Chapter 3 – Across the Desert


Oscar


Walking through the city of Vale, Team J.N.P.R, Blake and Oscar continue down the trail to find Ruby before anything worse can possibly happen. He keeps his hands to his side, close to Traveller's Atrocity, just in case. Vir Nominis Umbra left an impression, a scar that does not seem to be willing to go away any time soon. But the young hazel eyed Time Traveller keeps those emotions at bay as best as he possibly can, focusing on finding the girl he loves.

But as he walks with Blake, he can see that something is shaking her up. Obviously it must surround their true enemy and what he is capable of, so he would not be surprised if it has something to do with that god-awful Soothsayer. "Blake? How are you...holding up?" He asks her, nervously since he can tell that nobody is holding up very well after seeing how Umbra slaughtered Oobleck right in front of them. Smashing his head in with a steel claw hammer was brutal even by his standards.

Blake's ears are folded downwards, sadly as she thinks on the events that have lead up to this moment. Being framed for the death of Sienna Khan to destabilise the White Fang, Adam's death, and now the execution of Oobleck, Taiyang and the remaining survivors of Team B.R.N.Z. Words cannot even describe how she feels, how any of them feel after that fall that they have suffered, and they fear that worse failings await every single one of them.

But only some words do come to mind. "Once...I claimed that there was no such thing as pure evil. I was in an argument with Weiss over the White Fang...before I showed them what I am." Blake explains as her ears move slightly when she remembers them. Oscar looks at her ears – and it is strange for him, since he has never known Blake with the bow despite that he has been told stories about it. The bow that the young Faunus Huntress used to wear all the time to hide who she was from the world.

Oscar keeps his eyes on his friend, and she closes her eyes with a trembled exhale...then she concludes her statement. "I truly believed it...until I met...him." Blake snarls as she pictures the face of the ruthless Soothsayer himself. That cold and cunning smirk he always has, the jokes he pulls from his sleeve with ease and the prancing about he will do as he murders someone they love. He is a cold and evil bastard, and he must be stopped.

But at the same time...

How?

It is entirely possible that they have not even seen the full extent of his power yet – all the more reason to find Ruby.

As Jaune walks at the head of the group, Pyrrha keeps her hand close to his as she walks, looking at some of the people that pass by. There is an energy in the air now, when once there was calm – now there is dread, the question in the back of everyone's minds. Mistral, Atlas and Vacuo have been taken over by the enemy in the span of thirty minutes. And Vale is the only location that has not even been touched.

The question is:

When will we suffer the same price? And what will happen to us?

Will we be eaten?

Burned?

Infected?

Ruled over?

She cannot even continue to wonder in the back of her mind, so she just shoves those questions aside and she looks at Jaune. She can see the concern in his eyes, not just for Ruby but for Kassius as well. "Jaune? Are you okay?" She asks her boyfriend with concern in her regal toned voice. Jaune sighs, closing his blue eyes.

"I'm worried, Pyrrha." Jaune says to her, turning to face her. "Ruby was already struggling long before all of this, Torchwick and Tyrian were stuck in her head...and now she is missing and six thugs have turned up butchered. She never would have done anything like this – and...Well you saw what happened with Hyde. I don't know what Umbra did to him but he managed to do it with the snap of his fingers." He explains, sighing as he thinks of his good friend.

The time and effort Kassius put into helping Jaune, Nora and Ren in locating Pyrrha and bringing her home – despite his own personal opinions of Destiny. It forged a strong friendship between him and the entire team, and Pyrrha might not have known him for as long as they have, but eve she has immense respect for the man. Because he strikes her as a very honourable individual with a heart of pure gold.

Unless if you are his enemy, then he can become scarier in an instant.

Pyrrha gently moves her hand to his as they walk and she links her fingers with his, holding his hand as she walks, resting her head on his shoulder lovingly. "We'll find them – besides Kassius seems like he is pretty clever and resourceful. If he has been captured then I am sure he can find a way out of it." Pyrrha assures, and Jaune chuckles.

"Yeah – I wonder if he'll try Operation Smart-Ass again?" He chuckles, making both Ren and Nora giggle. But Pyrrha – bless her soft heart – has absolutely no idea what that means.

"Huh?" She asks, making him chuckle.

"Operation Smart-Ass is a tactic Kas uses to distract people, by essentially being a smart-ass all the time. So I guess that wouldn't be easy for someone as sarcastic as him." Jaune explains, remembering how he used that same strategy in Atlas to distract everyone from the sight of Jaune sneaking through the Operations Centre to get to Pyrrha. It is a good tactic, but a risky one as well.

