Ruby
The corpse of Headmaster Theodore lies before them, he once had a red beard and red hair tied back behind his head. His eyes still open but have turned dry from the time he has laid there. Cracks spread across his temple where the weapon struck him, whoever did this must have attacked him whilst his guard was down for his aura to not protect him, unless the weapon was lethal. Blood trickles down his cheek, Ruby crouched down by the corpse as she examines the damage done. The floor is cracked and fractured beneath his head, so the killer must have struck him hard enough to damage the ground as well, so it must have been something like a hammer or perhaps even a mace. No blade did this, so that rules out Neopolitan, she uses blades, not blunted weapons.
Not likely to be any of the Knights either, there are no signs of burn damage and none of them use blunt weapons. And the damage could not have been done by a fist, the way the skull has been cracked open is physically impossible, the same for his assistant. Sun looks at his corpse and he turns to Ruby. "I know who the Assistant is." He sighs as he looks at the corpse of the man, short white hair and orange irises. He wears a set of crimson robes around his body with golden accents on them, similar to the Acolytes of Lien, but closer to the Albain Brothers in the scheme of colours. Neither of them are Faunus, both of them are humans.
"Who is he?" Blake asks as she approaches him and she looks at him, very similar injuries, except he also has a broken arm as well. Whoever the killer is, the Assistant must have put up a fight.
"His name is Professor Ghost; he was the Headmaster's Pyromancer." Sun tells them as he looks at his body on the ground.
"Pyromancer?" Weiss questions.
"Yeah, he was very powerful with fire. It was his Semblance; he became pretty obsessed over his abilities as well." Sun remembers with a scoff.
"Tell me about it." Nebula scoffs as she stands there with her arms crossed.
"He punished Octavia with his abilities for disobeying an order." Gwen tells them and Octavia nods her head.
"What happened?" Yang inquires, concerned with who their victims are. Octavia pulls her shirt aside a slight bit to reveal scar tissue from fire on her shoulder that was given to her by Professor Ghost.
"Gods..." Weiss gasps.
"All because we did not secure the Brewery." Octavia scoffs as she pulls her shirt back to where it was.
Blake crouches down and she examines the body with her enhanced senses as a Faunus, she can smell a certain scent on his body. Her ears flick up when she recognises the smell, not a nice one either. "He reeks of liquor." Blake identifies.
"He always was a drunkard." Dew scoffs as she walks around, holding her spear in her hand as she examines the walls. Her large violet coloured eyes focus on some of the cracks in the adobe wall. Ruby looks around, gazing up at the ceiling where there are some big cracks, and dust on the floor. She turns and she jumps internally when she sees Torchwick crouched down beside her. He takes his hat off and looks at the body.
"So then, Little Red? What are you thinking?" He asks her, whispering into her ear as he gets close to her side. She sighs and rolls her eye as she sits there, whilst the others speak with Team N.D.G.O over what has happened here.
In Ruby's head, she begins a conversation with him. "I don't know." She sighs as she examines the area. "But it was not a clean kill, would have been a bullet otherwise." She sighs, looking around. There are plenty of windows, and more so, plenty of buildings nearby for a Sharpshooter to take the shot and get away unseen. So why did our killer decide to make it personal? Brutally kill them this way? It makes no sense whatsoever.
"No...It doesn't make sense at all, does it Red?" Torchwick asks her as he stands up and walks around the bodies. "I mean don't get me wrong, my little Ice Cream Gal is capable of many things, but she would not do something as sloppy as this." He scoffs as he looks at the bodies of the two men, and Ruby looks at him, speaking to him telepathically.
"Oh yeah? How do you figure that?" Ruby scoffs.
"Well for starters, Neo does not use blunt weapons. She's smarter than that, blades are her specialty. She was always too small to apply the strength required for a Blunt weapon, so odds are? This was a dude who did this, a strong one as well." Torchwick surmises as he looks at the corpse on the ground, the blood that stains the floor and fragments of skull matter scattered as well. He is not wrong, this would take a tremendous amount of force to do this and it must have been fast as well to vanish as quickly as the killer did.
"Have there been any other killings?" Weiss asks.
"Not yet." Octavia answers.
"Although, folk have already given the killer a title." Gwen tells them.
"What is it?" Sun asks her.
"The Imperator of the Sands." She answers.
The Imperator of the Sands...
An old Vacuo Myth, similar to the Onyx Phantom, however this one was very different. Ruby looks at Gwen when she says that, Torchwick looking at her as well, despite her having no idea that he is even there. "Gwen? What's the Imperator of the Sands, again?" She asks her.
"Legend has it, that the being is a monstrous creature that would hunt people that would challenge it. It used brute force, killed them quickly in a similar fashion and vanished just as quickly as well." Gwen explains from memory, making it sound more like a Creature of Grimm rather than a person, but it is physically impossible for a Grimm to sneak its way past the walls and inside of the Headmaster's Throne Room without anybody noticing it.
But now people have given the creature a form of title.
"Was there anybody here when it happened? Any witnesses?" Neptune asks Nebula as he approaches her.
"Nope, he was having an important meeting with his Pyromancer about something. The Headmaster was...a troubled man." Nebula reveals, leading to Ruby hearing that and she stands up, walking towards Nebula.
"What do you mean?" She asks.
"He suffered from Paranoid Schizophrenia, he saw enemies everywhere." Dew tells them, her hand on her hip as she stands there, her head slightly tilted as she speaks, eyelids hang low over her eyes. She always has the expression that she is either bored or does not give a damn. They all look at her with a raised brow; they know more about this man than any of them, even more than Sun.
"Who did he trust?" Ruby asks Dew.
"Just his Pyromancer, pretty much." She answers with a shrug.
"That makes things interesting." She says as she walks around, looking at the place.
"How so?" Nebula curiously asks. Ruby then begins to enter her intelligent summary process she does after examining a corpse. She has always done this in the contracts they have collected after finding corpses and learning what they can from the people around them.
"Well, if he was in here with just the Pyromancer, that means that either he was lying and somebody else was in here, or we are dealing with a stealthy Assassin who struck from the shadows." She explains, and she walks over to the body of the Headmaster on the ground. She crouches down and then points at his corpse. "Look at where he fell, he clearly could not have been sat in his throne if he was struck down there, he got up to ran. That must have meant that the killer must have taken the Pyromancer out first, breaking his arm when he attacked." She explains after her detailed analysis, she stretches out her arm and points at one of the huge adobe pillars in the hallway towards the throne where he used to hold his audiences. There is a charred scar upon it, cracks riding up the pillar and into the ceiling. Fragments fell onto the ground, explaining the dust under their boots when they entered.
