Chapter 3 – Kassius Locke

Yang

The lioness-like growl of Bumblebee approaches the gas station that the Merchant mentioned to her, Yang sat atop it with her body laid on the leather coated seats. She decelerates at the gas pump, and the place also appears to be a diner. Yang slowly takes her yellow framed sunglasses from her eyes, looking at the place and she can feel her stomach rumbling. She has some lien cards on her, should be enough to buy a burger or something before she continues on her journey. She hops off and she approaches one of the people who is responsible for filling up motors around here.

She gives him one of her lien cards and he nods, approaching her bike first to start cleaning and filling it up. There are multiple bikes parked here, which are also getting filled up at well. She passes by them; a few of them appear to belong to some sort of gang of bikers that reside out here in Anima. They have a skull engraved on their bikes, but one of the bikes is different. Unlike Yang's, this one is more like a Harley Davidson with some weathering damage scraped against the metal skin that surrounds it. Yang walks right past it, and then she opens the glass coated doors, the bell rings as she opens it.

She walks inside slowly, and some of the people eating in there look up at her. Some with awe at her beauty, others with suspicion. And others do not even lift their heads, she walks towards the bar where they serve their customers, and she sets her hands on the wooden surface of it. She flicks her long blonde hair back over her shoulder as she looks at the owner of the Diner.

She looks at him, he has parted hair around the centre of his head, and he must be in his early fifties at this point. "Hey there, my dear. What can I get you?" He asks her.

She looks at the menu, and swiftly makes her choice. "Just a burger, and a glass of water please." She requests, offering him the lien cards that are for her choices.

"Of course, please take a seat. It will be with you shortly." The man tells her with a smile, turning and walking towards the kitchen where his chefs are. Yang turns and she walks over to where her chosen seat is, a large leather chair were the marble table is. She sits down, sighing with relief as she feels the comfy chair squish beneath her. She feels so comfortable there, waiting for the food to fill her belly and satiate her hunger. Yang taps her hands on the table as she sits there, waiting for her food to be ready so then she can head and continue on her way.

But it looks like she has company.

There is one of those Bikers in there; it appears that there are around ten of them inside of this diner right now. One of them, must be around thirty two years old, stares directly at Yang with a smirk. He has a long dark black mullet and a tattoo of a scorpion on his neck as he stares at her creepily. A scrawny guy with a gun holstered on his hip and a machete sheathed on his other leg. Yang looks around, and she sees two of the Bikers are abusing a woman and her boyfriend. They are only a few years older than she is, and the girl is pregnant as well.

She can't hear what they are saying; only the whimpers of the girl and the cruel laughter of the men that abuse them. One of them grabs her by her long blonde hair, staring at her features and even grabbing her. "Leave her alone!" The Boyfriend yells with rage, swinging his fist towards the one that abuses his girlfriend. But one of the scumbags catches his wrist with his hand, and then he shakes his head.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Bad move, buddy." He sighs, and then he strikes him square in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him on the ground. Blood oozes from his nose and the split skin on the bridge of his nose where the skin has swollen up from the attack.

"Chad!" The girl screams with terror.

"I'm gonna enjoy this." The bandit says as he cracks his knuckles with a smirk on his face, thrusting his boot into the stomach of the man named Chad. He screams with pain as he beats him bloody, and Yang turns to look at the owner of the place with confusion.

"Why aren't you stopping this?" She mouths as she gestures towards the grunts, but he sighs and points to his neck. He has a brand there, perhaps that is punishment for the last time that he tried to stop them. Yang sits there and she sighs, closing her eyes with annoyance. Just...don't get involved...it's not your business.

"Maybe we'll take her back to the camp for some fun!" One of the bandits laughs, which makes Yang clench her fist underneath the table with disgust of these people.

But then that Mullet Bandit sits down parallel to her at the table, staring at her smell. She can smell his stench from there, reeking of alcohol and excrement, and gods knows how many drugs are in his systems. "Hey there, sweet-cheeks. What's your name?" He asks her with a chuckle, Yang rolls her eyes, not looking at him as she tries to wait for her food to get to her.

"Yang." She answers, hoping to not provoke him. But of course, he just continues to dig himself a deeper grave by taking more and more.

"Yang? As in that Xiao Long gal who broke that kid's leg?" He questions with a chuckle. Yang exhales through her closed mouth and her open nostrils, staring off at the window as she hopes for the scumbag to leave her alone. She does not want a fight; she just wants to have some lunch before she goes on the search for her baby sister again. The bandit chuckles, admiring the beauty in her face. She can tell though that now his eyes are moving down her neck and towards her breasts since he is clearly one of those guys. "Damn...you've got one hell of a bod, ain't ya?"

Yang scoffs and she rolls her eyes. "Thanks." She sighs, just trying to get the guy away from her, but he is still not appearing to get the hint.

"I bet the guys were clambering over each other to get into you." He chuckles disgustingly as he checks out her curves, but Yang does not even answer.

