be a part of us. She'll always be a part of me." Jaune says to her, tears welling up in his eyes. Ren stands there, looking at Jaune.
"That's no reason to shout at her like that." Ren states.
"Then why the jokes?" He barks in annoyance at her.
"Because I can see that you're hurt, Jaune!" Nora retorts over Ren's shoulder. "And someone has to try and make you smile, and I trust me...I know that she will always be a part of us." Nora says to him. Jaune looks at her with confusion in her eyes. "And Qrow asked me to keep the mood all cheery when he was poisoned, you know? Because he was worried about you. The uncle of a Silver Eyed warrior is worried about you." Nora says with a scoff. "And he expects me to help you."
"I appreciate it, Nora, but I'm fine." Jaune declares.
"The hell you are. We've all heard you sobbing, Jaune. Ruby has seen you wandering off on your own every night when we are sleeping to listen to that recording that she sent you." Nora explains. "You think that's gonna help?" She asks him. "I think about her every single day, and I miss her so much. But I will not let her death control me, I want to remember her the way she lived, not the way that she died." Nora says to Jaune. Jaune stares at her, which leads to a shaky sigh.
"I can't let her go..." He says, shutting his tear filled eyes. "You still...don't get it...do you?" He questions as he looks right at them. They both look at the damaged boy. "All my life...I only wanted to help people, to be a Huntsman. But everyone turned me away, because I was weaker than them all, my own parents were opposed to the idea. She was the only person who believed in me. And I couldn't save her from Cinder! I couldn't save Penny! Or even Yang! I couldn't stop Adam from cutting her arm off! What kind of man does that make me?" Jaune questions, swinging his arms around in anger at himself, blaming himself for everything as he always does. "I'm no Huntsman..." He weakly says, looking down at the floor.
"So what?" Nora challenges with a shrug of her shoulders. Jaune looks at her confused.
"Huh?" Jaune mumbles as he looks at the short orange haired girl with a beaming smile on her little face.
"So what if no one believed in you before. Look at you now, Jaune. You are family to us all. Last night when we were all around that fire? That is what life looks like, not what you are staying in." Nora says to him, showing the truth of what he needs in his life.
"We'll never forget Pyrrha, Jaune. She will always be a part of this family." Ren says to him, putting his hand on his shoulder. Jaune stands there, letting out a sigh as he loosens his arms. But when smiles at him, his eyes then look past Jaune and then he gasps in shock.
The infernal being, coated in a skin of flames stands in the distance, the glowing orange balls of fire for eyes staring straight at them. He clenches his burning hands into fists, turning and walking into one of the alleys. Fury was stood right there. "Ren? What is it?" Jaune enquires. Ren runs past Jaune and Jaune's eyes follow him. Nora and Jaune run after him, confused to see what he is running after. Ren sprints past people, pushing past them as he looks for Fury. Ren gets to the alley where Fury would have been.
And he is gone, but then he looks at the floor. The charred footprint of Fury remains in the floor where he was stood. Jaune and Nora finally catch up to him. "Ren?" Nora asks, putting her hand on his back.
"What the hell was that about?" Jaune asks.
"I saw him." Ren says to them both.
"Who?" Nora asks.
"Fury...the Knight that killed Blake's parents...he was here." Ren says to them, then only at this moment do they begin to catch onto something.
"If he was there the whole time..." Nora realises, looking at Jaune.
"That's why I got angry..." He says with realisation in his tone, leaning against the wall, pressing his hand against his head. "How do we fight something that can worm its way into your head without even fighting you?" Jaune groans with a little bit of fear in his voice. He even starts to look around when he feels that emotion coming over him, looking for the Knight of Fear in case he is staring at them as well.
"They're trying to tear us apart...and attract Grimm here like they did at Menagerie..." Ren realises. Nora groans, kicking her foot into the floor.
"Remember the good old days? When things were simple, like eating pancakes and killing Grimm? I miss those days." Nora moans.
"So do I..." Jaune groans.
Team J.N.R leave the place where he was watching them, to continue on with their search for Winter Schnee. They walk through the village, keeping their eyes peeled for her. "Surely a Schnee can't be hard to miss." Nora says with a huff, looking under a pallet as she walks past it. Jaune chuckles a little.
"They do tend to stand out." Jaune says. But as they walk, they all stop when Jaune stops. He holds the hilt of his sheathed sword and he crouches down after noticing something on the floor. A red stain of blood, it is at most a day old. Ren walks over and looks at it. He then looks across the path. "Trail..." Ren says to Jaune. Jaune nods to Ren and they ready their weapons. Nora grabs Magnhild and it transforms into hammer form into her hand, pink dust flowing through the weapon. Ren readies both Stormflowers and Jaune draws his sword and holds his shield as they follow the trail of blood. One that hopefully belongs to Winter.
"If that belongs to her...it means she has been attacked." Jaune points out.
"Mercenaries?" Nora suggests.
"From what Weiss told us, sounds like Mercenaries are hunting them both." Ren says to them both, his pale pink eyes checking the area for any hints. He is just like his father in the sense that he has the senses of a hunter. He keeps his fingers off the triggers but near them in case they are attacked by any Acolytes. Nora and Ren get close to the house that is turning, where the trail continues.
On the other side are a couple of Acolytes, walking down the street with rifles hidden in their trench coats. Nora smirks deviously as she holds Magnhild tight, ready to break their legs. But Ren puts his hand against her to stop her. "We can't risk it, too many civilians." Ren whispers. Jaune turns and he points into one of the alleyways that are nearby for them to hide.
The two soldiers walk through and then Ren grabs them by their heads and smashes their heads together, knocking them both unconscious. Their bodies crumple to their floor with their groans. Ren drags them both by their ankles into the alley to leave them there; Jaune grabs a dirty blanket and covers them with it, just to prevent arousing suspicion.
"Sweet dreams." Jaune whispers. They emerge from the alley again, following the trail again. But when they do, they see the blood trail disappear. Either because Winter patched herself up or because she ran off. Ren looks at where it stopped and then he looks at the floor. He crouches down, picking up an empty and used bullet cartridge on the floor. Ren's eyes swivel to Jaune.
"There was conflict here." Ren reports from his analysis.
"Well, there'd be more blood if she was killed." Jaune states, crouching down beside Ren, looking at where the trail was. Nora observes the buildings around her to find a clue and then her large aqua coloured eyes fixate on a little clue on the building. There is a faint stain of blood on it. She gasps and then turns to her partner.