Ruby then looks at the dead Pyromancer. "We can be lead to assume the killer broke his arm to send his attack the other way, and then hit his head to knock him down. Hitting him a second or even a third time to make sure he was dead." Ruby explains as she stands there, like she can see the event happening all over again, visualising a shadowy figure attacking the two people.
"After the Pyromancer was dead, the Headmaster attempted to flee and the Imperator of the Sands hit him across the side of his face to knock him down. He was still alive so he hit him a couple more times to ensure he was dead." Ruby summarises to them all as she crouches down and points at the cracks in his face, even some cuts from where he was hit initially, breaking the skin on impact.
"Wow." Nebula says as she claps her hands. "That's some impressive detective work, Ruby." Nebula congratulates, with legitimate intrigue in her gratitude.
"We still don't know who did it though, and why they did it." Weiss says to them all, crossing her arms as she looks around. Neither of them have the faintest idea of who could have done this; however the entire city has their eyes peeled for anyone that could potentially be the Imperator of the Sands.
Oscar looks around the large room, until something catches his eye, and his hearing senses it as well. He hears a faint voice behind him and he turns round swiftly and his eyes widen with confusion of what he sees. He looks directly at the throne and he can see a fracture form a man sat upon the throne. Like pieces of glass, that float around and they have different shades, making the fractured body of the Headmaster, like some sort of ghost. By his side is his Pyromancer as well similar condition as well. Oscar quizzically looks at them, and then they begin to move around. "Headmaster, are you sure that you want to do this?" He asks the man.
"Yes! The traitors are everywhere, ears and eyes judging everything I do!" The Headmaster yells at his Pyromancer, his voice is aggressive and sharp as he bellows. Their voices echo through time and he walks towards the throne, looking at this...echo...and he listens to what is being said. He can hear a person faintly in the distance; his voice is different to the Pyromancer's and the Headmaster's. Younger, like a Huntsman's in fact.
"Please, don't do this!" He begged, voice hardly being heard. Perhaps Oscar is seeing the Headmaster's last moments, not listening to the man.
"Silence! They are all traitors! All of them! Suffocate them all!" He bellows with rage, and the shards break apart before him, the sounds of screams and the sound of skulls being struck by the blunt weapon. Oscar jolts back from the screams and Ruby looks at him, noticing that slight jolt he had. Nobody else notices but she does, standing up and looking at him whilst the others converse over the options. Oscar looks at Ruby, touching the temple in his head and then he sighs. She walks towards him and he holds her hand, walking her away from the others as he quietly speaks to her.
"What's wrong?" Ruby asks him quietly.
"I just saw something important...at least I think it was." Oscar says as he shakes his head slightly, utterly confused of what he just saw. His Semblance is more than he realises, he does not just have one form of power. He can see the past by the looks of things, if he can learn how to...perhaps even travel through time itself.
"Tell me." She asks of him.
"I saw...the Headmaster and his Pyromancer." He tells her and her eye widens with surprise.
"You mean...him?" She asks with bewilderment as she points at the dead headmaster at their feet.
"Yeah...But they weren't whole. Their voices were echoing, and their bodies were shattered into little pieces that were floating around. I could hear what they were talking about, but that is not the important thing." He tells her and she stammers.
"Wait...are you saying you can see the past?" Ruby inquires.
"I guess so – I'm still figuring out what I'm capable of." Oscar says to her as he shrugs his shoulders when he speaks to her. "But, I'm avoiding the important bit, I heard a third voice in that – echo." He says to her, thinking of what he is going to call those things. If he ever sees them again, he will call them Echoes in Time.
"There was another person here?" She asks him.
"Yeah, seems like they did have a secret meeting with somebody. But the Headmaster was...he was enraged. He was ordering his Pyromancer to...suffocate them all." Oscar remembers, hearing the enraged bellow of the man that yelled it. His voice echoing through his mind as he remembers the voice. Not the voice of a good man, and Ruby looks quite concerned. Few people know about the Vacuo Headmaster, he does not allow much publicity about himself, due to that Paranoia he suffered from.
"That doesn't sound good, but it makes this even more interesting." She says to him as she thinks on this newly found information, thanks to his semblance.
"Yeah, that's one way to put it." He scoffs.
"Well now we know that the killer could have been trying to save the city from him." She adds.
"We don't know that, he could have been talking about some threats out there." Oscar suggests and Ruby sighs, realising that he is right in that statement as well. The Killer could be on their side, or he could have just jeopardised the safety of Vacuo even more than it already was. Oscar sighs and he thinks, and luckily Ozpin's voice returns when he needs him most.
"Theodore was the most untrustworthy of the circle we created. He was very dangerous, especially with the company he kept. With the Trinity Marshall and the city itself, but we needed to clue him in on this. We did believe at the time that he had access to the Relic of Choice." Ozpin explains to Oscar and he chuckles.
"Good thing you didn't." He says and Ruby looks at him.
"Huh?" She asks him.
He points to his head. "Oh, Ozpin." She realises, nodding her head. She then begins to speak to Ozpin directly. "Would he destroy the city, Professor?" She asks him, and Ozpin contemplates.
"I don't know, things might have changed since he last checked in before the Fall of Beacon." He explains, remembering the last time.
"What did he say last time?" Oscar asks.
"He said that he thought that the city was turning against him." Ozpin answers, and Oscar sighs, grabbing the bridge of his nose.
"What did he say?" Ruby asks, since she is not telepathic.
"He just said the last thing that Theodore told him was that he was afraid his city was turning against him." He answers.
"That's...not good."
Jaune
"You found her?" Glynda gasps with amazement, with Jaune and Kassius stood at the other end of her table. Kassius holds his hands behind his back as he stands beside Jaune who looks at Glynda, she looks extremely happy to hear this news. "Where is she?" Glynda asks him, enthused with this information.
"We brought her home, we thought it would be best for her to get some rest in a comfy bed instead of the floor." Jaune answers and Glynda nods, agreeing with this point.
"Oh, this is great." She says with happiness, but then she notices that there is concern on their faces as well. "But you don't look as happy." She points out.