Yang continues to tap her fingers against the table as she sits there, but then the guy says something that gets her attention. "You know – there is a hell of a bounty on your head for what you did. And that Schnee girl for some reason..." He explains, and Yang stops tapping her fingers against the table, slowly turning to stare him in his green eyes. She scowls at him, of course that is the other thing that he has on his mind. But then Yang catches on, her eyes slightly widen when she realises.

Weiss?

Weiss is here too?

What about...Blake?

Before she can even think on that any further, she feels disgusted from the proposition he gives her. He leans forward with a creepy smirk on his face, showing the metal tooth he has in his mouth as he looks at her. "But...I might be able to let it go...if you and I go outside, and you let me in on what you have hiding under those clothes." He whispers and Yang narrows her eyes, but before she can speak.

Somebody else does.

The man sat behind her.

She cannot see much of him, only that his skin is quite tanned opposed to her fairly light skin she has, and he has a few scars on the back of his neck. He wears a dark brown leather stetson on his head, and appears to wear a dusty trench coat as well. He has his head lowered down, the crown of his hat shades out his eyes. "Leave. Her. Alone." The man slowly warns, he has an American Accent like Yang which has quite a gruff and scratchy exterior to it. But not that of a foe, but more of a man to be reckoned with.

The Biker scoffs, looking over his shoulder at the man sat behind him at the other table, who clearly has noticed the girl and boyfriend being tormented across the Diner from them. "Oh yeah? Stick around, and after I'm done you can have a crack at the pretty blonde. That is if I don't take her myself." He chuckles.

"I'm giving you one last warning, and that is more than I give most Human Traffickers." The man warns, and the guy rolls his eyes, suddenly grabbing Yang's wrist.

"Come on, Blondie. Let's go have some fun." He says, and before Yang can even retort, some chilling words come from the man's mouth.

"You've just made three dire mistakes." He says, and the Biker stops in his tracks, his eyes swivel round and he leans against the chair. His hand gets closer and closer to his revolver on his hip, the bartender slowly begins to take cover, because he knows that it is about to become a skirmish.

"Really?" He asks him, and Yang is waiting for her opportune moment. She could take them on no problem, but she does not want to get innocent people hurt.

And she really wants to see what this guy can do.

The guy finished off his beverage, a glass which was filled with Whiskey, he slams it down with his hand and he exhales. "Yeah..." The man answers, cracking his neck as he twists it slightly. "The first one – you shouldn't have hurt that pregnant girl and her boyfriend. The second – you shouldn't have threatened Yang." He lists with that gruff voice, which makes Yang's eyes widen when she realises that he knows who she is.

In a weird way...

She recognises his voice a little bit.

The Biker scoffs again with that smirk. "Uh-Huh? What's the third?" He asks.

"You sat behind me."

The mysterious man suddenly reaches back with both hands and grabs him by his mullet, his eyes widen with shock as the man slams the back of his neck down against the spine of the chair so hard he snaps his neck instantly. There is a bone crunching bang that erupts from him, killing him instantly and Yang's eyes widen even more, and she springs up from her chair as he does that.

A glass falls from the table of one of the Bikers, and it smashes on the ground, and one of them rushes towards the man who just took out one of his friends. "You son of a bitch!" The man yells, swinging a baseball bat towards the back of his head. The man does not even turn, he just raises his hand, and the baseball bat explodes against his arm, shards of wood are thrown across the tiled floor from the sudden impact. He does not even flinch from it, and only then does Yang see his hand.

His arm appears to be cybernetic just like hers, except his is not as smooth and gentle looking as hers; his is sharper with thicker plates unlike hers. He instantly spins round and roundhouse kicks the Biker in the head, throwing him off his feet and crashing through a table. All the Bikers spring into action, and they sprint towards the mysterious man, and he just walks towards them, he then grabs his coat and he pulls it from his body, revealing a suit of armour underneath. It is not a huge set of armour like the Atlesians have, more like a bunch of metal plates around his chest rig that he wears, with magazines for his weapons as well.

The Trench Coat falls on the ground and he swipes his leg across three of the Biker's legs, knocking them all over. One of them fires his pistol at him, and that is when he draws his weapon, flicking it upward with his wrist. He holds the hilt which surrounds his hand, until the plates all shift and fold upwards into the steel silver blade that glistens. He slices the bullet clean in two, immediately drawing the second copy of that sword as he throws it directly into the sternum of the Biker, pinning him against the wall. The man gurgles on his blood as it leaks from his injury, keeping him hanging there.

The other Bikers back up, and the man turns to her, looking right at her Lilac eyes. "You gonna make me do all the work?" He questions, looking at her with sapphire blue eyes. Yang's eyes meet his, with what appears to be a slight recognition, but she has no time to check. She pumps her arms downwards and the plates of metal that are Ember Celica on her one arm she still carries it extends, each plate at a time shifting downwards. The barrel emerges from the yellow and black plates, loading fresh dust shells into the changer; she raises her fists and charges towards the soldier.