"Ren!" Nora hails. Ren looks at her and then follows her finger that is pointing up at the bloodstain on the wall, which looks like it is moving upwards, to the rooftop. Only then do they notice some bullet holes in the building as well. Ren smiles to Nora.
"Good catch." Jaune says to her. They follow the trail that must be Winter, climbing and jumping up the building to get to the top. As they get to the top, however, they find a used bandage on the floor with crimson blood staining it. It was left here for a day at most. Ren sighs.
"Well at least she patched herself up." Nora says, taking a shred of goo out of this. Before they set out, Kassius gave them all some small earpieces that have short-range radios built into them. They are able to cover the city itself but no further than they. Jaune presses his finger against the button on it.
"Weiss? It's Jaune, we found a blood trail, and it might have been Winter. But it stops on this roof, we found a used bandage up here, I think she changed it up here. The trail stops here." Jaune reports.
Meaning she is ahead of them, and possibly closer to Team R.W.B.Y.
If she is still alive.
They need to find her as fast as they can.
Ruby
Weiss listens to his voice on her end of the radio. She looks at Ruby who is also listening. "Okay, thanks Jaune. Stay safe." Weiss replies to him as she stands in the street. Yang is stood there with her hand on her hip and Blake holds Gambol Shroud in her hand, looking around.
"Ha, no promises." Jaune says, hanging up on the call. Weiss takes her finger from the earpiece and she turns to the rest of the team. Ruby takes point, holding Crescent Rose in her hands and Yang walks next to her. Weiss looks at Ruby.
"He's become quite capable since I last saw him." Weiss says to Ruby.
"Yep, you should have seen him when we were fighting the Nuckelavee, he helped out a lot." Ruby says to her. Blake looks at the buildings of Mistral, very similar to Menagerie from the beautiful architectural side of it.
"I never really realised how beautiful Mistral truly is." Blake says in awe as she looks at it, the sun shining off the water as it falls down the cliffs of Mistral. The people are also just as beautiful, a shame that this place is infected with a disease of evil. "It's good to just take it all in for a moment." Blake says, breathing in the fresh air to keep her mind off Fury, since now they know that they are attracted to the emotions of which they are bound. The last thing they need is for either of the Knights to show up right now.
"So Weiss, anything you know about where Winter would be? I mean she's your sister." Yang says, looking around for her.
"I honestly don't know, I rarely ever see her. And the few times I do, she is always there on business." Weiss explains.
"Well, I doubt she'll expect to see you looking for her." Ruby says with a little laugh. Weiss giggles as well.
"Yeah, I bet that will be a big surprise for her. I just want to know why my father is ordering them to kill her." Weiss sighs, makes sense to ask a question like that as well, since the other Mercenaries tried to take Weiss alive when Neptune was getting her out of there. Weiss holds Myrtenaster in her hand, looking around. But then when they are walking through, she stops, bumping into Blake.
"Hey!" Blake calls out, stumbling back.
Weiss' eyes widen in disbelief of who she sees.
"Is it Winter?" Yang asks.
"No..." Weiss says.
Walking down the street is the man with the combed blue hair and a fancy jacket on, over his shirt underneath. He walks and there are some Acolytes of Lien walking with him, holding rifles clearly as they walk. But then they all stop when he sees Weiss, his eyes widen in disbelief. "Henry..." Weiss snarls as she sees him. "He's the one who sold me out!" Weiss realises, pointing right at him.
"Crap, shoot her!" Henry yells, fleeing from the scene, the Mercenaries lift up the firearms and they open fire on them, the gunfire terrifies the civilians, making them scream and scatter. One bullet strays off and clips a civilian in the arm, making him cry out in agony, but the Mercenaries don't care. They do not seem to give a damn about civilian casualties. Team R.W.B.Y hide behind cover, seeing the live rounds missing.
"Live rounds?" Weiss gasps in disbelief.
"I guess that goodbye was pretty final." Yang says, remembering the conversation they had with Jacques.
"Well, let's go catch Henry." Ruby says with a smirk.
"Go Team R.W.B.Y!" Yang cheers.
Henry takes off running, barging through civilians. Team R.W.B.Y are pinned down by Acolytes of Lien who are shooting at them, the crowd begin to part to avoid being killed in the crossfire. Yang thrusts her fist upwards to load Ember Celica, a fresh cartridge entering the chamber. "What the hell's going on? I can hear those gunshots from here?" Sun asks in a worried tone of voice.
Ruby transforms Crescent Rose into Rifle Mode so then she can shoot the soldiers. Weiss spins Myrtenaster through her fingers, holding her finger forward as she forms a glyph behind her that can shoot ice shards at them. Finally Blake readies Gambol Shroud into pistol form. Blake reaches to her ear, answering Sun's hail.
"We're fine! We've just bumped into some guy who might have some info on Winter." Blake says.
"And the gunfire?" Sun asks.
"Just some Mercs, nothing we can't handle." Blake assures.
"You sure you don't need help?" He asks.
Ruby dives out from cover, firing a round that clips the soldier's leg, blood spraying from the back of his leg, splattering against the floor behind him. Ruby launches forward in petal form, slashing Crescent Rose as she transforms it into Scythe Mode, beheading the soldier as she zooms past him, a jet of blood erupting from his head. The head flies into the air and bounces on the floor.
The head rolls next to the other soldier, causing him to freak out. Weiss arches her arm up, pointing the tip of Myrtenaster at the soldier which forms a glyph under her feet, making her glide across the floor at great speeds. She drives the pointed blade of her sword directly through the heart of the soldier, pushing him into the ground and the blade pushes through his back and into the soil, killing him instantly. She turns to Blake and she nods. Blake smiles.
"Nope." Blake assures after seeing that. The four girls start running after where they last saw him. Weiss turns a corner, looking around constantly to see if she can recognise him, but there are terrified people everywhere. But whilst they all stand there, Yang's eyes widen when she hears the sound of tyres screeching extremely loudly in the distance.
Yang starts sprinting and the others follow after her, cars weren't something that they expected to see at Mistral, but as the turn the corner there is a road network in the city, one that leads to many bridges like the one back home. I guess they can't expect to live on foot all the time. The car has Henry inside, Weiss can see his stupid hair from back there.
"No!" Weiss shouts in anger.
"Hey, we're not out of this yet." Yang says, running over to a parked car with someone inside it. She knocks on the window and the driver looks at Yang. "Hey, could we borrow this?" She asks him politely asks. The very sight of seeing four armed Huntresses is the reason he nods and agrees. He unlocks and opens the door, stepping out with his hands held up. Ruby sits in the seat next to Yang.