"I am, really I am...but we came into some trouble when trying to get her home." Jaune begins and she leans forward and rests her arms on her desk as she looks at Jaune with concern.
"What happened?" She asks.
"The Acolytes of Lien were hunting her, and they attacked us. The Spectre and Admiral Ortega were among them." Kassius answers before Jaune can, and her eyes widen with fear, but then she sighs with frustration as well. She pushes her hand through her blonde hair and takes her glasses off for a moment as she rubs the bridge of her nose.
"So they're back?" She sighs, just another annoying thing to be added into the equation. Along with Fury returning and an army of what appears to be undead warriors, her day is just getting worse and worse by the moment. And to add the cherry on her sundae of terrible things to happen all at once, Vacuo's Headmaster has been assassinated.
What a fantastic day she is having.
"It looks like it, they were coming after her, and Ortega seemed very determined to get her for some reason, I don't really know why." Jaune explains to her.
"Well, he won't. We haven't come this far to getting her back to just lose her all over again." Glynda promises. She stands up and looks at Jaune. "I will make sure that the Academy is secured, have everyone ready to defend it and her if they dare come here. They won't touch her." She assures them. She is not blind, either, she can tell that Jaune just wants to be with her. She smiles and she gestures her head towards the elevator. "Go on, she needs you." Glynda says to him with a smile.
Jaune smiles and he nods to her turning and walking away from her desk, Kassius walks with him as they approach it. "And Jaune?" She calls, as they enter the elevator, he turns and looks at Glynda. "Well done." She says to him with a smile, she has very much so become much kinder and softer towards the students, opposed to how she used to be. But as they all have learned, there are threats out there in the world that can topple down their world at a moments' notice.
So they should be kind to each other whilst they still can.
Like it is their last day on Earth.
Jaune smiles. "Thank you, Professor." He says, and Kassius hits the button to head back down to the ground level. The elevator flies down the side of Beacon Tower, and they look out the window as it moves down, looking at the place. Kassius presses his hand against the side of the elevator and he flinches when he feels Hyde effecting his mind again, Jaune spots that. "You alright? Hyde annoying you?" Jaune asks, and he sighs.
"Yeah...he might have learned how to trust you, but he still tries to take over." He sighs as he hits the side of his own head with his hand. He shakes it off after feeling the burning sensation of Hyde trying to manipulate him. Jaune leans against the back of the elevator, unknowingly on the doors that will open.
"Hey, Kas...if you don't mind me asking...what's it like?" Jaune asks, Kassius looks at him with a raised brow.
"What's what like?" Kassius asks him.
"Having a second mind in your head? Does it hurt?" He asks curiously. Kassius chuckles and he stands in the corner, pressing his back against the metal as the elevator descends.
"Sometimes, I always feel a hot, tingling sensation in my temples." He describes, pointing to his own temple with his cybernetic finger. "Sometimes it just feels like a hot paper towel pushed against my head, other times like an iron." He illustrates for Jaune, and he closes his eyes with a sigh. "It also really ruins my sleep schedule, Yang sometimes wakes up on her own because Hyde wakes me up with either nightmares or just him muttering in my head. I have to wait outside sometimes to let him pass before I go back." He explains.
"How long does it take?" Jaune asks him.
"On Hyde's good days? Around fifteen minutes, on his bad ones? The whole night." He sighs, scratching the back of his head with his human hand. "It's not all bad though, when you're alone, you still have someone to talk to, even if he does like putting dirty thoughts in my head." He sighs.
"Are you sure that's Hyde or you?" Jaune asks with a chuckle, and Kassius laughs.
"It blends together at this point." He laughs. "I've grown used to him, for a long time I wanted him gone...but he has been a part of my life for so long that if I lost him, I think I'd lose it." He says with a chuckle. He and Hyde are a symbiotic relationship, they cannot survive without the other. And Hyde has saved his life more times than he can count, having what is essentially two brains in his head simultaneously has helped him, but has also hindered him as well.
"Aw!" Hyde exclaims in his head.
"Shut it." Kassius sighs, making Jaune chuckle, since he can tell that Hyde must be muttering to him.
"I'll admit, Kassius – I was scared of you when I found out about your Semblance. But, now that I've gotten to know you, I don't anymore." He explains and Kassius smiles.
"Thanks, Jaune. Means a lot." He says with a smile.
The doors open and Jaune yelps, falling through them as he was leant against them the whole time. No matter how many years pass, he will always be the clumsy fool he has always been. He screams like a little girl as he falls and hits the floor, making Kassius guffaw with laughter, holding his chest as he laughs. "Are you okay?" He tries to ask through sharp intakes of air as he laughs.
Jaune holds his thumb up with an embarrassed sigh, sitting upright. "I saw that coming a mile away." Hyde chuckles as he looks through Kassius' eyes.
"On that we agree." Kassius chuckles.
Pyrrha
She sits on the bed, looking at the floor with her legs hanging over the edge. Nora and Ren look at her with bewildered eyes, they still cannot believe that she is alive. They look at her like they stare at a ghost. During the daring escape, they were making jokes and all that, but only now has it truly set in that she is alive and back. Or at least, she is partially back anyway, her memory is still tender and fractured. She turns and looks at the pair of them and notices that they are holding hands. Her memories are jumbled, but there is one thing that she remembers about them. "I thought you two weren't – together, together." Pyrrha says to them and they both look at their hands held together tight and lovingly. Nora shyly smiles at Pyrrha and then she sighs, sitting upright.
"Things happened...after Beacon." Nora says to her with a shy smile on her face and Pyrrha quietly laughs for a second as she looks at the floor again.
"Very true." She softly agrees, thinking on what happened. What she saw when she died...The voice of the Soothsayer that pulsed through her body like some sort of shockwave. His eyes that glowed red behind the green ones that looked more natural. Poor Nora and Ren do not know what to say to her, what would be appropriate given the circumstances, seeing the way she just wiggles her fingers around.
"I've never seen you with your hair like that." Nora points out with a very kind smile on her face as she admires the long wavy red hair that covers her cheeks, parts of it covering over one of her eyes. She pushes some of it from the eye that was obscured and she looks at them, with a confused look as she touches the soft red fibres.