Yang yells with anger, swinging her fist straight at one of their faces, knocking him down to the ground. She instantly turns to the two that were being picked on, and she pulls them to safety, hiding them both under a table. She raises her cybernetic arm just in time to catch the machete that was being swung towards her, not like it would have done anything to her thanks to her aura. She looks right at the Bandit who now realises that he made a grave mistake, just as Yang slams her other fist into his chest, knocking him back. Yang delivers a deadly kick into the side of his leg to bring him down to his knee. But she instantly twirls round and uppercuts him, launching him through the double doors.

The bandit slides across the floor, groaning in pain, and the others look at her and the mysterious man, and they follow him, getting outside as they leave their two dead comrades that he took down. The man walks past the man that he pinned to the wall with his sword, ripping the blade from his chest, flicking the blood off it in one motion. The two of them walk outside, one glimmering with blonde hair, and the other like a shadow of her mercifulness in combat. That is clearly the difference between them at the moment; he just appears to be a Huntsman that does not care about the idea of keeping your enemies alive to think about their actions.

He just kills them and moves on apparently.

The Bandits all turn, helping their friend up and they do look terrified as they both walk towards them. "All you had to do – was leave them alone." The man states with a sigh, as a pair of mechanical weapons extend down from his forearms. Each one has three barrels, and they look a little bit similar to Ember Celica, except these are not black and yellow, they are just black with red and amber lighting. They also have magazines attached to them, which can be ejected when they are out of Dust Rounds in their clips.

One of the Bandits snarls with frustration, drawing his pistol and firing it at Yang, but she raises her cybernetic arm and the bullet just bounces off the tough metal. "You're gonna take your lumps!" He yells, and he rushes towards Yang first, and the other man just goes for the others, since he knows that she can handle them.

Yang remains with a neutral – somewhat annoyed – expression on her face...all she wanted was to eat her burger and have her glass of water. And now she is engaged in a battle against some idiot thugs who did not know any better. The thug that charges her goes to kick her with a knife sticking out from his boot, but Yang slams her own boot into his knee, which sends him twirling round. Yang slams her fist across his face and then in the chest. She then spins round and throws one powerful punch into his ribs, smashing him down into the ground. Just as she does that, another Bandit rushes her with a machete, but she rolls backwards, hooking her leg around his forearm and twisting it round to force him into releasing the weapon.

She pulls her bodyweight downwards which pulls him towards the ground, and as she rolls back onto her feet, she swings round and kicks him right in the teeth, knocking them out in the process. Beside her, the new friend she has met battles against three of them at once with his two swords in hand, he spins them through his fingers as the Bikers lunge at him, and another draws his Submachine Gun, trying to shoot him with him. The Huntsman slashes one of the Bikers across the chest with it and he then stabs that blade down into the foot of the other. He sheathes his other sword and starts to use his hand-to-hand techniques he has learned.

He punches the one he pinned into the floor by the foot, who is still screaming with pain, right in the gut and he jumps over him, slamming his cybernetic fist down the back of his head. The punch is so hard that his head crashes into the dirt so hard that the dust is blown away from his face. He immediately swipes one over with his leg to send him into the air, then grabs the sword that he stabbed into that Biker's foot, plunging it down into his chest so hard it pins him down into the soil. The Bandit screamed for a second before dying from the severity of his injuries, blood leaking out from his back and into the dirt and from his mouth.

He turns and knees the third one in the chest, making him jolt back from the impact, he then grasps the Biker by his collar, and he lifts him off the ground, roaring as he swings him round and crashes his body into the ground. Winded, the Biker attempts to get back up, until the Huntsman starts slamming his fists into his head over and over again until he stops struggling, blood splattering against his knuckles as he does it. His body is actually slammed into the soil from how hard he punched him over and over again like that.

The Huntsman closes one eye as he rises up and aims down the iron sights he created for his weapon on his wrist. He squeezes the trigger in his hand and the barrel erupts an explosive flame, launching a bullet towards a soldier that leaps at Yang from behind with a hammer to knock her down, the bullet punctures through his shoulder and he screams in agony, as the crimson blood bursts out from there. Yang punches one of them three times in the chest swiftly, winding him with shock and awe from her attacks, and then she fires Ember Celica into the ground as she jumps, spinning round and kicking him in the chest. Yang then turns her attention to the bleeding man on the ground who still tries to challenge her with his gun.

Yang kicks the gun from his hands and then punches him right in the head. The attack knocks him out, and she turns to her friend who takes on the last two bandits, and she spots one of them going for him with a sword. She blasts both Ember Celica Gauntlets behind her, using the recoil as a catapult that throws her towards the Biker. The Biker turns, wide eyed when he sees her flying towards him like that. He swings the sword at her, but she fires them into the ground again, gracefully flying over him, pirouetting through the air as she glides. The Huntsman also watches as he lifts one of the Bandits off the floor with his metal hand, in similar awe at her grace.