But Kassius doesn't care, all he and Hyde care about is getting to use some of their most creative and funniest insults that they can come up with. "Wow, no wonder Kassius and Yang are a perfect match." Pyrrha states with the shrug of her shoulders, and they all chuckle in agreement on her statement.

"Ain't that the truth?" Oscar chuckles as they follow their little pathway, until they notice a possible clue of which way Ruby has been going. They all stop beside it, and Jaune crouches down, but Ren is the one that can decipher what it is. The Kuroyurian Huntsman crouches down beside his Team Leader and he stares at it, knowing what it is.

Ren's eyes stare directly at the scuff on the ground, and it looks like it is Ruby's Scythe scraping through the floor, cutting the ground up in the process. But there is something odd about these scratch marks, and Ren is the one that states it as well – they all know Ruby very well for this to already seem out of character. "It looks like she...was dragging her blade through the tarmac." Ren states, turning to them and Blake arches a brow with confusion.

"What? Ruby loves Crescent Rose too much...why would she risk damaging the blade like that?" Blake mumbles as she thinks about it.

"Something isn't right." Jaune says as he looks around the town with confusion. Clutching her collar with fear she turns to look at Oscar since he knows Ruby better – especially with what she is suffering with in her mind.

"Could...Torchwick be having an effect on her? On her mannerisms?" Nora inquires, remembering some of the things that they have informed them on their friend's problems. Oscar thinks on the things that Torchwick did...but Blake remembers how he acted so only she could possibly know for sure. Especially since Team J.N.P.R never fought him in person.

"He could..." Blake agrees, fearful for Ruby's current predicaments in her mind at the moment. She suffered before Umbra had done what he done, but this is only going to make her condition much, much worse.

Jaune turns to look at Ren, whose eyes are examining the road and the damage done to the area from the curvature of her blade. But from the look on his face, it is as if he is not so sure of his previous statement. "Ren? What is it?" He asks him, heart starting to beat harder now from his concern for his old friend. He can still imagine the old days when she was that adorable little girl that helped him find his way through Beacon. It seems so long ago when life was as simple as that – when their biggest troubles was getting to class on time.

Now?

They have a monster that can control the very choices that people make for his own gain. Ren continues to stare at the many scrapes in the ground and he furrows his eyes, becoming a Huntsman in more ways than one. He caresses his finger across the scuffs, because now there is more than once, unlike the initial one that they came across. "Something's not right here...if it was Ruby dragging Crescent Rose it would be a constant line. This is unlike that, as if there are lots of sharp pieces of metal scuffing the floor over and over again." He explains to them all, standing up with his head hung low as he watches the ground.

Following the many scuffs, it seems like they are forms of footsteps marching down the path, and there is a patch of soil right ahead of them. Which begs the question – what will the footprints look like. They all know Ruby down to the size of her feet and the style of boots that she wears. Meaning that the footprints in the soil will be enough for Ren and the others to identify whether or not these tracks are even Ruby's or not.

And even then, they are still pretty disturbing. No civilians or even soldiers leave scrapes in the ground like this; the armour is not designed in that way.

But as they approach the next path towards that patch of soil...their answer is found. Ren crouches down and he touches the footsteps which are ice cold, despite only being an hour old at this point. And there are more than just a set from one individual. There seems to be at least five people here, all with the same jagged looking footsteps. "It's not her..." Ren tells them with a sigh, until he stops and his eyes widen.

Concern fills the heart of the pleasant soul that belongs to Pyrrha Nikos. "What is it, Ren?" She asks him, and he notices that he was wrong.

"Ruby's footprints were here...but whoever was here an hour ago messed them up." He explains.

"What?" Nora questions. "Who would do such a thing?"

Ren's eyes turn when he senses another clue, a sword that has been left behind by whom it belonged to. It is sharp and fractured, jagged pieces of black steel sticking out all over the place. They all stare at them and Pyrrha's eyes widen - because she has seen those blades before. "Knights Bannermen." She gasps.

"Huh?" Nora asks.

"The Knights Bannermen – servants of Vir Nominis Umbra. I have seen them in the Charred Forest, corrupted souls that do his bidding." Pyrrha explains, her voice shaken at the mere mention of the chilling knights and what it is that they do. The same Knights that Team S.T.R.Q, Cinder and Hazel came across on their travels. And they all saw them when they were at Beacon too.

"They were at the Academy as well...the ones that forced us to our knees, weren't they?" Blake assumes with a fearful voice.

"Yes." Pyrrha nods.

"They are going after Ruby too, seems Umbra isn't finished with her yet." Ren sighs as he pushes his hand through his long dark hair with pink lines in them. Oscar clenches his hand into a fist out of anger, pacing back and forth.