"It...Was different?" She asks them, her voice fragile as she speaks, not as royal as it used to sound. Like she is constantly about to cry. Pyrrha cannot even remember what her old hairstyle was like, somehow, for it has been this way ever since she returned to the physical world. The living world.
"You...don't remember?" Ren asks her and she stammers.
"I – I, my memory is not what it once was...I have been trying to remember who I am, my memories are jumbled around. I remember you two, Jaune...Team R.W.B.Y...Cinder...but not a lot else." She stammers and Nora covers her mouth with her hand. It mainly hurts her to think that she might have forgotten her happiest memory, the dance at Beacon nearly six years ago now.
Ren looks at her and he sighs. "You can still get them back." He assures, and she looks at him with a smile.
"I remember that about you." She states softly.
"What's that?" He asks her curiously.
"You're kindness, your ability to push people on, not let their bad feelings get in the way." She says with a smile, and Nora smirks as she sits forward.
"And what about me?" She asks with a big grin, making Pyrrha smile bigger and cuter than before.
"I remember very vividly that you liked breaking legs and you are freakishly stronger than you look." She recites from memory and Nora squeaks with happiness that Pyrrha remembered that about her. It may be small things, but it is better than what they had with the Onyx Phantom.
The door opens and they all look at who enters.
Jaune walks inside and he stops in his tracks, just like them, even though he knows she is alive and back...it still catches him off guard whenever he sees her. Her large green eyes gazing up at his sapphire ones, Kassius stands behind him with his arms crossed and she looks at him. Ren and Nora, without question, get up and they leave Jaune and Pyrrha alone, for those two definitely need some time to talk. They close the door behind them, and Jaune stands inside of their old dorm room with only Pyrrha in there with him. She looks at him and she shyly looks down at the floor, one of the big things she remembers is simply an emotion.
Guilt.
She feels so much guilt for how she left him, how their last ever moment together went. "Pyrrha..."Jaune quietly says, still unable to get the fact from his mind that she is alive again. He walks over to her and he sits down next to her, looking at her. Seeing the way she is, with that black and golden armour, based off her original but changed the colours to try and affect him when they fought...but the thing that he cannot unsee is her change in personality. Pyrrha has always been a quiet and humble girl, but her quietness clearly has just gotten worse. He then holds her hand and her eyes widen when she feels his hand on hers.
A flash of memory bursts into her mind when she gasps, feeling the warmth of his hand when she was leant against the wall in Beacon Academy, nearly six years ago now...before she destroyed Penny. The Autumn Leaf that fell before her, hearing the thoughts that were travelling around her mind constantly that day. This wasn't how things were supposed to happen! She then snaps back to the present, looking right at him the same way that she did that evening with longing in her large eyes. "Jaune..." She gasps when she realises that they are not in a fight, her heart pounds a million beats a second and she breathes heavily with pure love for him, but fear as well.
"Whoa, it's okay." Jaune assures her softly as he puts his arm around her thin body, she has become much slimmer than she used to be, but not from her fitness training, from her lack of food. She has not been eating healthily for five years, and it has taken a major toll on her body. "I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere ever again." He promises her, she holds his hand and she leans up against him with shut eyes as tears stream from them. Only now for her, has it really sunken in that she is no longer in the grasp of Vir Nominis Umbra in that cruel realm of his that she was snagged from death. She is actually alive and back in his arms, she smiles gently as she feels the warmth in his body, holding him gently, and he holds her close. It has struck him at the same time, just by feeling her hair, smelling her, hearing her voice...the things he feared he could never experience ever again.
But now they can...
...but there is one question on his mind. The one that has been rattling around in his mind ever since. "Pyrrha...what happened to you?" Jaune asks her with fear in his voice, not that she may be different, but of what happens when you die. However she did not have what one would call the best experience of the afterlife.
Pyrrha stammers when she remembers, one of the only things that is not jumbled in her memory is how she died. She closes her eyes and can see Cinder stood there, that smirk on her face as she drew the bow back and launched the arrow into her sternum. A different Cinder Fall, for Sapphire Locke has returned, but does not allow to be called by that name anymore. She sniffles as she opens her eyes, not wanting to see the Charred Forest. "I..." Pyrrha stammers. "I remember seeing Cinder..." She whimpers, feeling the scar on her heel where the arrow was lodged when she threw her shield. Jaune gently caresses her back as she snuggles up to him where they sit. "Do you believe in destiny? Those were my last words..." She says with horror in her voice, just coming to terms with that fact is horrifying when she realises that those were the last things she ever said.
"Then Ruby got to the top and tried to save you...but she shot the arrow." Jaune concludes that part of the story, for Ruby told him what she saw that night that haunted her for many months afterwards. Pyrrha's eyes widen with horror and she looks at Jaune, eyes bursting with fear.
"She saw?" She questions with sadness, for she only remembers Ruby as an innocent and adorable young girl who was only two years younger than her. But she never wanted Ruby to see something like that, she was always too precious to be put through something like that.
"Yeah, she saw...she and Weiss tried to save you. I begged them to, but they were too late, there were too many Grimm between them and the Tower, and as soon as Ruby got there...she saw you die." Jaune explains with pain in his voice, despite her being next to him, as he tells someone how somebody else witnessed their death...it is a mindboggling thing to speak of. One that nobody would ever want to speak of either. Pyrrha covers her mouth, feeling the urge to cry coming upon her, she never wanted anyone to be effected, she only wanted to meet her destiny. The destiny that Vir Nominis Umbra planted into her mind ever since she was a child. That her Prince Charming would come along, but she never expected it to be Jaune Arc.
"I never – never wanted her to see anything like that...is she okay? Is she still alive?" Pyrrha asks Jaune with a fearful voice that trembles. Jaune smiles kindly and he wipes the tears from her cheeks with his thumb.
"She's...coping, she struggled for a while after what happened to you...but she is struggling with something else now, not with what happened to you, but with what happened after." Jaune explains to her, and Pyrrha's eyes widen with fear for the sweet young girl, her fingers moving down her chin. She grips her collar with concern.
"What happened?" She asks with a sniffle.
Jaune looks at her with a confused expression, and then it really hits him. "Do you really not remember anything? When you were under their command?" Jaune asks her, she shakes her head.
"It's all shattered memories, I remember nothing from one point in the afterlife, until you freed me on that tower on those islands...I had to help in some way but after that...I was lost." She stammers. "What happened to Ruby?" She asks again and he sighs, scratching the back of his head.