"Shotgun!" Ruby squeaks.
"Huh?" Weiss asks as she gets in the back seat.
"We'll explain later. " Yang assures after Blake gets in the back, rolling the window open to fire her pistol at the car. Two soldiers lean out the windows of the car to shoot at the car that they have just borrowed. Yang starts the ignition and accelerates off, pursuing after the car that has their target in it. Yang has her foot down on the throttle and hands on the steering wheel, swerving through the traffic that is in their way. Yang keeps both eyes fixed on the car that holds Marigold.
"We need to catch him, Yang." Weiss pushes as she looks at the car.
"We'll catch him." Yang promises.
Suddenly the soldiers start to shoot at them with their rifles, the bullets pierce through the glass and one of them clips Yang's hair, ripping some of it off. As if time stopped, her shock at this makes her even more angry. "Oh...you just messed up, kick their butts, guys!" Yang says as she drives closer and closer to the back of the car. Blake leans out the car, shooting her pistol attachment of Gambol Shroud at the car in front of them, her black hair blowing in the wind.
The soldier ducks back into the car when the bullets come whooshing towards him, hitting the paint job on the metal car's hide. The bullets fracture the metal in places, pieces of metal and paint comes flying off the car. The soldier gets back into the car, taking the magazine from the feed of his rifle and replacing it with a fresh new one, cocking it into position. He immediately swings out the door again to fight them. He pulls the trigger of his rifle all the way, constant muzzle flash erupting from the barrel as the bullets dart towards her. Blake rolls her eyes as she takes cover in the car again.
"This is taking too long." Blake groans.
Weiss looks at her with a confused look on her face. "What are you-" Before she can finish, Blake kicks the door open and she climbs onto the roof of the car. Weiss is left speechless as Blake gets on the roof. She runs towards a car driving alongside them and she lands on the roof. The other soldier does the exact same thing, getting on the roof of their car to get a better shot on her.
Blake shoots her pistol at him and he keeps moving around to avoid the bullets. Yang looks at Blake and she drives closer to her in case if she needs a new ride. Ruby opens the car door, using it as cover and she holds onto it with her hand, and in the other she holds Crescent Rose in rifle form as she aims at the soldier. She hooks the firing lever on the door and she pulls the rifle back, firing a bullet straight at him.
The bullet hits him in the side of his torso, making him scream in agony and blood squirts from his flank. He staggers and then falls from the car into traffic. The body smashes straight into a bus, getting mulched by the wheels. Ruby shudders at the gory sight and Blake steps back on the car she has been hitching a ride on, then she jumps onto another vehicle.
She looks behind them to see a big armoured truck charging up behind them. "Yang, behind you!" Blake yells. Yang looks into the interior mirror and her lilac eyes widen in shock when she sees the truck driving after them. The top opens and there is a soldier with a machine gun attached to the top of it. The vehicle has the same symbol engraved on the armoured metal skin that the other Mercenaries have on their neck, still the Acolytes of Lien that are coming after them.
Blake continues to run across the bus that she landed on the roof of, firing her pistol at the armoured truck. Weiss rolls the window open and now she is leaning out, forming a glyph to attack the truck. She launches a huge chunk of ice at the vehicle, hitting it in the wheel but it has little effect. The Armoured Truck rams into the back of the car that they are in the crash them, but it only makes the car begin to spin out, screeches from the tyres as it spins out of control. The Armoured Beast charges towards the bus that Blake is stood atop, filled with innocent civilians.
"Blake!" Yang screams.
Blake looks at the truck and she nearly is thrown from the bus as it smashes into the side of the bus. It dents the metal but it doesn't dent the truck or flip the bus over. Blake stumbles off the bus and she catches onto the edge, holding on. She looks into the glass, seeing both Faunus and Human civilians inside that are terrified. She smiles at them and waves, but then she turns back to the truck behind her. The armoured door opens since it replaced most of the windows with armour plating. The mercenaries inside aim their rifles at her and they open fire.
They have no regard for the loss of life at all here, and Blake warns them to stay down. She avoids the bullets by swinging her body around elegantly. She aims her pistol at the soldier and retaliates. She nails him in the head with a bullet and he falls out the truck, into oncoming traffic, one of the cars being Yang. She shoots at the other soldiers that are shooting at her, including the guy on the machine gun. Time almost seems to slow down when the truck goes to ram into her again.
She swings her legs upwards to avoid losing them from the armoured bonnet as it attempts to crush her or flip the bus. The bus rocks but it does not flip. Blake sighs, pushing her feet against the body of the bus so then she leaps at the truck. She lands onto the bonnet of the truck and she kicks the window in, smashing it completely. Blake reaches in, grabbing the driver by the throat and launches him from the driver's seat. The driver screams as he sails through the air before hitting a traffics sign mid-flight, silencing his screams.
Blake's attention now turns to the edge of the bridge where the truck is veering towards. "Blake!" Yang calls, driving up beside her in the car that they took. Blake runs to the car and leaps, landing on the roof, holding on for dear life. The truck smashes against the concrete railing, shattering the guardrail and the vehicle corkscrews in the air as it plummets down to the bottom with a loud metallic crash. Blake opens the door that she left from and she gets back inside.
"Hey guys." Blake says with a smile. Weiss laughs at her amazing skills.
"I remember why I love you girls." She says with a big smile.
"That was bad-ass!" Yang cheers. Blake smiles at them after doing that. They drive up to the car and Ruby opens her car door, ripping the car's door off with the scythe. The driver panics and Yang points Ember Celica at him as Ruby ducks, firing a shell into his head. Ruby jumps inside of the car and she grabs Henry by the collar.
"Can we have a word?" Ruby asks him.
Henry looks at her with a worried expression. "If we survive this." Henry says with wide eyes. Ruby turns when he says that, after taking out the driver, his arm pushed against the steering wheel of the car and the car is about to go off the edge. The car smashes through the railing and it plummets down into the Favela-like markets of Mistral.
The car crashes and rolls across the dirt path. Luckily no one got hurt. Henry groans, blood leaking from his head and he opens the car door from the smoking car. Ruby pushes the door open, her aura is flickering slightly as she climbs out. Ruby looks around and she just gets a glimpse of him running into the village. Yang lands down beside Ruby, holding her by her shoulders.
"Are you okay?" Yang asks in the most concerned tone.