Yang lands behind him, and then punches him right in the chest, and the Huntsman slams the last one into the ground with all his might.

Finally...

Silence...

Yang exhales, flicking her hand through the hair that droops over her eyes for a second, and then she turns to the Huntsman that helped her in that fight. He walks over to the one that she took out and he kicks him in the head, knocking him out as well. Perhaps he is not that cold hearted, maybe when it comes to combat it is all or nothing for him. "Thanks for the help." Yang softly says with a smile as she wipes the dust from her shoulder, then she swivels her arms around to pop them back into position after that bout.

"Anytime, Yang." He assures with a smile, he picks up his sword from the stomach of the Biker he killed, scraping the blood off on his coat. Then he flicks his wrists downwards and the blades fold away into his hilt. He attaches them to a pair of magnetic pieces of metal, one on each thigh, and the weapons that look quite similar to Ember Celica disengage as he approaches her, the plates of metal retract back.

Yang has been bouncing around the question...

She needs to know.

"Who are you?" She asks him, and he chuckles. "Can I help you?"

"It has been a while – so I won't get too offended." He says as he takes his hat off, brushing some of the dirt from it that accumulated from that battle they endured. He brushes it off the hawk's feather that is pinned to it. He looks her in the eyes as he speaks. "But to answer your question – I'm looking for a friend of mine. About your height, pretty blonde hair, lilac eyes...not to be messed with? Heard of anyone like that, Firecracker?" He asks her, as he describes her perfectly.

Yang's eyes widen when she sees his face...

Because she knows that face, and has not seen it in a very long time.

Her partner is slightly taller than Yang is, as he stands at six feet in height and is built up with toned muscle across his entire body. Just like her. He has a waxed windswept hairstyle of the dark brown variety and a shadowy set of brown facial hair around his face. He has faint aged scars from previous events of his life, two long ones that stretch down from his chin to down his neck and to his left peck.

He also has a scar through one of his brows above his heavy lidded sapphire blue eyes. His eyebrows are thick, despite one of them cut off through the middle due to a scar from his past. His skin is rather tanned, most likely from the sun or just from his life; he has always had slightly darker skin than Yang ever has, but not by much.

His skin though, like Yang's, despite having many scars on them, is relatively smooth like hers. His face is rather wolfish in shape with an aquiline nose. He has full lips unlike Yang's Cupid's Bow ones. He also has a few days growth of beard, forming just a shadowy effect around his face.

He wears a tan coloured trench coat that shields his legs as well with deep pockets and he also wears a weathered leather stetson with a Hawk's father attached to it. Underneath the coat, we wears a chest rig that carries plates of armour around his torso, and underneath that is a brown vest.

As she looks into his eyes...she gasps as she says his name.

"Kassius?" She whispers softly with awe, after not seeing him in many years. The last time they saw each other...well he did not look anything as good as he does now. She has always known him with those scars...but not with that robotic arm. He smiles as he bows to her, holding his hat in his hand.

"In the flesh." He adds with a smile on his face, and Yang laughs nervously when she sees him.

"Oh my god, Kas!" She squeaks with happiness, wrapping her arms around him and he laughs.

"Whoa! Take it easy." He chuckles as he holds her close, arms wrapped around her and in her soft blonde hair. They must really have a good friendship if Yang Xiao Long lets him touch her hair like that. She would rarely even let Ruby touch her hair, so they must have a good bond.

"Wow...you look good. I haven't seen you in so long..." She stammers as she looks at him, then she starts to go into her ramble mode. "How have you been? What has Haven been like?" She begins, but Kassius stops her as he gently places his finger on her lips.

"Okay, hold on...let's check up on the folks in there first, then we can catch up. Deal?" He asks her and she laughs, nodding her head as they leave the bodies where they were. They both open the doors together, walking inside as they look around. "Okay everyone, it's safe now." Kassius promises, holding his hands in the air as he stands there.

The couple cautiously stand back up, the boyfriend limping and still in pain from the beating he took. "Thank you." The girlfriend pleads with happiness, and the bartender looks at them.

"I owe you two a debt." He chuckles.

"Don't mention it." Kassius assures, and they both walk over to the table that Kassius was sitting at, due to the dead Bandit still slumped in that seat at the moment, blood leaking from his ears and nose from how viscous Kassius' attack really was. Ripped some of his hair from his scalp in the process.

They both sit down in the seats, and Kassius sighs. "Be it ever so humble." He chuckles, looking at Yang, and she looks at him.

"It's been a long time, Kas." Yang says to him with a smile, her arm stretched across the seat, her cybernetic one at her side. Kassius has not noticed her arm yet, and it is very possible he might worry when he does notice she lost her arm.

"Indeed it has...three years since I was shipped off here." Kassius sighs, remembering it all very well.