"You went to Mistral, right?" Jaune asks her, and she nods her head.
"Yes...I was drawn to go back." She remembers.
"Well, it fell when the Knights of Grimm returned, I was trying to help Ruby when it was falling apart. Weiss was badly injured by Death and the others were hurt, Scarlet David and Sage were killed in the battle." He explains, remembering that...slaughter...very well. The deaths of Team A.B.R.N will never leave them, how the Knights wiped them out in mere seconds. "She was dazed, and Death formed with a Bow and Arrow formed from Glass, he hasn't done it since...I don't know why he could then...and he shot at Ruby." He explains and she gasps.
"Is she okay?" Pyrrha asks.
"She survived...but...she lost her eye." Jaune tells her and Pyrrha whimpers for the poor girl. She shakes her head with sadness, never wanting her to come to any harm. "She was captured by Salem and the Knights, tortured by Tyrian Callows for months, but we saved her...eventually." He sighs, still punching himself over how long it took them to rescue the poor thing. "She has P.T.S.D from it, but I'm hoping her boyfriend Oscar will be able to help her through it, we've all been there for her."
"What about Tyrian?" She asks, with what sounds like anger in her voice.
"He's dead, he tried to kill her when they escaped the Islands, after we saved her and stopped Salem. He tracked her down to her house, and nearly killed her and Yang. But Ruby beat him, killed him and watched him die. He can't touch her anymore." Jaune promises and she sighs with relief, there is a lot that she needs to catch up on. If she truly cannot remember anything that happened between now and then.
Jaune then looks at her, since she seemed to have become more concerned for little Ruby rather than answering his question. "But...Pyrrha...I need to know – what happened to you?" He asks her, for he has every right to now. She stammers and she closes her eyes as she remembers how she felt like she was falling constantly, her soul plummeting into another realm...
"I...I thought it was over, but when I died, I felt like I was falling forever. I was terrified, as the white around me turned darker and redder, and beneath me as I fell, I saw black trees stretching out for as far as the eye could see, fire everywhere...moon broken." Pyrrha explains, remembering it all from her tragic memory. Jaune's eyes widen, because he has been told of the Charred Forest by Yang, Oscar and Ruby...it has appeared in all of their minds now.
And now...he knows that this place is not just some Nightmare World...it is real.
It is a Realm.
"I crashed into the ground, I was terrified." She explains, voice shaky with fear, remembering the starless skies, blood red and the howls of the damned that echoed across the Charred Forest. "Then...I saw him again." She says.
"Who?"
Vir Nominis Umbra
Five years prior...
Pyrrha wails in agony as she feels the red electricity charging through her bones, burning her soul and she cries. Tears stream from her eyes as she hangs there by her arms and legs, like some kind of cruel display. She can see other souls being tortured here as well, one of them is now familiar as well. The soul of Sage is here as well, being drowned endlessly in what seems to be a pit of blood, he screams and wants to die, wants his suffering to end but it never does.
The whistling tune of the entity arrives and she whimpers with fear, seeing him emerge from the shadows with his hands held together, that menacing smirk on his face. This is clearly months after her death, still trapped in this horrific realm that she can never leave. She turns and gasps with horror as she sees other huntsmen experiencing similar, horrific fates, some being fed to Beowulves, but their bodies regenerate instantly, but they still feel that excruciating pain of being ripped apart, devoured forever. Vir Nominis Umbra points at her with his index finger, smirking menacingly at her as he approaches her. "You, my dear, are a tough egg to crack. I have killed you time and time again, drowned you, fed you to Grimm, and yet you still refuse to be controlled." He says as he walks towards her with that evil smile on his face. He looks at her and he touches her cheek, sweating endlessly and she cries with pain, feeling her bones on fire but she refuses to succumb to his will.
Pyrrha coughs with pain, like her throat is burning as well. The things that hold her up are bones and skin that hold her there. He holds her by her cheek and wipes the tear from her eye, scaring her further more as he stares at her. "Pretty thing, aren't you?" He whispers, and she looks away from him with a terrified cry, closing her eyes and he smirks, stepping away from her. He turns and looks at Sage who screams as he is lifted up from the bones, blood dripping from his face as he gasps for air. He holds his hands behind his back and leans forward, looking at him with a smile. "Hello there, how are you feeling?" He asks Sage with an insane smirk on his face.
Sage whimpers with fear, barely able to breathe past the blood. "Please! Make it stop!" He begs him, Sage was never like that when he was alive. He was calm and controlled, here has been broken down into a mess.
Vir Nominis Umbra rubs his green hair and he looks at Pyrrha with a smile. She stares at him, sweat dripping from her hair and chin as she looks back with fear for him. He continues to smile, expression not changing as he forms a dagger in his hand and cuts Sage's throat open, spilling his blood into that pit. He gasps for air, but the wound slowly heals itself, and he never dies, only suffers. He continues to smile as he walks towards her. "Pain works on everyone eventually..." He says with a cold smile, and he slides the knife across her face and she cries out in pain as the serrated edge cuts through her skin, drawing blood.
He then narrows his eyes as he stares at her. "Everyone...but you..." He says with confusion, stepping away from her with a laugh, throwing the knife into her chest and she screams with pain, feeling the knife puncture her lung. She tries to breath, but only begins to asphyxiate, but can never die. She writhes around there, trying to free herself from the grasp of the evil being that holds her there. He then uses what appears to be telekinesis, tearing that dagger from her sternum, the same point of which she was shot and he catches the blade. He wipes the blood off and he looks at the crimson fluid that runs across it.
For in the spiritual world, the soul still works the exact same way, they just can never die. They can sustain injury, but never die.
He drops the blade onto the floor and looks at Pyrrha.
She cries almost hysterically with pain, looking at the hole in her sternum which just regenerates, the blood dripping onto the floor. Vir Nominis Umbra approaches her and he looks at her. "What is that makes you...tick?" He asks her, flicking her nose with a smirk and she sniffles as she looks at him. His eyes narrow and an idea comes upon him. He floats up towards her and he grabs her by the face and forcefully kisses her on the lips. She shrieks with distress as he does it and then pushes her away, reading her memories from her lips. He floats before her and he closes his eyes. His form transforms before her and she whimpers, seeing blonde hair extending from his initially bald head. His clothing shifts, the orange hoodie with pouches and goodies turns into a black Pumpkin Pete's Hoodie and his trousers turn into jeans.
