Cathy woke up from a dreamless sleep which was very strange since there never once was a night where she could sleep peacefully. Cathy put that behind her and got ready for school even though Crimson advised her not to go that and she was never supposed show herself at school due to various reasons. When she took off her shirt she looked into the mirror where it showed a scars which read Property of Eugene and Rei all over her belly. Disgusted to her stomach in reminding her of the childhood she had to endure she broke the mirror before she read the others that were on her back. Slipping into some casual clothing, she was ready to leave her room until she felt a little light headed and fell to the ground but she held her position using the door handle as a cane to keep herself up. Hearing her heart beat in her eardrums she breathed in slowly and exhaled hoping that everything would be fine. After a moment she heard people leaving she thought that there should be no one at home so she opened the door. There stood Pyrrha with a damp towel all wide eyed that the door just suddenly opened. Cathy jumped at the sight of her but everything was awkward since she really didn't get the chance to talk to her.
"Hi, Person." Cathy managed to say even though she knew her name. She thought about it for a moment and then realized that it was rude to call someone person when you already know their name but wait Cathy kept arguing internally on whether to be her usual self or the more normal kind.
"Umm" Cathy looked up seeing that Pyrrha had her hand outstretched to touch Cathy's shoulder. Pyrrha continued her sentence. "I can hear your thoughts. It's fine if you can just be yourself around me." Cathy didn't realize that she was voicing her thoughts out loud which made her embarrassed. "This hasn't happened before." Cathy muttered to herself but she looked at the time.
"AHH! We're going to be late. Come on, Pyrrha, you can't be missing the second day of school. No no no, that is very bad." Cathy grabbed her hand and dragged her to school. The school bell rang by the time they entered the classroom where everyone was talking rather too loudly. Cathy was out of breath which didn't bother her for the most part and it felt refreshing. "See...we...made...it...in...time." Cathy said in between breaths. Pyrrha didn't seem that affected from all the running and just smiled at her. Since class was in session Pyrrha went to her group but Cathy didn't follow her she waited until no one was looking at her and walked out of the classroom. She started walking to Lord Death's room where Lord Death, Professor Ozpin and Glynda were waiting.
In the classroom...
"Hey, guys sorry I'm late." Pyrrha said as she was walking up the steps to her group. Jaune looked at her but turned away which made Pyrrha confused about it but didn't mind since she didn't know much about him anyways. "Hey, Pyrrha, you should have bee there. The pancakes at the cafe were A-MA-ZING" Nora sung the last part which made Ren roll his eyes and move away from Nora just by a little bit. The girl, who was reading a book, was apparently their partner Pyrrha thought and right beside her was a boy who was either too tired or just sleeping. Pyrrha didn't know how to approach them so she just went to talk to Ren and Nora. After a moment later she remembered that Crimson told her to look after Cathy, she looked around the classroom and Cathy was nowhere in sight. She was about to leave the classroom to look for her but Glynda walked in with Professor Ozpin. Lord Death popped in and just started the whole conversation.
"Hello, everyone, so I like to start by telling you something very sudden." He paused for a moment before speaking once more. "I have two things to tell you. First, there is going to be an event to test your new teams against each other in an upcoming festival or competition. It's up to you what you want to call it. To the upcoming event you must all participate and as you win each battle you must remove 2 members from your team. Just to make it fair. There are 4 battles so there is 6 members on the team. So if you win one then the next battle you have to use 4 people then 2 and in the final round there is only 1 on 1. Whoever wins well that's a surprise." Lord Death almost walked out of the room when he remembered. "Right, secondly the supposed deceased meister Cathy is alive but I will not permit her to be joining the DWMA as a student." Lord Death walked out of the room and looked at Cathy who was at the doorway.
"Is that fine with you, Cathy?" Lord Death asks. Cathy looked at him and replied.
"Yes, it is." Cathy noticed some birds flying by and looked at them. Lord Death coughed and Cathy's focus was back onto him.
"You can be a teacher here if you want. Remember you are almost on pair with Stein in meister skills, why don't you use them to help teach the students here."