"When will he just leave her alone? She has suffered enough!" Oscar snarls with anger, but Nora extends her hand to him with a smile of friendship in the hopes to calm him down. They already have one kind soul suffering with rage; they do not need any more of them on their hands.

"Oscar...we'll find her, it'll be okay." She promises with a kind smile, whilst Blake walks over to Ren and crouches down beside him, also examining the marks left behind by the Bannermen that are also pursuing the Silver Eyed Warrior.

"Are the tracks enough for us to figure out where she is going?" Blake asks him, and he lifts his eyes just from seeing some of her prints that have not been obscured. He follows them, and he sees a possible location.

"She looks like she is headed for the docks." Ren states, and Oscar stops with widened eyes.

"The docks?" Oscar asks them, and the whole team turn to look at him with curiosity.

"Yeah...why?" Ren asks, and Oscar opens his hand that holds the rose badge that Ruby left behind, the one that belonged to her mother – Summer Rose. He sighs and holds it close, lifting his head and opening his eyes.

"I know where she is." He states.


Ruby


Completely unaware of the coming threat of the Knights' Bannermen nearing…

The young woman paces through the busy streets of the Valerian Docks, with her red hood pulled over her head, looking down at the ground constantly. Everyone that walks past her, some which bump against her shoulder just keep moving – completely unaware of who she really is underneath that hood she wears. But even so – her messed up mind continues to affect every single thought that she has.

They're watching us…

They're going to hurt us!

Kill us!

Shut up, let her focus!

She's being so stupid!

She cannot stop him!

It was all your fault…

It is becoming increasingly clear now that Ruby, the once adorable ball of sunshine and happiness, has now realised that she has unlocked a side to her that she never knew existed. She appears to suffer from a form of Psychosis, and it must have been activated either from the deaths of her father, Oobleck, Nolan and Roy – and Port as well – or it was formed from the possession from Vir Nominis Umbra.

Or maybe this is all from Torchwick to torment her mind.

With Crescent Rose collapsed into its deactivated form and attached to her waistline belt, hidden behind her red cape – she is constantly ready to defend herself if anyone tries to challenge her. She listens carefully to her environment around her, sensing the sound of a man on a loudspeaker. "Final crate count for shipment to the island of Patch!" The employee calls out, pacing back and forth on the deck of the ship that prepares to take off.

Both flying and floating vessels are present on this docking bay, and this Transportation Ship is just large enough for her to sneak into the storage bay of the ship.

There it is!

She won't make it!

Shut up, she can!

Times running out…

The voices are overwhelming, and they all sound just like her with whispering voices – yet these are not her thoughts at all. Meaning her psychological state is crumbling apart faster than they can even comprehend. She hisses with pain from her mind overflowing with all the voices that congregate in her head – all devoid personality and humanity.

Ruby slowly but surely approaches the loading section of the vessel, feeling the vibrations in the air from the powerful engines beginning to fire up for take-off. Countless crates tattooed with the Schnee Dust Company insignia are being loaded onto the ship, with hundreds of shards of crystal. The Huntsman Academies were not the only schools that have stopped working the way they should – even combat Academies and even normal schools have gone silent.

The Acolytes of Lien have taken over the entire planet and the many educational sites alongside them. They have heard that they are using the resources there to create their own Huntsmen that serve them – indoctrinated into believing their fictions. Ruby is no fool, having Huntsmen and Huntresses at their disposal will make those Mercenaries even stronger – they had the technology and the experience to kill them – but creating warriors that can challenge them?

That is something else entirely.

They have an extreme disadvantage in this struggle now, they were already outmatched and outgunned – but with Vir Nominis Umbra at the helm he has now made them be outsmarted as well as the former two.

Ruby walks closer and closer to the ship, noticing that a soldier guarding the entrance is in fact not an Acolyte of Lien though. No tattoo and he is wearing Valerian Armour. She stands in the crowd and with them noticing she disappears, leaving only a couple of red petals behind. The Huntress performs a perfect combat roll as the petals blow past her as she lands, and she immediately takes cover behind one of the crates.

A Valerian Soldier armed with an Assault Rifle loaded with high calibre dust rounds to use if the need arises. Walking with him is a worker on the ship, conversing about the supplies. "We need to deliver at least ten crates worth of dust to every single Combat School across the globe." The worker explains as he ticks some boxes with his pen, countless areas to fill out on the clipboard.

"Understood, well we have approximately twelve more crates being loaded onto the ship." The soldier assures.

"Very good, the faster we get this done the better. Don't want to risk any massive Grimm closing in on our sector." The worker states with a concerned voice as he sighs, walking off with the soldier. Ruby peers around the crate carefully with one hand kept close to her combat knife sheathed on her leg. Ready to plunge the cold steel blade right into anyone that tries to stop her. Every step she takes is silent as she moves closer and closer to the loading bay. But as she moves she gasps and her single eye widens with shock, immediately diving into an evasive roll.