He spins round, revealing himself as Jaune Arc.
Her eyes widen, tears streaming endlessly from her eyes as he sobs. His voice, however, is still that of Vir Nominis Umbra. "So this is what must be tested?" He chuckles with a smile, crows bursting from his body, the body vanishing and the true form of Vir Nominis Umbra returning. He snaps his fingers and the bone structure that restrained her shattered. She falls and hits the floor hard, looking up at him with fear.
Vir Nominis Umbra approaches her with his hands clasped together with a cunning smirk.
Vir Nominis Umbra grabs her by her pony tail and begins to drag her away from the other screaming souls who are eternally tortured, leaving Sage behind. He continues to drag her away and she screams with terror, kicking and wailing. "Please! No!" Pyrrha wails, and whilst he drags her, he whistles menacingly.
And then he sings over her screams as they both fade away into the shadows.
As he sends Pyrrha to her own personal hell.
"A grin as candid as children, as sweet as bee honey,"
"His voice kind and sharp, as the blade of a razor,"
"Brings you from elder to youth, within the blink of an eye."
"Wishes be granted, be it: love, riches or luck,"
"His face like a mirror, fear shall consume you,"
"Anger through truth, loss through acceptance."
"For the end of your journey, Death will come for you,"
"Charcoal Cities, come waiting for you,"
"The Soothsayer shall wait, for his voice will control you,"
"Torment and Control, till the moon will shatter..."
Pyrrha
Jaune's eyes are wide with horror and rage that she was put through such tortures and pains. He just wants to hold her and never let her go, especially after realising that he also spoke to Vir Nominis Umbra not very long ago either. "Torment and Control...till the moon will shatter..." Pyrrha softly repeats after concluding how he took control of her. "He sang that horrible song all the way there." She tells Jaune, looking at him with tearful eyes.
Vir Nominis Umbra has had a terrible effect on the beautiful girl, turned her into a heartbroken wreck, one that cannot get past her torment.
He caresses her cheek and he holds her close, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her cheek. "I'm so sorry, Pyrrha...I..." He stammers, nearly about to cry as well.
"He...he created a hell specifically made to break me...and it worked." She sobs, remembering some of the things she saw. "I saw you die over and over again, in the worst of ways, seeing you abandon me, he created images of you and Weiss together, like you forgot about me...I..." He stammers and Jaune looks at her and he holds her close.
"None of it was true, okay? I – I was an idiot, I never should have ignored you...I'm so sorry, Pyrrha." Jaune sniffles, his eyes tearing up as he caresses her cheek and she pulls closer to him and she goes to kiss him, but she stops. Something stops her, her heart is pounding and she wants to kiss him with every fibre of her being. But she is scared to, she has wanted him for so long, and now she cannot even bring herself to kiss him. He holds herself there for a while, but she just looks away with tearful eyes.
"I'm so sorry, Jaune..." She quietly says to him and he shakes his head.
"Don't be sorry, I am the one that should be. If I just talked you out of it..." He stammers, feeling responsibility.
"No...You don't understand, Jaune..." She nervously says, looking around as she holds him closer. "That was not the first time I met him, Jaune..." She stammers, and Jaune raises his eyebrow.
"What?" He asks her with fear in his voice.
"The Soothsayer..." She tells him. "Vir Nominis Umbra, whatever the hell that thing is...I have met it before." She says to him, remembering back to her own childhood.
"What are you talking about?" He asks her, and she closes her eyes with a heavy sigh for the confession she is about to give him.
"When I was small, I once spoke to a Soothsayer, I asked him about my future. He told me about everything, being a warrior, being a hero...even you, Jaune...he said I would meet someone who would love me for me." Pyrrha says to him and he caresses her cheek as she looks at him, and he is terrified for her safety.
"What are you saying?" He asks her.
"Destiny...the idea of it?" She says to him.
"He planted that idea..." She confesses to him. His eyes widen with fear for her and he sits upright.
"What?" He asks her with concern.
"He made me believe in it...I only realised that when I was killed, when I was taken to the Charred Forest." She explains. "I don't know what Vir Nominis Umbra is, but he is extraordinarily powerful, and we cannot trust it." She explains to him.
"I spoke to it, Pyrrha." Jaune tells her and her eyes widen.
"When?" She asks him.
"Before I entered that apartment you were in." He answers. She stammers with fear, he is definitely following her for some reason.
"He's following me..." She whimpers with fear.
"I won't let him touch you." Jaune promises and she giggles at his bravery, but she knows that it will not work against him.
"I appreciate the thought, Jaune...but he is not of this world. He is stronger than all of us, I tried to kill him but all of my attacks do nothing to him. If he gets to me...he will kill you and take you with me. I will not let you die." Pyrrha explains to him with fear in her voice. "I may not be able to remember many things, but I remember this most clearly...he is coming to destroy us all...and he is linked to those Knights in some way." Pyrrha explains.
He holds her hand and looks into her eyes.
"Then we will find a way to beat him." Jaune promises, wrapping his arms around her and laying down on the bed, letting her snuggle up to his side on the bed. "But we do this together, I am not losing you ever again." He whispers to her.
"Deal." She agrees with a smile.
They both lay there in the bed, happily in each other's loving arms. They have yet to kiss again, but that will come naturally.
Watching them from the rooftop of one of the other buildings, however, is a sinister figure.
The Soothsayer watches them with that sinister smirk on his face, his hands held together and he turns and walks away, leaving them to their peace.
Weiss
The Schnee Huntress sighs, walking outside from the Headmaster's Throne Room with Neptune beside her. Weiss sets her hands down on the railing on the balcony and she lets out a sigh as she looks around. Neptune turns and looks at her, raising his brow. "Are you alright, Weiss?" Neptune asks her, she sighs, closing her eyes as she looks at him, then opening them.
"I don't know...this whole situation, Nep...It stinks." Weiss sighs, thinking about what happened with the Headmaster. Some time has passed, when they arrived it was afternoon, now the sun is beginning to set. Whereas in Beacon, the sun is still high in the sky. Neptune leans against the railing with his eyes set on his beautiful girlfriend.
"Okay, talk to me. What's on your mind.?" He asks her, she looks at him and she sighs, turning to speak her mind to him.