"I'm fine, he's running that way." Ruby says, pointing to the market. Weiss floats down as she uses her glyphs to get down without ending up with her knees in her throat. Blake uses the chain scythe to swing down beside them. She lands down, pushing her hand to the floor as she lands, looking at Ruby.
"You alright? That was one hell of a fall." Blake says with a smile.
"Yeah..." Ruby assures. "Come on, Henry went this way." Ruby says, running after where she saw him. They all start pursuing him into the markets, and as always, there are people everywhere. Yang groans, rolling her eyes.
"I wish we could have asked Pyrrha about how busy it is here." Yang says sarcastically.
"I doubt even she could stay calm here." Weiss says with a laugh. They all look around for him, hopefully a fleeing guy like him shouldn't be that hard to find. Weiss looks at the stalls to see if he is hiding there, but he is not in there at all. She gently pushes by people to get through the crowd. "Excuse me." She politely says as she passes through.
"Ruby, we should take the higher ground." Blake says to her. Ruby nods and they both head for the higher ground. Ruby shoots Crescent Rose into the ground, using the recoil to launch herself onto the roof of a house, whilst Blake throws the chain scythe at the building to swing up onto the roof. They both look around, squinting to try and see him. Ruby scratches her black and red hair.
"Come on...where are you?" Ruby mumbles, using her owl-like silver eyes to find Henry in the crowd. He was limping so he can't be that hard to spot. Yang walks through the crowd, pushing through to make a path.
"How's it coming?" Sun asks through the radio.
"We're looking for him, he ran into a crowd..." Blake reports.
"Who is it?" Sun asks.
"A guy called Henry Marigold, Weiss has met him before. We think he might be the informant." Blake tells him.
"What does he look like?" Sun asks.
"Combed over blue hair, imagine a crossbreed of Neptune and Scarlet." Weiss describes which makes the full team laugh, even making Sun laugh.
"Wait, huh?" Neptune questions.
"Best I can do." Weiss says.
"Alright...We'll keep an eye open." Sun assures.
They continue to look for Henry, observing the town for a good look of the guy. But whilst they look, Blake hears something in one of the houses, the sound of something crashing down, which makes one of her ears point in the direction she heard it. Blake quietly peeps inside the room to find out where she heard it from. Suddenly there's a gunshot and it clip's Blake's cat ear. She cries out in pain, blood leaking from where it just nicked her ear. She staggers into Ruby's arms and she stands back up, recovering immediately. Inside was Henry and he is now running again, wielding a handgun.
"He's up here!" Blake yells. Weiss and Yang nod to each other. Weiss creates two glyphs for them both, glyphs that launch them up like catapults onto the roof that Blake and Ruby were just on to pursue him. They sprint after him, clambering onto the rooftops of the buildings. He is running and jumping across different buildings to stay in pace with him. He is pretty fast for an informant. They all run with their weapons put away to stay in pace. Yang looks at Blake and she can see the red blood leaking from where the bullet clipped her ear, the damage is not bad at all, but worth concern.
"Blake, he shot your ear!" Yang points out.
"Yeah, tell me something I don't know!" Blake says, ignoring the searing pain in her ear as she chases after him. As they run, Yang hears a familiar voice nearby. Her attention turns to one of the upper rooftops, as Kassius is running across them as well.
"Is this the guy?" Kassius yells as he runs across them.
"Yeah! Where are Oscar and Qrow?" Yang yells as she runs after him, looking back at him at times.
"Down there!" Kassius says, pointing to the lower levels.
"Keeping an eye down here in case he makes a run for it!" Qrow says, out of breath as he tries to keep up with them and Henry. Yang watches as Kassius starts flanking Henry to try and catch him. Henry turns round as he runs, firing his pistol back at Team R.W.B.Y, narrowly missing Weiss as he shoots at her. He jumps across the alley and he lands on one of the other roofs where there are other buildings.
He fires his pistol at them repeatedly until he empties the magazine, throwing it on the ground behind him as he runs. He is now picking up the pace, his fear controlling him as he runs. Ahead is a Bullhead that is hovering before him. Yang's eyes widen in anger.
"No! He's gonna get away!" Yang yells, sounding extremely desperate to stop him, Henry is running right to the open Bullhead that hovers before him.
"No he's not." Kassius says from out of the blue.
As Henry runs, his head turns when he sees Kassius suddenly sprinting at him from his left, leaping through the window at him and tackling him off the building. He smashes him straight into a pile of trash and he presses his armoured boot against his chest. The Bullhead takes off and flies away, clearly not overly concerned about him since they have just ditched Henry to us. Kassius points his two Gauntlet Pistols at his face, cocking them with the forward thrust of his forearms. Henry groans but he holds his hands up as surrender.
"End of the line, pretty boy." Kassius says to him with a smirk. Qrow points his sword at Henry and the rest of Team R.W.B.Y surround him. Weiss crouches down beside him.
"Guys, we've got Marigold." Qrow says into his earpiece.
"Wanna try and break the ice, Marigold?" Weiss asks him with a smile and a tilt of the head to make him feel embarrassed.
Yang
Yang pushes Henry into a chair in a dark room. He groans in pain, blood leaking from a gash on his forehead made from the car crash. She crosses her arms and looks down at him. Henry looks at her and he smirks. "Hey, pretty lady...Wanna have some fun?" Henry asks her, alluding to some situations that make Yang nearly gag from imagining spending any time with a guy like him. So, as an answer, she grabs his hand with her cybernetic one and twists it, making an audible crunch that makes him cry out in pain from it. She immediately lets him go and she puts her hand on her hip as she smile sat him.
"Actually...I am having fun right now, since you asked." Yang says to him. Henry groans.
"Wasn't...what I meant..." He groans in pain, looking at his bruised hand.
"I knew what you meant, buddy-boy." Yang assures him, she then leans forward and looks him in the eyes. "But I'm your good cop, so you best be nice to me." Yang says to him with a wink and a pretty smile. Henry looks at her with pained eyes.
"Who's the bad cop?" Henry asks. Suddenly a blade emerges from the darkness and presses right against his jugular, the cold steel makes his eyes widen in fear and an audible gasp emerge from his lips. Kassius leans into the light by his ear.
"That'd be me." Kassius answers, patting his head after taking the blade from his neck. He walks in front of Yang when she steps back and to his side. He flicks his wrist downwards and his sword shifts. The blade is made up of six individual pieces of metal magnetised together that fold away into the blade. With the flick of the wrists, either up or down, causes the blade to fold. By flicking downwards, it folds away.