She lands the dismount behind a wall, and a large Construction Class Paladin marches across the large open platform on the ship that she is standing on. Painted yellow with countless markings for health and safety reasons, unlike the mostly black and white colour scheme that the actual Military paladins has. It was through with the large mechanical arms holding a stack of crates and placing them down. The huge Paladin turns and walks away from where it placed them, the pilot speaks through the radio built into its cockpit.

"This is Paladin – 05, package delivered." The pilot speaks, taking the Paladin away, and ruby waits for the textbook moment. As soon as the huge mechanical suit walks away, Ruby emerges from her hiding spot with the doors to her destination. The area looks clear so she runs with quiet feet towards it. She slides down to a crouch, scuffing her tactical trousers in the process. She reaches to the door plate and pushes it open, stepping inside. She closes it silently behind her and she sighs, looking around at the hundreds of crates that have been loaded up in here.

She takes a step forward…

…then a cold barrel presses to her temple and she freezes. Her silver eye twitches and the creepy voices in the back of her mind return.

We're caught!

How did she not see it?

She is such an idiot! One job! That is all she had to worry about and she messed that up!

She always messes things up…it's the only thing she is good at.

Failure…

Trying her best to ignore the voices, she keeps her hand close to the blade as she stands there, and she slowly turns her head to see who it is that has stopped her. Then her eyes widen with disbelief, since she thought he died when Mistral was destroyed. He is a scrawny man with a Viper-Like pair of eyes and even Viper-Like Scales on his arms and neck.

"Sidewinder…" She mutters with disbelief.

The Hacker that offered to help change Weiss' identity with the White Ursa machine that he had hidden away. Only for Jacques to show up and mess the whole situation up for the Ice Queen – just like always. "Long time no see, Huntress…See you've picked up your fair share of scars along the road." Sidewinder chuckles as he stares at her eye patch that covers the scar tissue that remains where that glass arrow ruptured her eye.

"Been a long road…see you turned out alright." Ruby says to him as she stares at the clothes he wears. He now works for the Shipping Companies that help transport supplies across the world.

"Yeah it has – but even if you can call us old friends…you shouldn't be down here." Sidewinder tells her, keeping the gun on her head. But he looks back and forth with a sigh. "But I am reasonable – if you leave now I will not tell anyone. Deal?" Sidewinder asks her curiously as he looks at her with a raised eyebrow. Ruby glares at him with a stern scowl, her voice sharp like the serrated blade of her knife.

"No deal, I am getting on this ship, Sidewinder." Ruby states with a snarling voice, and Sidewinder sighs.

"Look – I respect you, and I thank you for your efforts. And most of all – I am truly sorry for what has happened to you. But at the end of the day it's my job to make sure we don't have any stowaways." Sidewinder explains, acting totally differently to how he acted back in Mistral five years ago before the city was destroyed. He used to be one to live against the law, resided in the lower sections of the city where crime is at an all-time high.

Things have changed.

But so has Ruby, and she retains that cold hard stare on Sidewinder. "I said – I am getting inside." Ruby snarls viciously, and he sighs.

"I can't! My job here'll be finished if I do that!" He argues.

He gasps with shock as Ruby suddenly slams him up against the wall with her knife drawn and the steel blade pressed to his jugular. The impact creates a loud crash but she holds him there with the blade slightly cutting his neck and drawing blood. He gasps as he grapples onto her arm desperately, hoping to survive her attack. Her words might be threatening from his perspective – but even she does not even realise the importance of her following statement. "Do it – or you're finished." She orders with a snarl.

The same words that Roman Torchwick used when he threatened the White Fang Soldier to finish loading up the cargo and starting the train when they planned to attack Vale the first time. "O-Okay…" Sidewinder answers, and Ruby pulls the blade hard from his neck and he falls to his knees. Feeling a terrible burning sensation in his neck, he presses his hand to his neck from distress, still feeling some blood leaving his wound.

He coughs and looks at Ruby as she walks away from him. "What happened to you?" He questions as he watches the grown-up warrior walking away.

Ruby walks into the Cargo Bay, but she stops with a sigh, looking back at him. "I'm sorry, Sidewinder…but I'm not that girl anymore." She sadly answers as she looks back at him, and he looks at her with saddened eyes.

"I can see that…what happened?" He asks her, strangely concerned and Ruby closes her eyes and she answers.