"All of this, the Trinity Marshall, the Imperator of the Sands...what if they are just the same person?" Weiss asks him, she has clearly been thinking a lot on what Sun and Neptune told them about the Trinity Marshall, there is undoubtedly more behind this mysterious name than meets the eye.
"But it does not seem like his M.O to randomly assassinate a School Headmaster like that, Information Brokers know about the importance of the Headmasters and all they care about is survival. So if the Trinity Marshall knew about what was going on in Ozpin's Inner Circle, then he would want to survive. Killing a Headmaster would not be the best way to go about it." Neptune explains, he has done his research on Information Brokers, which is very clear from how much he knows about them. That and Sun knows a lot about them, since he comes from Vacuo. They are essentially this Kingdom's Council. They run everything – Knowledge is Power.
"Yeah, but you heard what Oscar and Ruby told us. Oscar's not one to make crap up, he can see the past in those echoes and if he said that the Headmaster was planning to destroy the city, then maybe he did it to save everyone." Weiss explains to Neptune, remembering the details that have been discussed with them.
Neptune scratches his blue spiky hair as he thinks on what she just said. "Well, we will continue tomorrow, see what we can dig up. Sun and Blake have gone to that hotel to book us some rooms for us to stay in. Sun said it is reasonably good." Neptune says to her.
"How good is reasonably good?" She asks him with a cynical look in her large blue eyes.
"Well I wouldn't expect anything above three stars." Neptune warns. She groans and rolls her eyes. He then cups her chin and lifts her head so she is looking at him. "But...I have a few ideas to make it five stars." He flirtatiously hints with a wink. Weiss' mood changes as she smirks at him and wraps her arms around his shoulders, lifting up one leg as well like a ballerina.
"I like how you talk...we'll see tonight." She whispers as she kisses him firmly on the lips with a slight giggle. He holds her with one arm and then they break their kiss. She goes to kiss him again, until she feels her scroll vibrate, and they both look down at her pocket, but Weiss thought something else entirely. She looks down at her chest and gasps, slapping Neptune.
"Ow!" Neptune exclaims.
"Later." She says with a proud smile, pulling her scroll out and he sighs, as it turns out, he was in fact looking down at her chest.
She looks at her scroll and gasps when she sees who is calling.
Winter Schnee
"Winter!" She squeaks with happiness, some things never change. She answers the call immediately and holds the scroll up to the side of her ear. "Winter!" She repeats as she hears her sister's voice on the other side of the call. Neptune leans against the wall and listens to her.
"Weiss, my goodness it's good to hear your voice." Winter says with a sigh of relief, for they do not know of the pictures she brings them of Fury, yet.
"How have you been?" Weiss asks her with excitement in her voice, and she hears Winter laughing gently on the other side of the scroll.
"Honestly, pretty bored for a while. Just making sure Atlesian Students are training well, you have no idea how much I miss Beacon in comparison." She groans, how things change as well, for at one time she hated Beacon.
"I know the feeling." Weiss responds with a similar groan as she looks at Vacuo.
"I'm on my way to Vacuo, Weiss. I have landed at the Schnee Dust Company Trade Building." Winter informs them and she gasps, she can actually see the building from there as well. It is the biggest and brightest building in the entire city, funnily enough as well. The Schnee Symbol glowing on the rooftop of the nearly completely glass building.
"Are you really? Why have you bothered to come to this disgusting place?" Weiss asks her, and she hears a sarcastic gasp come over the other end from Winter.
"Weiss? What would Sun think of that?" Winter gasps.
"Oh, trust me. He hates this place as much as we do." Weiss tells her with honesty, making Neptune chuckle as well. Winter laughs on the other end, she has become much more personable now, as they all have.
"All this happy chatting aside though, I have some news that I must discuss with you all...news I can't talk about over unsecure Scroll Networks, especially here." Winter explains, and Weiss looks at Neptune with a surprised expression, which is just as equally concerned as well. Neptune steps forward as he sees that look in her eyes.
"Is it bad or good?" Weiss asks, and Winter pauses.
"I don't really know." She says with a sigh, clearly referencing the return of Ozpin instead of that picture of Fury. "I will tell you all more when I find you." Winter says.
"We'll come to you, Neptune and I. We can bring you to the Crime Scene, probably the safest place." She explains.
"Okay, I'll see you soon." Winter responds. "And Weiss?" Winter says.
"Yeah?" Weiss asks.
"Be careful." Winter requests. Weiss smiles and she nods.
"I will." Weiss promises.
The call ends there and she lowers her scroll and closes it, fitting it into her pocket. She sighs and looks at Neptune with a look he recognises. "I'll see you in a sec, yeah?" He assumes and she smiles and nods to her dear boyfriend. He walks away and closes the sliding door behind him. Weiss turns to the balcony and leans against it, she sighs as she looks out, able to see Winter's Ship in the distance.
She stands there, then feels a tear trickle down from her eye.
"I see confidence must be hereditary in us Schnees." The recognisable voice of the Knight of Loss states, Weiss' eyes widen with shock when she hears her voice and she spins round.
Loss stands before her, her long white hair blows in the breeze, along with her black robes that she wears as she stands before Weiss. She may be the smallest of the Four Knights, but she is far from small, she still towers above Weiss in comparison. This is the first time any of them have seen any of the Knights since the Volcanic Chain Isles. Weiss goes to grab Myrtenaster but realises the weapon is not on her and she gasps, reaching for the door.
But...
Starla holds her hands out and looks like she does not want to fight, almost hunching forward. "Weiss! I promise I mean you no harm, I came here to speak with you." Starla tells her and Weiss stops in her tracks, staring at the glowing blue eyes hidden behind that dark veil that hides her beautiful, pale blue face. Weiss then stands tall again and lowers her arms back down as she looks at the Knight of Loss who has just magically appeared.
Loss must have arrived here in her Mourning Dove form, and none of them even noticed her arrival. Weiss looks at her with narrow eyes as she tries to figure out her point of why she is here, and only one question comes out. "What is with you, Loss? One moment you are trying to kill us all, the next you are trying to be friends with us? I don't get you, Ruby said the same about you and Death, even Fury was the same." Weiss states to Loss, trying to understand the Knight that stands there. Starla sighs as she stands before Weiss, like the parallels of one another, she is the one that is broken from her sorrow, whilst Weiss still has her loved ones. But they look almost identical now that Weiss is a young woman.