"I'll take that offer once I take care of some unfinished business outside of Death City." Cathy didn't wait for a reply and walked off without any disturbances.
Professor Ozpin was just looking around at the students while Glynda was telling then the rules to the competition and was answering questions of the students only regarding about the event. Death the Kid wanted to know what his father was up to so he left the classroom and found his father just staring off into the distance well the hallway.
"Father, what is the meaning of this?" Kid asked in an angrily tone. Lord Death looked at Kid and replied.
"Saa, I don't know what you're talking about?" Raising his hands in an I-don't-know gesture which made Kid pissed off even more.
"You know what I mean. We're talking about Cathy here the one who died because of Crimson." Silence filled the hallway as neither of them said a single word.
"Why can't you send Cathy back here? How is she alive? Father, why must you always keep secrets from me?" Lord Death just looked at him and started walking away from Kid he responded to him but just added more questions to his list.
"There's something special about Cathy but it's not my secret to tell." Kid watched his father walk away before going back to the classroom which seemed that the people were already discussing about the event.
Crimson was outside on the balcony to the school looking down at the town which the people looked like ants from his view. With one knee hanging off the railing and the other tucked in between his arm and chest. Resting his head on his kneecap hoping something would happen just anything. That's when he saw a rose petal fall into his view, he looked at the rose petal and some more were coming. He followed the trail with his eyes until they rested on a girl who seemed nervous but also excited. He turned around and got off the railing and stood there not about to do anything. Ruby, however was just there to look at the sky just because she got yelled at Weiss for a whole lot of things, she didn't expect to run into Crimson.
"So, did you hear the news?" Ruby moving her right foot to move some dirt around as if she was trying to look busy. Crimson thought about it for a moment until he got a general idea what she was talking about.
"The one where you fight in a competition right?" Ruby nodded her head and stopped her little movements. Crimson went back to looking at the scenery and Ruby felt a little sad that that was all they could talk about. Ruby walked up to Crimson to see what he was looking at and it was just the people around town. There was nothing fun in that Ruby had that look on her face but Crimson didn't care it wasn't like he was responsible for her. "Ruby, if you want I can ask Lord Death to make it that your team can go to the competition without me." Ruby heard this and thought that it would be nice but something was off.
"No." It slipped out of her mouth and Crimson looked at her with shock but he regained his composure and went back to a poker face.
"Why don't you want me to do that?" He looked at her dead in the eye with such seriousness that it kind of put a lot of pressure on Ruby. Ruby tried to think of a reason but came with none. She was about to give up but instead she shook her head refusing to give up now.
"It seems like it's going to be a lot of fun if your around to help us." Crimson glared at her for a few seconds and placed his eyes back to the clear blue sky.
"There are only 5 people in our team. It's supposed to be 6 in the event." Crimson stated it out making Ruby realize it as well.
"Then we can ask someone to join our team then. It's so simple." Ruby said in a cheerful voice but Crimson just sighed which meant a bad thing.
"I highly doubt that anyone would join our team."
"Why is that?" Ruby said having no idea why Crimson would say such a thing.
"Because I am the reason why no one wants to join. The problem student that killed his meister." Crimson yelled out the last sentence for all to hear. Somehow in Ruby's heart she knows that the cheerful person just hid inside a safe place. Crimson tightened his jaw and scratched his head.
"Sorry. I didn't think that I would yell at you. You need to get to class." Ruby thought about Crimson killing his meister and how Lord Death said the supposed deceased meister Cathy is alive. The Cathy that she encountered during her trial, the cliff, the memory of her falling down into Crimson's arms, the one playing piano in such a dark place, the one who was bleeding on the bed.
"Crimson, I have a question for you." Ruby wanted to see if her hunch is right no matter what the answer was she had to find out.
"What is it?" Ruby swallowed very hard hoping that something could happen but she was the one doing it.
"Is the meister you killed Cathy? The one who is in bed at home." Crimson looked at her as if he was about to cry and his voice had a hint of regret, weakness and sadness for the most of it.