"You like that? I call them Lash Equinox." Kassius tells him. He holds the hilt in his hand. He then shows his Gauntlet Firearms to him, four barrels in them, each with a magazine cartridge loaded into them. "And these are called Vulcan Nox." Kassius says to him with a smirk on his face. Henry looks a lot more afraid now, of which he should be, since these two are so much alike that they were practically made for each other. "Made them myself." He says as he walks around.
He looks down at Henry and he crosses his arms, before walking to his side. "Yang's better at the talking side than I am." He says. Henry looks at the beautiful blonde with fear in his eyes.
"You're all mine pretty boy." Yang says in a seductive voice as she approaches him. She crouches down to look at him in the light.
"What do you want?" He stammers.
"Why'd you feed info to Jacques Schnee?" Yang asks. Henry scoffs.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He says.
"You sure?" Yang asks. Henry scowls at her and he gathers saliva in his mouth, discharging a gob of spit into her cheek. She flinches slightly and she stands up, wiping it from her cheek from disgust. She nods at Kassius and Kassius punches him straight in the gut with his Cybernetic Arm.
"You want to test me, son?" Kassius growls into his ear. He grabs him by the hair and presses the blade of Lash Equinox against his throat, ready to slit his throat if he must. Yang puts her hand up to let him cool down. He steps away from him and puts the sword into the floor with a loud bang.
"Sorry, my friend over there can get pretty mad whenever people tend to disrespect me like that." Yang warns, playing with a bit of his hair after that. Kassius stands in the dark with his arms crossed.
"Why's that?" Henry scoffs. "You his girlfriend or something?"
Yang looks at Kassius and he just shrugs, letting her come up with something. "Something like that." She says to him. Henry scoffs.
"Then one of you is gonna get killed. Jacques Schnee will use every advantage he can get to win. He always wins." Henry says.
"Well, we intend on changing that." Kassius states.
"So what, you got anger issues? Let's test that, hey girl I wanna rock your world so hard that you'll start crying." He says which makes Kassius' eye twitch.
"You really shouldn't be testing his patience, pal..." Yang sighs. "Just tell us what we want to know." Yang says.
"I promise you that you'll have fun." Henry continues, trying to test Kassius. Yang rolls her eyes and she steps away from him. Kassius walks up to him and punches him in his hand so hard with his cybernetic hand that it breaks the hand completely with a loud bony crunch. He cries out in agony from the impact of his metal fist against his hand, a little blood leaking from where the skin has been broken. Yang turns to him again with crossed arms.
"We have all day, you know Henry. But if you keep this up, you won't be living through the hour. Now answer the question." Yang demands as she walks back to him. Henry stammers in pain after feeling his hand be broken like that.
"He told me to..." Henry stammers.
"Why?" Yang drills.
"Control...he wants information on where they both are so then he can have them captured back home at Atlas...so they can't cause any...anymore trouble." He says, pausing every now and then from the sharp pains in his broken hand that pulsate up his arm and into his body. Sweat beads from his skin.
"What about the Acolytes? Why are they hunting them?" Yang asks.
"They're mercenaries, he paid their leader." Henry weakly answers.
"Darren Ortega..." Kassius snarls as he hears him just mention him.
"You know him?" Yang asks.
"Bumped into him on occasion, not to be trifled with." Kassius answers.
"Alright...where's Winter?" Yang asks him.
Henry looks at her, and a scoff ejects from his mouth at her. "A couple months away, sweetheart." He says, trying to make a pun. Yang just sighs, shaking her head as she stands up, which signals Kassius to go a step further. Kassius grabs the hilt of a dagger sheathed on his belt and he stabs it straight into Henry's kneecap. Henry gasps in pain, freezing for a moment in silence from pain, then he grits his teeth together. Henry lets out a gut-wrenching howl of a scream from the pain, blood rupturing out from the wound as it drips down his leg.
"I'm all for puns, but it's all about the timing of the puns. That was not good." Yang says, shaking her head and speaking like an expert to him. She looks down at him. "Want it to get worse?" Yang asks him. Henry whimpers in pain and he just shakes his head without uttering a word. "So answer the question." Yang advises.
"She was last seen in the Upper Markets, our soldiers had her but she got away, but she was wounded, bleeding out." Henry says. Yang puts her finger against the earpiece on her ear.
"Sun? Did you hear that?" Yang asks him as she stands there, listening for his reply.
"Yep, but night's on the way. We should do this quick." Sun says. "We'll look for her." Sun says to her.
"Thanks, stay safe." Yang asks.
"Always." Sun assures, ending the call.
"They won't get to her in time." Henry states. Yang looks at him with a confused expression.
"Why?" Yang asks. Henry looks at her with scared eyes, looking around.
"She comes in the night..." He stammers. Yang looks at Kassius and then at Henry with bewilderment in their faces.
"Who does?" Yang presses as she walks over to him. Henry looks at her.
"The Onyx -" Suddenly there is a deafeningly loud bang and a shell comes shooting through the building and through his back. His body ruptures forward with blood erupting from his chest, then a second shot hits and hits him right in the heart. His body slumps forward with blood leaking from his lips and his body sits there, lifeless in that chair. Yang's eyes widen in horror and Kassius staggers back. The bullet missed him and Yang by about an inch and blood starts pooling from his body.
The doors burst open, Ruby, Weiss and Blake are stood there and Weiss looks at the corpse of Henry in the chair and the two bullet holes in the wall where he got assassinated. Blake has a small bandage on her ear with a faint red mark where it is stopping the bleeding where she got hit by his bullet. Ruby stands there and she can see where the bullet came from, and then she looks through the perfect hole, seeing a distant dark figure standing tall with a rifle in their hand, beginning to run.
"I've got her." Ruby says, vanishing in a blast of petals.
Ruby
Ruby sprints across the rooftops in the dark of the night as she pursues after the assassin that just killed Henry, jumping over alleyways to get to her. She doesn't even wield Crescent Rose at the moment, the weapon is still deactivated and on her back. She slides across things that get in her way and she can see the assassin running as fast as they can across the rooftops. The assassin gets to the edge and Ruby grabs Crescent Rose, aiming at her in Sniper Rifle mode. She pulls the trigger when she gets a clear shot and the bullet flies towards her.
The Assassin stops and holds her hand out. The bullet stops in the air right in front of her and the Assassin stares straight into Ruby's silver eyes. It is some sort of telekinesis. Ruby looks at the Assassin, the hood conceals the face in the shadows, only glowing orange eyes can be seen and the mask plate with glowing red lights that she breathes through.