"I failed." She replies, turning and walking away from the old acquaintance of hers as she approaches some crates that she goes to rest on. But she knows fully well that she will get no sleep on this journey. She jumps up and she takes Crescent Rose from her belt and rests it on her legs as she sits on the crates, stretching her legs back. She lies all the way back and rests her head on a pillow that she found in an open crate. She looks at her knife and she contemplates on the things that she has done when staring at the reflecting blade of steel.

Killing Tyrian by dropping him from the edge of a cliff.

Butchering Dew.

Even Fennec, it might not have been her that delivered the killing blow but she still let her rage take the better of her. She can still feel the consequences of those decisions now, phantom pains in her side where Corsac's Spiralling Dagger stabbed through her in that battle. She presses her hand to that point and she unzips part of the tactical shirt that she wears and opens the lower region.

She has yet another scar added to her vast collection, a deep stab mark where that terrible dagger punctured straight through her and twisted. She is lucky to be alive from that attack, otherwise she would just be another casualty.

She leans her head back and she sighs, closing her eye as she lays there. Her condition worsening the longer she is away from her friends, her family and the man that she loves. But at the same time, she is terrified of being around them for what could happen as a consequence. Her father is dead and in her eyes, it was because she failed to complete a simple task.

But as she ponders on her many failures…his voice returns.

A sinister yet conniving laugh builds up to her right and she opens her eye and just turns her head to see him staring at her. His spiritual apparition staring straight into her eyes with his black bowling hat with the feather attached to it and long streaks of orange hair hanging loose over one eye. "Do it…or you're finished…ha-ha, you stealing my lines now, little red? How uncreative, I truly expected better of you." Torchwick sighs as he shakes his head and pinches the bridge of his nose.

Ruby sighs as she turns her head away from him and looks up at the steel grey ceiling of the ship. "Go away." She softly says as she stares up at the blank and boring ceiling. Roman chuckles as he sits there, clearly not about to leave anytime soon.

Oh gods, he's back again!

It's her fault he's in our head!

She should have done better.

What more could she have done?

All she does is fail, fail, fail…it is all she knows…

"My, my…Psychosis? I never knew you suffered with that." Roman chuckles as he looks at her, pressing one hand on his knee as he sits on that crate.

Is he talking about us?

Ruby continues to push the whispery voices from her mind as best she can, but it is not that simple. All the questions of why her Psychosis has made a return though, from it surrounding Vir Nominis Umbra or even Torchwick…none of them are true and the explanation is far simpler than that. And since she has nobody else to talk to about this – she may as well give a revealing explanation. "I have suffered with Psychosis since I was seven…whispers of my own voice in the back of my head. My emotions were confused and I would always end up…seeing things." Ruby explains.

Fully expecting Torchwick to make some kind of snide remark to her problems…but he doesn't…he just listens. There has always been some sort of sense of honour about the criminal; it was just extremely hard for people to find. "It started not long after my mom died, and I was torn apart…so bad that I stopped showing emotion at all. And I wasn't stupid – people just assumed I was too young to understand what was happening…but I knew. I always knew." Ruby explains as she sits there, feeling the voices coming back.

She didn't believe you!

Shut up! Yang loves us, why would she betray us?

She tried to ditch us when we arrived at Beacon, why would she care now?

Ruby shakes the thoughts away and she tenses her hands into fists, struggling more and more with every thought that enters her mind. "I had to take Psychosis Pills…Uncle Qrow and Dad knew…but nobody else…it would come back every now and then like it did when I first got to the Emerald Forest. But I haven't been able to take my pills in a few months because of everything…and now they're back." Ruby whimpers as she presses her hands to her head with distress.

Roman looks at her and he nods her head, Ruby turns and glares at him. "What? No witty remark?" She questions as she shrugs her shoulders in her laid down position.

"Why? It seems I am already starting to affect you by the things you have done. The way you killed those thugs? Dew? The way you tried to kill Fennec Albain? You are becoming more and like me! A bloodthirsty lunatic…just embrace your Inner Demons, little red. Then you won't suffer anymore." Torchwick explains and Ruby snarls, looking away from him and she strains a cry, feeling the pain of her disorder becoming worse.

The spectre of Roman has only one last message for her. "No matter how far you run…how much longer you continue to deny it…you cannot escape the truth. The truth is…

"…you and I are not very dissimilar to each other." Roman states.

Ruby spins around and stares at the direction she heard the voice…and there is nothing there…just her surroundings.

But there is something still there.

She's going to die…

You tried to abandon us in the dark, but we are always here for you

He will hurt you; seek the love of your sister instead

He will win

Vir Nominis Umbra will win.

The voices echo in her mind and tears begin to stream from her eye as she cries with distress from the many voices that speak over each other in her head.

Ruby Rose was never a perfect ball of sunshine.

She has just hidden in, and now it is back with a vengeance.

Yet another thing to torment the gentle girl.