"Yes." Ruby felt weak hearing the answer from Crimson's mouth. How is she alive? Wait Pyrrha is alive but she has her memories of Jaune gone but is that the same thing for Cathy. What happened between them? Why is there so many secrets to this place? Ruby thought all of those things and was about to ask Crimson about them all but he left her before she could utter another word. Crimson was already outside the academy and once he was back home he was already crying remembering Cathy jumping inside the ring and getting stabbed in the heart by his own blade. The warm blood trailing down his hand and Cathy kept calming him down hoping that he would come back to her. Feeling his blade getting heavier and heavier until it went light all of a sudden. Looking down at her body watching the black blood go outside for just a moment but that's all it took for him to be restrained as the people took her away to hopefully keep her alive. He could no longer hear her heartbeat and lost all will to fight back after them. Burying his face into his knees wishing he could take it all back.
Ruby sat at a daze for the whole day until she heard her name being repeatedly called by her teammates.
"Ruby." Yang said.
"Ruby." Blake repeated after a couple seconds later.
"RUBY!" Weiss yelled since she couldn't take it anymore.
"Huh, what?" Ruby looked at them with confusion.
"We were talking about the event and how we need to improve on our teamwork skills not to mention we have another person coming with us." Weiss said in agitation. Ruby laughed it off and had her focus on everyone else.
Crimson woke up from the sound of knocking and wiped away his tears before anyone noticed. He took a deep breath in and opened the door. Pyrrha was at the door with her teammates. They all wanted to see where she was getting her treatment from and Nora was already flying through from room to room until she was about to go into the west building. Crimson was about to stop her when he felt no living presence there. He ran over to Cathy's room and opened the door. All he saw was an empty bedroom with a note that read:
Yo, Crimson. I went out for a while but I'll be back hopefully. I just have some loose ends to tie up in the outside world. If you ever need to talk to me you know where to reach me from by the way I heard your getting new partners be kind to them. Oh yeah before I forget attend the classes properly. I hate getting lectured because you refuse to go to class. I leave Aran in your care and hmm what else am I forgetting right. Listen to Lord Death while I'm gone.
-Cathy
P.s. I took the dagger you oh so "sealed" up. You need to work better on those hiding skills of yours.
Crimson crumpled the paper hoping it was all just a joke but knowing Cathy she would already be halfway around the world by now. Everyone was looking at him and he just walked towards them to the training room. Pyrrha was almost finished with her training. She was practicing her semblance until she lost her focus and the weapons were about to fall onto her but Jaune jumped in and protected her.
"Th-thank you, Jaune." Jaune scratched his neck and said.
"It was no big deal really." Nora was whistling but Crimson mumbled to himself. "Idiot couple." A doorbell rang and Crimson went to go get it. He already put up some testing robots to their level so they could get a better experience in what was to be expected in the event. Crimson opened the door and there was Soul and Maka waiting right behind it. He closed the door and rubbed his eyes before opening it again. When he did open it he instinctively moved his body and say Maka fall to the ground with a very thick book in her hand.
"What are you doing on the ground? Giving it a hug for an emotional time." Crimson just had to ask. Soul looked at Maka too but he went to help her up.
"Oye, are you alright? You didn't get hurt did you?" Soul trying to look cool in front of Maka. Crimson thought again. This is a real idiot couple a super ultra mega idiot couple.
"This way." Crimson said as he walked towards the others who were now arguing. Maka and Soul didn't really say anything when they came in to see their partners.
"So, you kids go work on whatever you are doing while I have some matters of my own to finish." Crimson pointed himself out of the training room and started to walk over the Team RWBY's room or building to be exact. Crimson walked into the room where there were rose petals racing to get to the bottom and the papers were jumping everywhere. Ruby was running from bed to bed trying not to get hit from Weiss. Crimson leaned against the doorway waiting to see how long it took for them to notice him. It didn't take long to register that they were all so absorbed into their work that they were just playing around. He coughed and everyone went silent and Ruby just landed on top of Weiss who was about to cuss at her but since she was a lady she left it bottled up inside.