It's the Onyx Phantom. She lowers her hand and the bullet drops from where she held it, and she vanishes as the armour creates some sort of invisibility shroud around her body, disappearing without a trace. Ruby stands there, utterly stunned by what just transpired...
And Henry Marigold is dead.
Henry Marigold is dead...
Assassinated by the Onyx Phantom. His body is covered up with a white sheet as Oscar throws it over his dead body, blood staining his body where the sniper rifle rounds shot through him. Weiss stands outside the house with her arms crossed as she looks at his dead body through the window. The night is bitterly cold, but she lets Oscar tend to him. Ruby walks over to her friend and she looks at her. Weiss sighs, her breath visible as a cold cloud of fog emerging from her lips. "He was a dunce...but he didn't deserve this." Weiss admits as she looks at Ruby. Ruby closes her big silver eyes with a sigh as well, since they failed to save him from the Onyx Phantom. Ruby looks up at the Fractured Moon in the dark night sky.
"Nobody deserves to die." Ruby says, and her comment does catch Weiss' attention.
"Even Cinder?" Weiss scoffs.
"Even her." Ruby says, looking at her.
"How can you say that after what she did?" Weiss questions, obviously with Pyrrha in her mind as she speaks to the Silver Eyed Girl. Ruby looks at Weiss.
"I want her punished for what she did...but I could never bring myself to wish death upon somebody. I will kill people...I have killed people...but I would never pray for someone to die." Ruby explains to the ashen haired girl. Weiss looks at her, listening to her wise words, and then she looks at the dead body of Henry again. They both turn to see Kassius walking up to them with both Lash Equinoxes folded away and magnetised to his armoured legs. He crosses his arms together, looking through the window as well.
"Who was the shooter?" Kassius asks her. Ruby looks back, through her memories from what she briefly saw from the Phantom.
"She was fast...glowing orange eyes..." Ruby remembers, then she remembers when she shot at her and she stopped the bullet in mid air. "And she stopped my bullet in the air without touching it." Ruby explains. Weiss' eyes widen and she looks at Ruby, and the first thing that comes to their mind is the semblance that Pyrrha had, the semblance of Polarity.
"Polarity?" Weiss assumes as she looks at her close friend. Ruby just shakes her head, though.
"No...it was stronger than that. Pyrrha's polarity was strong but she couldn't stop a bullet in its track, veer them off, maybe...but not like that. And my bullets aren't magnetic, couldn't have been polarity. This is something else." Ruby explains.
"Then what?" Weiss asks.
"Telekinesis." Kassius answers immediately, causing the two girls to look at him for answers.
"How'd you know that?" Weiss requests. Kassius parts his crossed arms to turn to them.
"I've seen those abilities before. The assassin that killed my team, but it wasn't a woman who killed them. But from how you are describing her? Sounds like we are dealing with a new Onyx Phantom." Kassius begins to explain. Ruby tilts her head when he mentions that name.
"Henry was about to say that name." Weiss remembers from what Yang told her.
"Yeah. As soon as he said Onyx, he was killed." Ruby agrees. Kassius turns and he walks to the wall and he presses his hands against it. He presses a button, the metal plates that surround him unlock, opening around him and then the whole suit opens up so then he can step out of it. He turns to the two girls.
"The Onyx Phantom is an ancient idea, a Mistraalian Assassin who is a lethal warrior. It has existed for thousands of years, and every Onyx Phantom conceals their identities. Everything but their eyes and they always wear a hood, or a helmet. Women tend to wear a hood, men tend to wear the helmet." Kassius explains to them both.
"Why the difference?" Weiss asks, which is a good question as well.
"Well, the male armour is heavier and more armoured. Whilst the female is lighter but weaker, sacrificing armour for speed. But both are stealthy." Kassius explains. "The Phantoms always wear voice disguisers as well, just to further hide their identity." Kassius explains.
"Why have the assassins?" Ruby quizzes Kassius.
"They were born to be the best-of-the-best." Kassius states. "But...over time...Salem learned of their power and she took the Onyx Phantoms for her own. And now they serve the Grimm." Kassius explains.
"They all have Telekinesis?" Weiss questions.
"Ever since Salem took control." Kassius answers.
"Can we beat her?" Ruby asks.
"We could definitely beat her, they're not infinite like the Knights of Grimm are." Kassius says. He pauses for a moment, looking out at the woods where they were just at. His eyes almost seem like they are connected to those woods, like he belongs there. His cybernetic hand twitches when he looks out and Ruby notices the flicker of movement in his hand. She then looks at Kassius.
"Kassius? Are you okay?" Ruby asks him, walking up to him. Kassius turns his head when he hears her prying.
"Hmm? Oh yeah, I'm fine." Kassius lies, he has always been a terrible liar and both Yang and Ruby know that extremely well. Whenever he lies, he answers far too quickly for it to be the truth, and he replied very quickly right then.
"I know you, Kassius. And I know when you are lying." Ruby says. Kassius sighs, looking down at the floor and then he chuckles a little.
"You are just as stubborn as your sister." He says with a smile as he looks at the small black and red haired girl next to him. Even Weiss feels like she should be by his side as well, they know about what he lost down there, and that he has lost a lot since he left Yang. Even though he has her back, he is still grieving the loss of someone he loved. "My team are still down there...that was what I was really looking for. Not Death...Not Fear...none of them. I was just trying to find where they died, so then I could bury them." Kassius says to Ruby and Weiss. Yang walks out from one of the houses and she sees Weiss and Ruby talking to him. She walks over and she puts her hand on his shoulder.
"What's up?" Yang asks, then she follows his eyes as they look at the trees in the distance, and she already knows.
"Do you know where they are?" Ruby asks him. Kassius just nods as he looks down at his feet again. "Then let's go." Ruby says. Her immediate want to help nearly makes his eyes pop from their sockets when they widen, turning to face her and Weiss as they pass Yang.
"Wait, what? No...I can't ask you to do that." Kassius says, being as humble as ever. Yang looks at the man she loves then at her brave sister with Weiss.
"You're not, we're volunteering." Weiss retorts with a courtesy. Ruby and Weiss walk on but Kassius and Yang remain stood where they are. Ruby and Weiss stop, looking back at Yang and Kassius as she hugs him gently, then they both affectionately bump their foreheads together, holding that position as they close their eyes, stood there. Weiss looks in awe to see Yang like that, so soft and so nutty about a guy. "I've...never seen Yang like that." Weiss says to Ruby. Ruby smiles at them both being together.