Kassius


The scorching heat of the sun burns against his skin as he walks across the dunes of the desert, his arms bound together with rough rope to the others being pulled as well. With Bandits on Horses, one of them – Thorn – with Kassius' hat, takes his ball whip and slashes it down the back of one of the other slaves. He screams with a cry of agony, nearly collapsing as he tries to walk. Blood leaking down his back from the constant barrage of whips hitting his back.

The heat wave is bringing some people to their knees, barely able to walk a few more steps let alone seven miles of desert to get to their destination. Mirages ripple before their very eyes in the distance, creating the false sense of hope when they see the sight of a lake or a tree...but there is in fact nothing at all in the area. Just the vast expanse of the Vacuo Desert, waves of sand dunes for as far as the eye can see.

His amber eyes stare endlessly at the wasteland as he keeps moving as best he can, feeling the sand collapsing underneath him with every single step in which he takes. Sunburn forming all over his unprotected body which also shows the new tattoo that he got recently as well. A large Eagle with its wings splayed out across his back and shoulder blades, hiding some of the scars that he has collected over the years.

Not hiding them out of fear, but just because he wants to for Yang – even though she does not mind them and loves him either way. He just wants her to see something cool on his back instead of some of his bad memories.

But right now his memories are constantly focused on Yang as his objective has become extraordinarily clear. He needs to get back home to her, she needs the man she loves right now and he needs her...both of them have suffered, but Kassius does not even know about Taiyang, Oobleck, Roy and Nolan yet. The explanation of that to him will be very tough, especially since Taiyang took him in when he could have easily just left him to die on Vytal when the Grimm came attacking in force.

Skin feeling tighter and lips hardening from the lack of drink, this is not a good looking situation. But then, Kelham takes his fingers to his mouth and he blows to create a powerful whistling sound and everyone stops. "Water ahead people! Rather not lose our slaves before we even get the pricks there." Kelham orders on his horse, moving further and further towards the watering hole that he has mentioned.

The group move closer to the summit of the dune and their eyes widen to the marvel of something that is not actually a mirage this time. There is a small pond of water in the caldera of sand beneath them, and some of the bandits laugh with joy as they slide down the dunes towards the source of water. Immediately shovelling water into their mouths with a ravenous thirst controlling them.

The slaves move down the dunes slowly, and Kassius stares at the water, desperately wanting to have some to fill his body with water. It might not kill the agonizing pain that he feels across his body from the sunburn, however there is some comfort in the idea that once he is at his cell he can use his aura to repair any damage done to his body.

And hell he may even have a sexy tan afterwards...he needs to set his priorities straighter.

First his hat and now the idea of a good looking tan.

Well there is always a silver lining everywhere.

Kassius approaches the water and he collapses to his knees and he immediately shovels some water down his gullet. Some of the other slaves do the same, one of them being an older woman to his left and beside her is a younger woman. The young woman, must be the older woman's granddaughter has a heart shaped head with long emerald green hair and pale skin, despite the burns on her body that she has gained. Due to all slaves wearing hardly any clothing he can see the heart with an arrow shot through it as a tattoo on her waist. She is shapely with a very pretty face that resembles her grandmother.

The older woman is lest ferocious at drinking like her granddaughter, gently scooping the water into her mouth hand at a time. Her hair has turned white but the her eye brows are darkened, meaning her daughter must have once had dark brown hair like her grandmother did. The Grandmother lacks the tattoos but she seems to have the body of either a fitness instructor or an athlete because the signs are there. Muscular tone in her legs and core and she even still seems to be pretty fit despite being around seventy years old.

She looks at her dark blue eyes focus on someone behind Kassius who clips his ear with his hand. "That's my spot." The bandit known as Thorn tells him, immediately choosing to challenge him. Kassius turns and he just scoffs at him, shaking his head as he drinks a little bit more.

"Wait your turn, asshole." Kassius states, and Thorn growls with frustration as he goes to punch him straight in the face. But Kassius catches his fist and stands up swiftly and throws his knee upwards into his gut. Thorn roars in pain and other Bandits sprint at Kassius still bound to the other slaves. But Kelham just sighs and he presses his thumb down on the device he holds and Kassius screams in pain.

The device that is imbedded into his neck activates with a snarl and blasts a powerful force of electricity into his system and he collapses to the ground, writhing around. Thorn gets up, despite being beaten up by a bound and exhausted Huntsman, he acts like he won the fight. "Whoo! That's right!" He laughs as he throws his fists in the air, and immediately kicks Kassius right in the head with his boot.