Kassius and Yang have known each other for quite a while, he was taken in by Taiyang after an accident happened and he befriended his daughters, especially Yang. He was a best friend to them both...and for a short time he and Yang did become something a little more. Only when she was older though, and Kassius was shipped off to Haven Academy since he did not get the aptitude scores to get into Beacon Academy with her. They tried to stay in contact, but they have both had their share of adventures and their teams. "Is it nice here?" Yang asks him, and he looks at her and chuckles.

"Nice enough in certain places...beautiful views...issue is Bandits are everywhere and the region is so much bigger than Vale...it's hard to control. Lionheart sure does know how to keep us Hunters busy." He chuckles.

Yang can't hold it back any longer.

The bursting questions.

She's gonna explode!

"How have you been? What's Haven like? Is it better than Beacon?" She rambles on again, and Kassius chuckles at her enthusiasm, but he still appears to not talk about how he has been, but then again, he seems to be more interested in how she has been over the past few years they have been split apart.

"Alright, alright – hold up." He turns as the Bartender brings them their drinks, he has an orange juice and she has a glass of water. He picks his glass up and he crosses one leg over the other. "I wanna hear about you." He says with a smile on his face.

"Me?" Yang questions. "What's to tell?"

"Well...I read the news every now and then before the C.C.T went down...I heard some pretty crazy-ass stories." He says with a smile and a chuckle as well, and Yang sighs when she realises.

"Gods, what crazy stories?" She asks, her head sinking down. He takes a sip from his glass and then sets it down on the table.

"Train Crash? Battling a giant Paladin in the middle of a freeway?" He lists a few examples, ones that Yang remembers very well. The battle on the train and against the Paladin, both responsible by Torchwick as well.

How simpler those times really were.

"Yeah...that...that really did happen." She softly laughs as she looks away from her drink.

"Come on, Yang! What did I miss?" He excitedly asks her, moving forward slightly in his seat, intrigued to hear some of her stories.

"Man, Kas...where do I start?" She asks him.

He smiles supportively to her as he always has done. "Start at the best part."

There were so many memorable moments from her time at Beacon Academy. The battle in the Emerald Forest when they all formed their teams for the first time, the battle on the highway against Torchwick, the great party that they had, Mountain Glenn...even the Fall of Beacon, but that was not memorable in a good way. She thinks that as her eyes move down to her cybernetic hand on her lap, so she chooses to avoid that story for now.

She chooses the first one.

"Um...Oh yeah, do you remember when you and I wanted to check out Mountain Glenn? Because we had that theory there was a secret there?" Yang asks him.

"Yeah, sure." Kassius agrees, nodding his head.

"Okay, we were right. We went there to find where Torchwick was hiding." Yang tells him, and his blue eyes widen with amazement.

"Hiding in the city of Mountain Glenn?" He questions.

"Mhm." Yang nods.

Kassius chuckles with amazement at this. "Oh it gets better, we investigated the area – and they weren't there. Until Ruby found a crater into a Lost Underground City." Yang tells him with the same amazement on her face he has.

"Are you kidding me?"

Weiss

"So your dad's hunting you because you ran from him?" Scarlet asks her, his arms crossed as he stands against one of the pillars in the house that Team S.S.S.N bought as a potential safe-house from the mercenary presence here in Mistral. Clearly they must be hunting her for the bounty on her head, just as Yang is being followed by criminals in need of that cash as well. Sage is stood over by a table with his massive sword rested on his shoulder; the two of them have been filled in on her current situation with her father hunting her down constantly.

"Yeah, he took my heiress rights away from me – gave them to my brother – and tried to keep me locked away in my room. I couldn't stand a day longer in there because he didn't get his own way." Weiss explains, clenching her gentle firm hands into fists, gritting her teeth with anger when she thinks about him and his icy cold face he has. That privileged smirk he always carries with him, despite the only reason he has all this money is that he married his way into the family name and took control over the company. Willow Schnee – Weiss' mother – is unfit to do anything since she seems to just be drinking her life away in the Schnee Manor Gardens.

"Don't blame you." Sage scoffs, scratching the side of his chin as he points that out.

"Pretty risky, though. You know that Atlas shut down its borders, don't you?" Scarlet asks her, raising one of his red eyebrows.

"I was outside my dad's office when I heard Ironwood tell him that. I doubt my father is gonna let that slide, it will affect the profits of his business, the only thing he actually cares about." Weiss explains sternly with a scowl on her face.

"We were chased by Mercenary-Types poking around the markets when she got here, I didn't recognise their faction." Neptune explains, he has lived here in Mistral long enough to recognise the Mercenaries and Thugs that reside within the walls of Mistral.

"I do." Sage reveals, catching their attention.

"Who are they?" Neptune inquires curiously.

"They call themselves the Acolytes of Lien – I don't know much about them, only that they originated from Vacuo during the Great War. They were a Splinter Group that abandoned the Vacuo Army and became their own order. A military for hire, but I thought they lost all their funding. They seem to have more kit now." Sage describes correctly, and they have only seen the soldiers that are disguising themselves in the crowd. If they are a military for hire, then that means that these are not your ordinary mercenaries, these ones have funding and lots of equipment that they could use against them.