"I have...once." Ruby says. "Those two have known each other for years. He was her best friend at school...then later down the line they became more than that. But they had to split because Kassius got a place here at Haven, whilst Yang and I got a place at Beacon." Ruby explains to her. "Yang never got another boyfriend because no one was ever as good to her like he was. He never had to pull any ridiculous pick-up lines or anything...he was just being himself." Ruby explains to the Atlesian Girl.
"But he got another girlfriend?" Weiss asks, sounding confused.
"Well...he never thought he'd see her again...neither did Yang for that matter. But she could never find someone like him. I guess when you grew up with someone like him at Patch, it is hard to move on. And from what he told me...even Vetra was nothing like Yang was. Apparently it wasn't as natural as it was for those two. But losing a girlfriend like that? No one should suffer through that." Ruby explains to Weiss, and Weiss sighs, closing her eyes for him.
"Come on, let's help him out." Weiss says, patting Ruby's shoulder, walking past her.
A couple of hours pass...
Team R.W.B.Y walk with Kassius into the woods in search of the bodies of his team where they were left. He looks around, fireflies fluttering and flashing in the beautiful night sky and all around them. Kassius continues to walk through, memories flashing before his eyes as he recognises the place that he wanders through. He sighs, the foggy breath leaving his mouth. "I remember this place like it was yesterday..." Kassius says to them, Blake turns and looks at him. She and him have both lost something like this, she has lost something quite recently.
"I'm sorry, Kassius." She says to him. Kassius looks at her and he smiles.
"Me too." He says, directing his answer to her parents. Ruby looks up at the stars as she wanders in the woodland. They pass by a tree and he stops, his eyes fixating onto one point. Yang stops Ruby and she just looks at Weiss and Blake. They both stop, and they let him have this moment to say goodbye. A horrible thing to see, the skeletons of his own team in a clearing in the middle of the forest.
The green grass around their bodies where they fell. He slowly walks towards them and Yang walks with him, looking at their bodies, and their weapons still beside their corpses. Their bones laid out as they died. He looks down at the bodies, tears welling up in his eyes. Yang takes her hand and she holds his gently and he holds it back. He lowers his head, exhaling. He turns to Blake who holds a shovel and he holds out his cybernetic hand. Blake throws the shovel to him and he catches it. "Goodbye, guys." He says to their bodies, stabbing the soil with the shovel's blade. He stamps down on the shovel, pushing it further into the dirt.
He digs for quite some time, creating holes for their skeletons to be rightfully buried. Weiss and Yang help by putting their skeletons in the graves that they have managed to dig out for them. When all four have been gently and respectfully put in, they also rest their weapons on their skeletons like a warrior, buried with their weapons. Kassius then takes up the job of filling the holes back up with the shovel, throwing dirt back into the hole for their bodies to be left to rest.
Ruby and Blake find twigs that they connect together with grass and vines to create three crosses for the graves, planting them down at the heads of the graves. When complete, they all pay their respects with a moment of silence. But Kassius stands there, holding one of Lash Equinox in his hand, he flicks his wrist up and the blade folds out from the hilt, extending out before him, and the light from the Fractured Moon reflecting from the metal blade.
He turns the blade to the ground, sinking it through the floor as he kneels down before the graves of his team. Yang stands there, looking at the man with empathy in her large lilac eyes. Tears fall from his eyes. "I'm sorry..." Kassius says to the graves, looking at the three of them. "I should have saved you..." He says. Yang wants to comfort him, but Weiss stops her from interfering, he needs his closure. It should be done on his own. So the team leave him to his own team for the time being until he is ready.
Kassius remains there, like a knight with his sword embedded in the ground with his eyes shut. "Vetra..." He stammers as he remembers her face. "I should have apologised sooner..." He says to her grave. "I never should have said the things that I said to you...I was mad and I was stupid." He snarls at himself. He lowers his head in anger at himself. "You were right." He says to the grave. "I wasn't over her..." He reveals. "I wasn't over Yang...I never could have...you always told me to follow my heart..." He slowly says to the grave.
Yang looks at him from behind a tree, always concerned about him. His mental state has been fractured from when the Onyx Phantom took his team from him, and he always describes his metal arm as a constant reminder of his failure as a leader. But there was nothing that he could have done to save them, the Onyx Phantom had them outmatched.
Kassius remains there on one knee with Lash Equinox stabbed into the grassy soil. "But I did love you..." Kassius says to her grave. "You were there for me here at Mistral when I was hating myself for leaving her..." Kassius explains to her grave. "I don't know if we can restart things...after everything that has happened...I don't know if she still holds those feelings." Kassius says to her grave. "It's her choice...it always has been...but I won't ever forget you, Vetra. You once told me that if you didn't come back from a mission, or if we had to end things...that I could move on..." Kassius says. A little chuckle emerges from his smile. "I hope that you were right." He says.
Yang smiles sweetly as she listens to him, her heart fluttering with love at his words, but also aching for him as well. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. Return to the Infinite and the Unbound, my friends...perhaps I will meet you at the shores when it is all over." Kassius speaks, reciting a similar line that Pyrrha said to Jaune when activating his Aura.
His aura flashes, a dark red flash across his body and it pulses into the three graves and then he opens his eyes. He stands tall, looking down at the graves. Yang walks up to him from behind and he turns, looking into those beautiful purple eyes. She beams sweetly and offers him a hug, and he accepts it, wrapping his arms round her, his hand moving through her long blonde hair. She gently caresses the back of his head as she holds him.
"I'm sorry, Kas." She says to him. They break the hug and she holds his cheek with her hand. "Are you alright?" She asks him. He looks back at the graves, a deep and heavy sigh released from his lungs.
"Yeah...I've had enough of this place." He says, walking away from her, ripping Lash Equinox from the soil and flicking it downwards, folding the blade back to the hilt. Yang looks at the graves, then she follows him.
Cinder
She walks through the outskirts, her amber eye examining everything around her. The mercenaries of whom they travelled here in have gone off, searching for Adam. He is here somewhere. Walking with her is Tyrian with his blades extended as he looks around. "Where is he?" Tyrian snarls in annoyance, his scorpion tail twitching as he walks. Cinder rolls her eye as she walks, missing her two friends right now.
"He's here." Cinder assures him.