The Huntsman grunts in pain, and in anger as he spits blood from his mouth, still tasting the metallic repulsion of blood ever-present. Thorn spits at Kassius and he walks away, as Kassius wipes the drool from his face, slapping the sticky liquid into the sand. "How respectful." He sarcastically says as he sits up, pressing his hand to his jaw. He looks up to see that older woman and her granddaughter approaching him.

"Are you okay?" She asks him and he sighs, nodding his head.

"Yeah...had worse." He assures as he holds his cybernetic hand up to the two of them. The granddaughter crouches down and she touches the tender bruise on his cheek. "And who might you two be?" He wonders.

"My name is Nadine." The older woman tells him, before looking at her granddaughter. "This is my granddaughter – Neryth." Nadine introduces and Neryth smiles as she nods her head to him.

"You're either really brave or stupid to take on a bandit when restrained and with one of these little buggers on your neck." She says, pointing to a similar one implanted into her own one.

"Yeah...noticed that." He strains after still feeling the electricity flow through his veins like that. He looks at her and he can tell that she has the hots for him, she is literally staring at his abs and some of the scars he has collected. Clearly her thing seems to be scars and muscular dudes that are badasses like her. "So how long have the traffickers had you under their eye?" He asks them.

"Three years...for reasons." She sighs, but Neryth does not even seem bothered.

"Hmph, I don't mind having sex with some bandits and people. I don't need them to chat to me I just need them to have fun." Neryth shrugs her shoulders, clearly a slave used for Prostitution. Kassius sighs, feeling for her but worse for Nadine since clearly she never wanted Neryth to have a future like this.

"I'm sorry." Kassius apologises.

"I'm not, some of them are really fun and they don't hurt me much either because I give em a good time." She says, still checking him out. "Say...when we get there...wanna screw around?" She asks him suggestively with a grin. But Kassius is loyal and deeply in love with Yang Xiao Long, and would be crazy to cheat on her.

"No thanks, got someone waiting for me." He says to her, but she looks around and shrugs her shoulders.

"I don't see your girlfriend. And besides, there is no getting out of here." She assures.

"There will be. I need to get back to her." He says with a mutter, thinking of her in every single way...the feeling of her touch, the sound of her voice, the beauty of her face...he needs to get back to her fast.

For all he knows...

Horridus Morbus could have already killed her by now.

"Forgive my granddaughter." Nadine states as she whacks her on the back of the head with an impressive smack. She yelps from the hard impact of her hand against her head.

"Ow!" She exclaims.

"She has always been a bit of a party-girl." She says as she plants her hand on her hip.

"What about you? What type of slave are you?" He asks her curiously and she shrugs her shoulders.

"Medical – I was a nurse when they captured me." Nadine tells him, but then their attention is caught when they hear Kelham's thunderous voice erupting from the summit of one of the sand dunes. "And speak of the devil, there is the man that captured my daughter and I." Nadine says as she stares at Kelham.

"Kelham, right?" He asks.

"Correct, leader of the Traffickers. Tends to take most of the prostitutes with him some nights..." She snarls, being as protective as any grandmother should. "He's a real scumbag." She snarls with anger as she glares at him, and then Kassius sees Thorn walking over to Kelham with his hat still worn firmly on his head.

They cannot hear the quiet conversation between the two Bandit Leaders, and Thorn looks at the leader who whispers to him. "We have a lot of first timers with us – so make sure they get it. We stop for nothing...and no one." Kelham states as he stares directly at Kassius who glares right back. Thorn nods and stands right at the edge of the huge sand dune to deliver his message to the large group of Bandits and Slaves alike. Kassius can see different kinds, the Prostitutes seem to have less lashes but that does not count for anything in the bedrooms with these bandits. The workers have the most lashes and scars, forced to work hard, and the fighters have more combat scars than lashes.

Thorn finally speaks.

"If this is your first crossing, then listen up!" Thorn yells, his powerful voice echoing around the desert as he stands at the head of the caldera of sand. "There is absolutely no water for the next few miles until we get back to our base. And remember to keep up, because if you collapse out there, you're on your own. Move out!" Thorn roars as he holds his pistol above his head and fires it into the sky.

They all walk up the dune and Nadine gasps when she sees the huge expanse of just sand dunes ahead. "Oh by the gods...looks like this'll be a very long walk." Nadine says, but Neryth giggles, also wearing a black band around her neck like the other prostitutes.

"Aaaand, hot! If ya smell something sizzling, could be me!" She giggles flirtatiously to Kassius, but he ignores her attempt and just stares ahead, exhaling through his nostrils.

He follows the herd of people towards the Decayed Expanse, marching through baking hot sand to make their way to wherever it is that the Traffickers have made their home at. With the scorching sun watching callously overhead. Hundreds of slaves and around fifty Bandits overall guiding them all with occasional lashes to keep the mass moving at a good pace.