"That would take a big pile of cash to bring them back like this." Scarlet David explains, shrugging his shoulders before he draws his pistol and cleans the barrel of the musket.

Weiss thinks on his comment, and she has her suspicions. "My father has many contacts, and he has always made it very clear to me that money is power. He is one of the richest men in all of Remnant thanks to what he gained from my grandfather's company." Weiss informs, which now stacks the odds extensively against their favour.

"Meaning they could have more than enough money to spend on military grade tech." Neptune sighs, pushing his fingers through his blue hair.

"How did they even know you would come here?" Neptune asks Weiss, a factor that she did not even consider at the time. She ponders on the thought.

That's a good point...

How could they have known that I was coming here today?

Unless...

I was sold out?

Drat! This day is getting worse by the second.

"Someone must have sold me out, could have heard me talking to the pilot or it could have even been him." Weiss stammers.

"I doubt it was the pilot, Smugglers don't tend to inform those who would arrest them for smuggling a prime target." Sage states.

"Then someone back home..." Weiss sighs, thinking through the names. But none come to mind – it would never have been Klein, but it could have been her brother. He has always hated her since they were little, for reasons unknown to her.

"If they're coming for you, we're gonna have to make sure you don't stand out in the crowd. Change your hairstyle; change your name, your clothes." Scarlet states, looking at Neptune and he smirks. Her eyes dart back and forth between them with increasing nervousness.

"What are you planning?"

Moments later...

Neptune opens up his closet which reveals his wide variety of clothes to her so then she can choose what she can wear. Unfortunately there are no women's clothes, but then again she is actually quite grateful for that since that means he is not keeping any important secrets from her. Like if he is secretly a Transvestite by night and a Flirtatious Dork by day.

"Take your pick." Neptune says, stepping out of the way for her to approach and choose which of his clothes she would feel comfortable wearing.

Weiss puts on a black and blue hoodie that Neptune has just lent her. Weiss barely fits into it, looking uncomfortable in the warm clothes that hang loosely around her slender curvy frame. The long sleeves devour her little arms and she has let her white hair down, covering it over one of her eyes, taking a page from Cinder's book. In fact, she looks quite pretty with her hair down like that, if she curled it a bit she would look extremely beautiful. At least it makes her harder to recognise that way.

Unless if someone knows her well enough.

She wears some of his trousers as well, some that also are quite baggy compared to what she is used to. Then again, she is more used to wearing a skirt than wearing any form of trousers like others. "Um...Neptune?" Weiss softly says to him, clearly not fitting in those clothes.

This is not exactly perfect form for her.

Neptune turns to her, putting his golden goggles on and sliding them onto his forehead.

"Yeah?" He replies, picking up his Trident. Scarlet and Sage are inside, taking their weapons so then they can help her.

"You don't have anything else?" She asks, looking at herself in the mirror – self conscious of her looks as always.

"Sorry, I left all my dresses in the wash." Neptune sarcastically retorts, but Weiss looks at him with a puzzled expression. "I'm joking." Neptune says, holding his hands up in defence at her. Weiss smiles a little at Neptune and she stretches her arm into the sleeve. Her white hair moves over her eye and Weiss groans.

Neptune laughs a little at her discomfort.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Weiss moans in annoyance.

"Oh yeah." Neptune confirms cheekily, crossing his arms as he admires her in his clothes and her body as well. Weiss sighs, picking up Myrtenaster and she wraps her belt of Dust Crystals around her waist, clipping them onto the belt that Neptune had leant her. She looks over at Neptune, and then Scarlet and Sage walk in.

Scarlet wears his outfit that he wore in the Vytal Festival, same white shirt and red coat on his shoulder. His cutlass is sheathed on his belt and he holsters his Flintlock Pistol on the other side of his belt. His red hair covering his right eye and his red tattoo under his other eye. Then Sage enters, his sword sheathed on his back. He wears his white shirt, showing his tattooed chest.

He scratches his green hair when he looks over at Weiss.

"Hey love-birds." Sage jokingly and even quite snarkily greets, a strong voice. Neptune sighs; because of that little moment that he and Weiss had that they rudely interrupted earlier.

"You didn't see anything." Neptune lies.

"I...think we did." Scarlet says with a cocky voice.

Weiss groans.

"I am gonna smack you into next week if you don't shut up." Weiss threatens.

"Oh yeah?" Scarlet challenges, holding his hands out. Weiss' eyes narrow and she gets up from her chair and takes a step forward. Just a step, and that is enough for Scarlet to flee like a coward. Scarlet creates a bird-like screech as he flees from her. She barely has to run after him before he retreats and she returns to Neptune.

Weiss looks at Sage.

"You want to try?" She asks him.

"Oh no, I'm not an idiot." Sage says, smartly as well. Weiss turns when Scarlet comes back in and then she returns to Neptune.

Weiss looks at Neptune.

"So you think that he can help me?" Weiss asks him.