"Are we going to work on this or should I just let you guys..." Crimson looked around at the mess they made in just 2 days. "do whatever you're doing?" They looked around the room and pretended that nothing was wrong. Crimson took that in mind and told them to follow him and so they did. They were in the backyard which was much cleaner than their room even though Crimson hadn't had much time to clean it up. Yang whistled when she saw the graveyard of swords and weapons all over the ground. Ruby looked at all the different weapons on the ground with amazement. She picked them up and examined them wondering on how it was made. Crimson asked everyone to help him clean it well just throw it to the side so they could use the space. It didn't take them that long since there weren't any bullet casings anywhere. Crimson looked at the guns that were discarded and started thinking why would Cathy just throw out a perfectly functional gun. While he was looking into the barrel Weiss took an opportunity to test Crimson's skills just for a little bit so she threw a sword that looked like a rapier at his head. He tilted it just a little bit and it hit the fence. He looked at her with his cheek bleeding.
"What was that for?" He demanded. Weiss pulled out Myrtenaster and was in a fighting stance. She charged at Crimson with the intent to kill or at least try to anyways. Crimson didn't move from his spot and caught Myrtenaster making his hand bleed. Weiss pulled back and Crimson licked his bleeding hand as if it would close the wound. Even though it did no one payed attention to it since Weiss took another strike at him. He moved a little bit and grabbed the part where it contained all the dust she had stored in it forcing it into the ground. Crimson grabbed one of the swords in the ground and threw it at her as she tried to get Myrtenaster out of the ground. It missed her by a few millimeters getting Weiss all wide eyed at what just happened.
"Next time, I won't miss." Crimson stated and started to clean up once again. Weiss fell to the ground shocked at what just happened while the others pretended that nothing happened. Crimson looked at the piles of weapons that were neatly placed at the side and told himself that he did a good deed. Crimson heard a large boom go off and he groaned in irritation. He started walking off to the source of the boom and found Jaune covered in ashes of whatever was left over from the metal surrounding him. He was walking like a drunk man and was already up to Crimson.
"I-i don't neeeeed to to take or-orders from...YOU." Jaune pointed to Crimson before falling onto the ground and his teammates check to see if he was fine. Nora thought it would be funny if Crimson got some gunpowder on him so she took her hammer and used it like a golf club to hit the metal full of ash towards Crimson. Crimson saw the metal coming and pulled out his sword to cut it in half making the two pieces fly on either side of him. He swung it to get rid of any unnecessary dust that was collected on it before sheathing it. Nora was amazed at it and was already at Crimson's arms trying to figure out how did Crimson hide the sword in that single moment. She looked at his clothing and started pulling out guns and swords from every place possible. No one stopped her until she pulled out a strange gun chained to his inside chest pocket. Crimson saw this and immediately tried to take it back but it was too late. Nora was looking at it and just pulled the trigger. She shot the wall and Crimson yelled.
"Idiot, do you know what you have done?" Nora confused tilted her knocked on her head and stuck out her tongue. "Nora, didn't do anything? It's just a hole in the wall. You can fix it in a jiffy." Crimson looked at the wall and saw the magic circle turning. It was almost at it's full rotation. He ran up past them and hoped to Lucifer that he would make it in time. When the circle turned from blue to red it blow up and Crimson had stopped the rubble from hitting any of them but he took some of the left over metal to his stomach. No one was hurt well except for Crimson but he wasn't in any pain not yet anyway. He started walking off and replied. "Yeah, it's just a hole in the wall." Pyrrha noticed that he was bleeding but his blood wasn't right it was black and it was following him as he left the room. He leaned against the wall and was full on hit by the pain as he pulled out pieces of metal. He didn't even look at the wound as it was closing up. 'Ah, I lost another pair of clothes Cathy bought me. I'm going to have to ask her to get me some more.' Crimson thought and when he was almost finished healing he started walking back to Team RWBY who were training with Weiss' summoned creature. Crimson thought it was interesting watching how their team operated but the creature disappeared and Weiss was exhausted. Crimson thought it was time for him to join in.