Loss sighs as she stands there, looking down at the floor. "Weiss..." She sighs.
"You all vanished after the destruction of those islands, the only one we saw again afterwards was Tyrian and he is dead now as well as Watts. You killed countless of innocent people, and many Huntsmen and Huntresses at Mistral and now you want to talk to me? What is it with the four of you?" Weiss questions as she narrows her eyes, looking at the Knight.
"You do not understand, Weiss – we do not do the things we do out of choice." Loss explains as she stands there.
"Why are you coming to me? Of the others you seem to remember who you were." Weiss asks her, and Loss looks at her hand, seeing her pale blue skin where it became hypothermic after she tries to commit suicide in that lake thousands of years ago, thus giving her this form.
"I'm not like Death, or Fear or Fury." Loss begins as she looks at Weiss, as her voice is not even demonic sounding in the slightest, her voice is sad and yet caring. "My curse is closer to who I was than they were, I suffered with this for a long time, like I am used to it. But there are times where my curse makes me do things I cannot stop myself from doing, and it is the same with the others, but it affects their minds as well." Loss explains, revealing more about the four of them than Weiss ever expected her to.
Loss sighs, her tears that never stop streaming hit the wooden floor as she stands there. "I have cried to stop myself, but it never does, with the girl I killed at Mistral, I wanted her to run but the curse forced me to draw that bow. Unknowingly, they are all in the same position, we did not choose this fate, Weiss. It is bound to us..." She says, holding her Bow in her hand and staring at it, with what looks like Hatred.
"You do not have to do this, you can join us, Starla." Weiss suggests as she looks at her and Loss looks directly at the beautiful young girl.
"My curse...our curse...it has given us a duty. I am a Schnee, and I must uphold my duty, even if I despise it." Loss explains, feeling pain in her own heart as she says it, but Weiss shakes her head.
"You and I both know that is crap." Weiss says to Starla, and she looks at the younger Schnee. She is inspired by her, for she has actually come here to speak her mind. "We can free you, Loss... and I want to, I really do...but we need hints." She explains.
"I can't give you that, my curse refrains me from doing so. All I can say is that you must find those Visionary Books if you have any hope in freeing us from this hell." Starla explains and she looks at the young girl through that veil of hers.
"We will...but I know that you won't be able to stop from fighting us, will you?" Weiss asks her.
"No...that is our curse." She explains.
"Why were you cursed?" Weiss asks her with concern for the Knight of Loss. Starla looks directly at Weiss. She then reaches to her neck where she has what appears to be a necklace, she pulls it from her chest and looks at it as water drips from it. Water constantly trickles down her pale blue skin and even under her clothes where she stands. She presses the nail of her thumb against the circular pendant and flicks it open, inside is a photograph of her dear husband and children. She closes her eyes with sorrow, then shuts it.
Starla looks directly at Weiss. "Never betray him, Weiss...never lie...do not think that you could have a second love life behind their backs..." Starla begs of her and Weiss' eyes widen when she realises.
Starla did have a love affair with another man for many years, Weiss does not realise yet, though, that the other man was Krekras Blackridge...Death...
"Lies only bring pain." She tells Weiss, turning to walk away from Weiss as she fits the necklace back down into her corset. She stops, though, and turns back to Weiss.
"Something terrible is coming Weiss, something that will kill many lives here...get out of here while you still can." Loss warns. Weiss closes her eyes and when she opens them, she watches as the Mourning Dove flies away from the balcony where she so mystically appeared, leaving the youngest female Schnee alone.
Loss is different to the other Knights...
She still remembers who she was.
Weiss waits a couple seconds as she watches the dove fly away. Finally, she walks back into the room towards Neptune and she immediately wraps her arms around him and kisses him on the lips. Something about her message has made Weiss want to savour what she has with Neptune as best as she can. She breaks the kiss from him and he looks very surprised. He looks at her with a smile. "What was that for?" Neptune asks her curiously and she smiles adorably at him.
"Just for being you." She kindly says to him. She stands there and Yang narrows her eyes.
"Are you alright?" Yang asks, confused of why she is being so nice.
"Yeah, totally fine." Weiss promises, but she doesn't realise that her eyes are still watering from the presence of Loss earlier.
"Your tearing up." Nebula points out.
"Huh? Oh yeah, that always happens. The wind, for some strange reason it makes my eyes tear up like I have just been sobbing for an hour." She scoffs, wiping them away. Weiss smiles and she turns, noticing that one of Team N.D.G.O is not here.
Gwen is not there.
"Where'd Gwen go?" Weiss asks curiously.
"Gwen? Oh she went to help sort out the Hotel thing for you guys." Nebula assures and Weiss nods.
"Well, my sister is waiting for me. Coming, Neptune?" She asks him and he nods, walking with her.
"Hey, why don't I go with you?" Nebula asks them with a raised eyebrow and they both look at her.
"I think we can handle a walk." She chuckles awkwardly.
"Yeah, but I know the shortcuts through this place like the back of my hand. You don't wanna go through the market, it's a nightmare to navigate that place at night." Nebula assures.
"You know a quicker way?" Neptune asks.
"Oh, of course. Come on, I'll show you." She says. The three of them leave the building and they walk outside and towards the market. They can see what she means, the market truly is like a maze in there. Just so many different ways that someone can go in there. And in the darkness of night? That would make this very difficult indeed to navigate through.
"So...Nebula, where's this shortcut?" Neptune asks.
"This way." She says, turning left instead of right, towards a bridge that moves across the lower levels and it heads towards the flats.
Some time passes as Nebula shows them a faster way, and sure enough, they arrive at the entrance of the Schnee Dust Company Trade Building. The three of them approach it, Weiss looks very excited. "So, what's your sister got planned? Slumber party?" Nebula asks with a jokey laugh.
"I'd be surprised if that came from my sister." Weiss laughs as they walk closer.
Suddenly there is a massive explosion from three of the main floors of the building, the shockwave is so powerful that it knocks the three of them off their feet, along with the others. The windows shatter into thousands of shards that fall towards them. Winter's ship explodes as well into a huge cloud of flames and smoke, chunks of metallic debris thrown into the sky and crashing into the street. The explosion echoes for miles and smoke pollutes the streets, rubble falling onto the ground.
Weiss' eyes widen and she stands up with fear in her eyes.
"Winter's in there!" She screams.