Nadine is right.

This is going to be a very long walk.

The Decayed Expanse has been known to be the harshest land of the Kingdom of Vacuo, harsher than the deserts of Menagerie that were always very extreme. But this is something else entirely, so hot and so dry that nothing can survive out here. Nothing except for the Creatures of Grimm that stalk the landscape, and with this huge group of people...soon they will close in on the Traffickers.

They know it.

With dunes surrounding them and a completely blue cloudless sky, the relentless sun continues to bare down on them all with extreme heat that cooks their skin. Kassius struggles to simply keep his eyes open with the amount of sweat that trickles across his bare body...which makes him wonder how the Bandits must be faring in all that clothing. But they are not the ones being burnt constantly by the sun. But as he looks at the Bandits on their horses, he can see some of them are fighting the elements as best they can as well.

He looks at Nadine and she is shaking her head every now and then to stay upright, as is Neryth, who falls to one knee at one point. But Kassius immediately helps her back up, keeping her moving so then she survives.

Kassius looks up at the sun, praying for some clouds to form to give them some shade for a while but nothing comes. As they continue moving further, Kelham and Thorn are stood on a ridge as they watch the group, also keeping a watchful eye out for any Creatures of Grimm following their trail. There are massive monsters to be aware of out here, from massive worms to Deathstalkers the size of football pitches. His horse grumbles as it shakes its main around to get the heat out as best it can.

Kelham turns to Thorn, who wipes the sweat from his brow. "We're moving too slow." Kelham tells him, his deep harsh voice speaking straight into him like the blade of a dagger. Thorn exhales as he pushes his hair back and nods.

"I'll pick up the pace." He assures as he turns and he yells at the top of his lungs. "Come on people, let's move!" He roars and some of the Bandits take their whips and they lash them aggressively. One whip cracks across the back of a teenage male, so hard that he collapses with pain, so much blood leaking from his wound. But he manages to get up, but from how hard that hit it is unlikely he will make it.

And that would be the case when the sun sets, and somehow it still feels just as hot at night despite that it should be as cold as Atlas during winter in Deserts. But Kassius looks down at the ground with Neryth and Nadine at his side, seeing that young man crying on the sand with his whole back covered in blood. "Help...me..." He wheezes, dehydrated and dying from blood loss.

Kassius goes to help but the voice of Bandit gets their attention. "Hey! Keep up!" He yells, pulling them closer with the rope, since he cut the boy loose. Kassius looks back and his eyes widen from what follows them.

Beowulves, foaming at the mouth as they stare at the boy.

He wanted to help him...but he could not, because he cannot fight in the condition he is currently in. The boy rolls over and he cries out with terror. "Please! No! Ahh!" He screams with agony as they jump onto him and begin to devour him, ripping him to shreds piece by piece.

Days pass, sun rises and moon falls, fractured moon rises and sun falls. Over and over again, the same cycle never ceases to repeat itself.

They must be close...

But on their trail...

The Beowulves continue to pick apart that boy's bloody corpse, stripping the flesh from his bones and breaking the limps to get as much out of them as they can. But as they feast, suddenly a Spiralling Dagger stabs straight through the skull of a Beowulf and kills it instantly. One of the others turns around and its met by a Chainsword Blade that slices the head clean off.

Standing there...

Is Mazen Ursus, staring out at the trail of footsteps headed somewhere. With him is Corsac Albain and some new Elite White Fang at his disposal. One of them looks like a Snake, another like a Boar and there are many soldiers with him as well, with a few Bullheads with plenty of weapons.

Mazen clenches his hand into a fist.

He is going after the White Fang and Faunus prisoners to fight in their war.

A War that has only just begun...


Author Note - Hey guys, sorry it's been a bit longer. Tonnes of stuff happening in my life recently so I have been struggling to find time to write, next chapter might take longer to come out too.

But - what did you think? Giving Ruby Psychosis was an idea I came up with a while ago but I was bouncing around on whether or not to give it to her. I simply wanted to give her an issue she had before Umbra did the things he did, and that it is simply coming back now because of the lack of medication she has been taking. Well perhaps that combined with seeing four of her friends die at the hands of Umbra. I have done my research and it will be fun to show Ruby struggling with the voices and hallucinations she will suffer from.

And showing Kassius' experiences at the moment in Vacuo is cool, with Nadine and Neryth with him too. The Traffickers and the slavery are pretty inspired by Greek or Egyptian Culture, which is why there are different types of slave. At least Neryth can find some fun in her slavery, but as you can see it is pretty brutal this world. And I want to do some cool world building in this act.

Hope you enjoyed!

Please review, follow and favourite!

Stay tuned for the next chapter - Motherless...

- Matt