The Knights of Grimm - Act 3 - Shattered Memory

Chapter 43 - A Leaf's Redemption

Nobody trusts him more than her...I guess I can trust her.

She turns and follows, pushing the doors open to follow from behind. She sees him stood by the fountain with his arms crossed, one leg crossed over the other in that stance, hat sat on the edge of the fountain. Pyrrha slowly walks up to him with curiosity in her green eyes. "Okay...I need to know, Kassius. What is the deal you've got with me? I can see it in your eyes." She says, planting her hand on her hip as she looks at him.

Kassius sets his eyes on Pyrrha then he sighs, finally telling her what has been crawling around in his mind. "Look I – uh – I know it couldn't have been easy." Kassius says to her. "All those months, alone in the Charred Forest, with him." Pyrrha looks down at the floor, touching her arm when he says that. "And I'm sorry for what happened to you...but it's not her fault." Kassius says, talking about Cinder obviously.

Pyrrha raises her brow and she starts to scowl, not aggressively but still in an angry way. "She murdered me, shot an arrow through my heart." She retorts, pointing at the area in her sternum where she still feels the arrowhead plunging through her. "I can still feel it, the terrible agony of an arrowhead puncturing my lungs and breaking one of my vertebrae." Pyrrha describes, and most people would cringe at such descriptions, but Kassius does not. After all he knows pain better than most people, something he and Pyrrha do seem to have in common. "So I'm sorry if I hold her responsible for sending me to that hell."

Kassius stares at her and he looks at his cybernetic hand, flexing the cybernetic fingers back and forth. "Did Jaune tell you that she is my sister?" He curiously asks her, looking at her again and she looks surprised by that. "Her real name is Sapphire Locke, but she has spent so much time as Cinder Fall that she has become somewhat accustomed to it. Only responds to me when she hears that name." He explains as he thinks of her, remembering the old times when they used to fight together.

Pyrrha softly giggles when the idea comes to her head. "Did she come up with the name?" She inquires, and Kassius chuckles.

"Wouldn't surprise me, she always did like ironic names." Kassius admits, making them both laugh. But then the smile drops when he stares at his hand, and then at her again.

Pyrrha can see that look form in his eyes again, and it truly does send shivers down her spine. "I'm not gonna lie to you Pyrrha – I have concerns about you, Jaune did say that you are free of the Onyx Phantom. But after what I saw that thing do to my team...to Vetra..." He slowly says, it has been a long time since he has even thought of her name.

Vetra...

His former lover after he split up with Yang when he left for Haven Academy, after being rejected from Beacon but being accepted there instead. "Who's Vetra?" Pyrrha inquires, and he looks at her.

"My old girlfriend...Yang and I broke up, only dated for a few months at first and I got accepted into Haven long before she ever did for Beacon. I had to ship out, met my team...and her..." He explains, still able to see her face, her short hair and beautiful eyes. Vetra was admittedly a very beautiful young woman, someone that Hyde also grew quite fond of as well. The very thought of her starts to bring back memories that he tries to shove back into the past. "You never forget your past – even if you manage to move on..." Kassius sighs, shutting his eyes.

"When did this happen?" Pyrrha asks.

"Five years ago...today..." He reveals, it has been five years on this exact day since his team was massacred before his very eyes. Five years since he first set his eyes on the Knight of Death and the Knight of Fear. "The Onyx Phantom butchered my team before my very eyes."

"Why are we talking about the Onyx Phantom?" Pyrrha questions with apprehension in her vocal tones. "The Demon that followed me is gone, I destroyed it. And if this was five years ago, then it couldn't have possibly been me. Umbra wouldn't have been able to revive me without the Relic of Creation." Pyrrha explains to him, on her theory.