"Yeah, Lionheart knows people who can forge new identities. We get you a new identity and you start changing your fashion style, they might think that you aren't here." Neptune explains.

Weiss sighs; she used to be happy that she was a Schnee, proud of the name she wore like a badge. Now she is running and hiding from it because if she does not, it could get her or worse her friends all killed.

"What's my name gonna be?" Weiss asks.

"Willow Honeydew." Neptune answers. Weiss' expression is complete and utter disgust at this name, but she has to do it if she wants to do this. Although it is sweet that she gets to use her mother's name, she has always liked that name. Very soft and gentle, unlike her father's. She sighs and nods in agreement. "You ready?" Neptune asks her.

She nods.

"Let's go." Weiss says to him.

Yang

About an hour has passed as Yang and Kassius caught up on their lost time together. "So another crime boss defeated, and we made it out alive. Barely." Yang concludes, and Kassius shakes his head with a chuckling smirk.

"Unbelievable." He softly says as he sits there.

"Yeah...I wish you could have been there." Yang says with a gentle smile, piquing his interest when he sees her gleaming bright smile.

"No – it's literally unbelievable. I mean you tell me all these crazy tales and somehow you managed to walk away with no credit at all?" He asks her and they both laugh at that statement.

"Yeah well, story of my life I guess." She says, crossing her arms. "So what about you? Any cool stories?"

"Well let's see...there was one mission we had in the farmlands of Mistral, some farmers asked us to help them solve a crisis." He describes, using his fingers to mark the quotation marks. Yang giggles pre-emptively at the way he says that.

"Oh no, what happened?" She asks him with a curious smile on her face.

"Well, we were informed that there was a Beowulf that snuck in there and smashed up the Chicken Coups in there, killed a bunch of them. So we showed up to help them out." Kassius continues to explain.

"Did you find the Beowulf?" Yang inquires.

"Nope, because there was no Beowulf at all, turned out the Farmers lied out of embarrassment of what really happened." Kassius continues, building up the suspense of what happened there.

"Oh dear lord." She giggles with excitement.

"We get there – three hour drive on our motorcycles – three hours, Yang!"

Her laughter just gets stronger and stronger.

"Wanna know what the deal was?"

"What?"

"A Loose Chicken!"

Yang explodes with laughter, bouncing up and down as she laughs, actually starting to stream with tears from how hard she laughs at how he built all that up for that. It is hard to tell what it is that she found funnier, the way he built it up, the situation, or how angry he sounded at how long it took for them to get there. She covers her mouth and even snorts as she laughs, and it makes Kassius chuckle as well, gazing at her beauty. He has always adored her laugh, and he has always been able to make her cry with laughter with his stories.

Although...despite everything between them...something clearly is holding him back from asking her if she is happy to continue where things left off.

Something big.

Yang wipes a tear from her eye as she calms down a little. "A chick-chicken?" She asks him, still wobbly with laughter. She could burst into laughter again if he adds more.

"Yep, a chicken went completely nuts in the coup and smashed it to pieces! Not a single chicken was hurt; they lied to get us out there." He sighs.

"Did you catch the chicken?" Yang asks.

"Eventually."

"Eventually?"

"Of everything I have fought out here in Mistral, from Wyverns to Manticore in the mountains...nothing was more difficult than trying to catch a stupid chicken. I smelled of chicken crap for a month." Kassius concludes, shaking his head with disgust.

Yang giggles more, sitting there as she twiddles her fingers. Then her eyes gaze to his weapons that he has, the two retractable swords and the Gauntlets that look similar to hers but just lack the colour and are more for any range unlike her shotguns. "Your weapons...I remember Lash Equinox, but not those." She says, poking his gauntlets.

Lash Equinox are the names of his two swords.

"Oh yeah, I made these when I was with my...my team." He says, stammering slightly when he mentions his team, but he continues before Yang could actually ask anything about the problem. "I call them Vulcan Nox."

"Cool name...they look a bit like..." Before Yang can finish her point, he confirms it.

"I based them off Ember Celica...as a reminder of you." He admits with a smile, and Yang nervously blushes with a smile. She is never like this around anybody else, but she has such a history with him, that she cannot hide them anymore.

If only the laughter could continue...

But it gets serious now.

He looks at her, and then he catches on, his eyes widen with disbelief and concern when he sees the plates of black and yellow metal where her arm should be. She looks worried at first, as if there was something creepy on her, but he leans forward and he touches her arm, almost affectionately running his hand across the arm and into her hand, slowly pulling her arm from the other. He stares at her arm with horror of what happened to her, he has always been extensively protective over her.

The cogs in the metal of her arm slowly but precisely move around inside the plates, and Yang closes her eyes sadly after seeing his reaction, looking down at her lap. "W-What happened?" He desperately asks her with wide eyes.