"All right, you guys all have to land at least 20 hits before dinner. If not, hmm let's see oh I got it you guys get no dinner. How does that sound?" Yang put both her fists together and was already pumped. "Yeah, let's do this." Everyone took out their weapons while Weiss finally got up catching her breath. Crimson waited until he saw Ruby already in his view ready to swing at him with Cresent Rose. He jumped backwards using his hands to twirl himself to another direction. He was flying over them but Yang jumped up and was about to punch him. He smiled as he grabbed the hand that was already loaded into the ground making a huge hole. He lifted the arm up after he heard something getting loaded. Yang flew up and was hit. He kicked her towards the origin of the bullet and got knocked into Ruby. As he saw this he was chocked by a string. He felt 4 hits on his back before pretending to fall down so they could let go of the string. They let down their guard and tried to take another hit. He rolled over and got up looking at the team on the other side of the hole. He stared dusting off the dirt that was on his coat when he noticed some holes in them and sat down. A bullet went flying across his head looking at Yang and then the general direction of the bullet. The fence was burnt and Crimson just ignored it but not for took long when he felt something warm crawling down his arm. he looked at it and it was just his blood. He decided it was time for him to get a little bit serious so he went to reach his sword but it wasn't there. He checked everywhere else which weren't their except for the gun he didn't like using. They all came attacking him fist Yang tried punching him but he caught her fist and using his other hand he threw her onto her back. Jumping backwards so he wouldn't get his by Blake's retractable blade. She was at Yang's side in no time. Ruby was heading straight to Crimson hoping to close some distance between them. Crimson stood there counting how many hits there were since he was already bleeding. He rounded it to 8 and twisted himself and extending his leg so Ruby could trip. He looked at the fallen down Ruby who got up the second she opened her eyes. She grabbed Cresent Rose and swung it again at Crimson. The moment it almost reached him he jumped Ruby looked around to see where Crimson has gone.
"I'm over here." Crimson said as Ruby turned around quickly seeing Crimson on her Cresent Rose just putting on some gloves. "That's another hit so that makes it 9. Eleven more to go.
"Why aren't you taking out your weapon?" Ruby asked seeing this as an unfair fight. Crimson started thinking and replied.
"Nora took all of my weapons out. So I'm here weaponless wait I do have some weapons but it needs a requirement."
"There are weapons on the side." Crimson just shrugged before jumping off Cresent rose as Weiss comes sliding in with Myrtenaster. "Ruby, how many times have I told you no talking to the enemy!" Weiss shouted out while Crimson chuckled at the fight until he was hit in the head by Yang.
"That's what you get for pulling out my hair." Crimson flipped and swung his foot down onto Yang making her hit her back once more. Crimson felt some blood in his mouth and spit it out. 10 he said in his head as he cracked it from side to side. He slid his hand up the wounds making the black blood to collect at one spot. Before Blake could shoot him a wall was already built. It melted down into a very thin sword and Crimson brought Blake's blade to the ground behind him. Blake fell onto the ground and Crimson threw the sword near her eye making her disappear when he stepped onto the body. He felt the blade onto his throat causing some more blood shred he smiled to himself. He grabbed the arm with the blade and twisted it hard enough for them to drop it. He turned around to see Blake holding her hand, he rubbed his wounded neck and made a shield to his left arm. He used it to push Yang up and punched her in the stomach. He hit the ground taking cover from Ruby's bullets while trying to get Weiss to cover some distance between her and Crimson. He watched the sun go down to the point he estimated 5 minutes left and 9 more hits to go. He wanted to end this quickly so he grabbed the gun praying to Lucifer that he doesn't get his new team more injured than they already are. He pointed the gun in Blake's and Yang's direction and shot the floor which made them confused about it but they couldn't see the magic circle. He picked up his shield and ran towards Ruby and Weiss. He saw Weiss trying to brake the shield in one go but he bent it towards Ruby not letting any bullets hit him. He grabbed Weiss by the neck and plunged her into the ground while he pointed his gun at Ruby's face.
"This match is over." Crimson said and the magic circle exploded.