"Are you sure?" Tyrian scoffs, hopping onto a rock, crossing his legs together as he sits on the boulder. Cinder sighs, looking up at the childish huntsman as he sits on the rock. She stands in a very feminine posture, placing her hand on her hip and tilting her head.
"Look, he has been meeting with Sienna Khan here. Hazel has informed it, he will be here." Cinder says, walking onward as she holds the Obsidian Bow in her hand. Tyrian sits back up, following the young woman across the street, landing down on the soil behind her as they walk onward. But whilst they walk, Tyrian stops as he looks out at the forest in the distance. Cinder doesn't stop however, she just keeps on walking to achieve her objective. She groans in annoyance, turning around to learn what he is staring at. "Oh, what now?" She groans. He just looks at her with a mad smirk.
"I spy...with my little eye..." He says, pointing to the woodland with his finger. Cinder follows his finger and sees what he saw. "A silver eyed warrior." Tyrian finishes, and Cinder's eye widens in disbelief when she sees Ruby walking with her team and Kassius, back to the city. She tenses up when she sees her, blaming her for everything that has happened to her. Blaming he for all of her failures and the punishments that have followed from them.
"Call Hazel and Watts...we have a change of plan..." Cinder snarls.
Sun
Sun walks across the area, his eyes examining the locale for any signs of Schnee life. Scarlet walks with him, along with Sage and Neptune, their weapons ready for combat. The Mercenaries will attack them, they already have engaged Team R.W.B.Y in a high speed chase on the roads only a couple of hours ago. Sun spins Ruyi Jingu Bang through his fingers, whistling to himself as he walks. "Winter?" He calls out, on a hunch he hopes that she will hear him and listen. Scarlet walks up to Sun's shoulder and he bumps his arm to get his attention. "Yeah?" He says in response.
"Did you hear?" Scarlet asks him.
"Hear what?" Sun asks.
Scarlet gestures to Neptune. "About him and Weiss." He whispers. Sun's eyes widen and he stops in his tracks, looking at the Pirate and then he looks at Neptune with a surprised expression. The blue haired boy pauses in his tracks as he looks at his leader.
"What?" Neptune asks with a little bit of fear in his voice.
"You and Weiss?" Sun asks with a smirk.
Neptune rolls his eyes in annoyance. "Oh god, did you tell everyone about that?" Neptune asks Scarlet, which makes Scarlet grin at him with his hands held up in self-defence. "Well how's that any different to you and Blake?" Neptune asks.
"Nothing...just surprising that you managed to win the Ice Queen over." Sun says with a little bit of amazement in his voice.
"It wasn't easy...I really had to work at it." Neptune points out. Sun chuckles a little as they walk. Sage continues to walk with them but he pauses when he hears a woman moan in pain. His eyes turn to a woman in the dark with some brown robes over her body. He looks carefully and sees a dirty white strand of hair dangling from the hooded head of the person. He walks towards her carefully and he reaches out to her.
"Hello?" Sage asks. The woman yelps in fear, drawing a sword and pointing it directly at his throat. Sage surrenders, his hands held up in defence to show that he won't hurt her. She has large pale blue eyes and is in her twenties, white hair and she is quite tall. It's Winter...
Sage notices that her hand is pressed to her side, just like the girl said to Weiss when she got here. "Winter..." Sage realises.
"No...I'm not..." She says, backing up from him with fear in her voice. This is the most frail she has ever seemed in front of somebody. She backs up against the wall and he holds his hands out, showing that he won't hurt her.
"I'm not an Acolyte of Lien, I'm from Haven, and you may have met these two before." Sage says, pointing to Sun and Neptune. "Your sister is looking for you, we are helping her." Sage says to her. Sun, Scarlet and Neptune look at Winter and they carefully approach her. Neptune and Scarlet keep watch for any Mercenaries coming near.
"Winter? We need you to come with us, your injured, we can help." Sun assures.
"How do you know my sister?" She demands.
"We are friends of hers, one of us is more than that." Sun says with a smirk when he looks at Neptune. Neptune groans and turns to Winter as she looks at him, she hasn't got the energy or the time to argue with the boyfriend of her sister. But she does get one word out.
"Boyfriend?" She snaps, before wincing in agony from the pain in her side.
"We need to get her to the Safehouse." Scarlet says.
"Good idea. Let's go, come on." Sun says, offering his hand to her. She looks at him, hesitation in her mind. "You can either: come with us, or, deal with the Mercs who are here." Sun says. Winter sighs, since she really has no other option, she takes his hand and she goes with them.
Ruby
Kassius has returned to Qrow after the help that Team R.W.B.Y have provided. The team walk through the alleyway of the buildings to get back to the place where Qrow was, taking a scenic route. Ruby looks over at Yang as they walk. "Is he okay?" Ruby asks. Yang looks at Ruby, remembering how he was feeling when she spoke to him after he could have a chance to say goodbye properly.
"It will take time, but I think we helped." Yang says.
"It feels good to help someone every now and again."Weiss says.
But then, as they walk through the alleyway, they all stop when they all hear someone screaming in terror from something inside with them. They all draw their weapons for combat, but then...there is a haunting sound that makes Ruby's eyes widen in fear. A blood-curdling hysterical laugh echoes from down the alleyway. Yang, Weiss and Blake notice the fear in those silver eyes, since she remembers who that laugh belongs to. Blake looks at Ruby. "Ruby? What's wrong?" Blake asks her. The laugh echoes again, getting louder now, and Ruby is stuck in this state of fear.
"Ruby, who is that?" Weiss questions.
That's when he turns the corner. His booted footsteps round the corner first and his brown trench coat surrounds the white sleeveless jacket with leather belts strapped to it. His scars on his chest are visible in the moonlight as he glares at them. His long damaged scorpion tail curved up behind his back as he stares at them, blood staining the wrist blades that are retracted at the moment. Moonlight reflects off the metal rings in his ears as he walks out into the light to look at them. A smirk forms on his face as he licks his lips like a psychopath. His eyes lock onto Ruby Rose and Yang's eyes widen in fear. "My little flower...we meet again..." He greets as he stares at her.
"Ruby?" Yang stammers in fear.
"It's...Tyrian..." Ruby stutters. Tyrian looks at the rest of the team and he gasps with happiness.
"Oh! And the rose has her beautiful petals with her. How pleasant...I shall enjoy plucking them from you." Tyrian snarls with a smirk. His wrist blades extend forward and he sprints straight at them, his arms held back and he laughs maniacally as he charges.
His laugh echoes across the city as he attacks them