She looks him in the eyes, and she leans forward, touching his hand with her warm human one. "The Battle of Beacon – I...I heard my partner get hurt. She was being attacked by this guy, I don't know his name...but I think she talked about him once. I think he is the Leader of the White Fang, and he hurt her. I snapped and I leapt at him to take him out, but he swung his sword...and..." Yang stammers, her hand begins to shake as she remembers the terrible memories of the pain she experienced before passing out. The horrifying smirk on Adam's face as he sliced her arm clean from her elbow in one swift strike.

She did not even notice her hand wobbled against her glass, and it falls from the table and shatters on the floor. "Ah! Damn it!" She sighs with distress, pressing her wrist against her forehead, closing her eyes. He looks at the shards of glass, and then at her, seeing the pain on her face from her Post Traumatic Stress that she is suffering from. No surprise either...but he knows what she feels. His eyes flit down to his cybernetic arm and he moves the fingers slowly and carefully.

"Hey..." He softly whispers, turning her cheek to face him and he smiles, gently moving some of her blonde hair from her eye. "It's okay...I know what it feels like...to lose something like that." Kassius assures, and then she looks at his cybernetic arm.

"How did you lose your arm? I never...I don't ever remember you having one before." She points out. Kassius' breath becomes rather shaky, and he stares at the arm, seeing flashing images of the deaths of people in his eyes. He shuts his eyes tight, clenching that hand into a fist as he fights the bad memories, just as Yang did.

"That's...a story for another time...it's still pretty raw." He tells her, looking back into her eyes kindly. Yang could have demanded him to tell her since she told him about Adam, but she can see the pain in his eyes. And if it is still raw, then she could have lost her arm before he did.

Yang smiles and she looks at him affectionately. "It's okay...whenever you want to." She says, then she tells him why she is here. "Because I'm heading to Haven at the moment." Yang tells him and he raises his eyebrow.

"Why?" He asks her.

"My sister – Ruby – she is headed there, I need to find her. Want to make sure she is safe." Yang explains to him, and he has always loved how protective she has been of her baby sister, and he has always been a very good friend to Ruby. Always gave her the nickname of – Knucklehead.

"Hang on a second...you mean...this is Ruby?" She asks her, showing her a picture on his scroll as he reveals a photograph of them. Ruby, Jaune, Ren and Nora walking into Haven Academy with a rather compelling title.

SLAYERS OF THE KUROYURIAN NUCKELAVEE ARRIVE IN MISTRAL

She politely and gently picks up his scroll and she looks at the picture, staring at Ruby as she walks into the place with Jaune beside her, and someone else. Her eyes widen with disbelief.

It's Qrow.

"Nuckelavee Slayers?" Yang asks him with confusion, she has never heard of that name before now, unaware of the monstrosity that they faced that day.

"Yeah, for the past decade there has been a Creature of Grimm that lived in the ruins of a town called Kuroyuri. It destroyed it and killed a whole tonne of people there back then, and there has been a bounty on its head ever since. Not Huntsman or Huntress has been able to kill it – till they did." Kassius explains, and she smiles with pride on her face as she stares at the picture of her little sister.

"That's my sis alright." She softly laughs with a smile.

"I thought I recognised her...man she was a lot smaller than when I last saw her." Kassius points out.

"She's still the same; put a cookie in front of her and it won't last long." Yang points out from experience.

"Still loves puppies?" He asks.

"Oh yeah, she would smother herself with puppies if she could." Yang states, that is Ruby's idea of heaven probably as well.

"Well then." Kassius says, standing up from his table and putting some lien to the bartender.

"Oh, please you don't owe me anything; you put an end to those scumbags." He points out.

"I know, but you still do good work." Kassius says with a smile, walking out with Yang.

"Well, what?" She asks him.

"Let's go see your little sister." He says, approaching his Harley Davidson.

"Wait, no, if you were doing something I don't want to –"

"Yang...please...I would do anything for you. I haven't got anything else but you." He says with a smile, so considerate that it melts her heart. She sighs and nods, walking past his impressive motor cycle and onto Bumblebee, twisting the handlebars and putting her sunglasses on as the engine roars to life. Kassius' engine growls aggressively as he holds the high up handlebars, and he drives with Yang towards the road.

Both headed the same way.

To Mistral.

To find Ruby.

Author Note - I already feel that this is a HUGE improvement to one of the biggest issues I had with the original draft of his intro. I set the tone of his character, made him badass, showed the relationship between him and Yang and set his plotline up! Sigh of relief I hope everyone else thinks this is better, because this was one of the biggest things I wanted to improve on.

Any other improvements you can recommend from the 1st Draft, do let me know, I want to make this story as perfect as I can (without changing the storyline)

By the way, I have posted the first chapter on Quotev and Wattpad of a new story I am writing called the Judgement. If you like my style of stories, then you will enjoy this story, it is written in the form of a transcript about a survivor from an event that killed over a billion people in seven days. The survivor is being interviewed on these mysterious events, that will reveal the terrifying truth of what happened.

I would greatly appreciate it if you checked it out!

Please Review, Follow and Favourite!

- Matt