Chapter 6 – Mistakes


Blake


The waves are silent...

Almost ghostly silent, the captain of the ship looks out at the endless blue waiting to see the ships of the damned rising from the dark blue depths. But nothing, just the expanse of water and clouds directly ahead of them...

This boat was once much heavier with passengers, now there are only a couple dozen people inside, and two of them are Blake and Sun.

Sun is sat down beside Blake, outside in the warming up air, and Sun has wrapped the young Feline Faunus Woman up with a blanket that he found to keep her warm. She is sat there, and has not changed her position since she sat there. Hearing the roar that the monster made as it slammed its burning axe head straight into her father's gut...and burned her mother to ashes right before her eyes. Sun's hand is slowly twitching into a fist as he sits there, eye jittering with anger because of how he feels he failed her – failed to save her parents.

But if he didn't pull her away, that thing would have killed her too.

Tears drench her fair skinned cheeks, filled with the sorrow of a heartbroken child. Sun however makes himself become cold to it, and since this has already happened to him once, he does not let it go to his head.

And he has to, for her sake.

If he can stay positive for her, then it is all worth it to him. Ruyi Jingu Bang and Gambol Shroud lean against one another. Blake sniffles, her feline ears folded down sadly, looking at the floor. Sun's tail curls up by her hand, trying to make her feel better.

Blake looks at him, her tears glistening in the sunlight. He smiles gently, warming her heart. "I'm here...okay?" He softly says to him with a smile. She buries her head into her shoulder and he holds her close, hugging her so then she has a shoulder to cry onto.

Sun squeezes his blue eyes shut...

And when he does he can hear that thing roaring in the back of his mind. So many questions rattle around in the back of his head...

What the hell was that thing?

It spoke...

Something is coming and it cannot be good for any of us.

Then Blake speaks...with a tender and shattered voice, as she leans against his torso with her hand softly touching his chest as well. "The Grimm...It spoke..." She stammers with horror, seeing the burning face of whatever that demonic beast was that roared.

"I know..." Sun responds with a similarly shaken voice.

"W-What do we do now?" She asks him, sitting upright, wiping some tears from her eyes and her cheeks. Sun looks at her and he cannot help but raise an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" He asks her with confusion.

"C-Crying can't bring them back...what do we do now?" She asks him, she needs something to take her mind off what happened to Menagerie – and unfortunately it seems to be that the only option they have is open to them.

"That thing...it lead the Grimm there, Ilia knew it was coming and she tried to warn us. She was too late, but we can warn the Mistraalian Headmaster at Haven Academy." Sun explains, remembering the school since he did come from Mistral – and Haven for that matter. Blake looks into his eyes and she sniffles, struggling to hold onto her courage in a moment like this.

"Neptune...Scarlet and Sage are there, aren't they?" She asks him, and Sun softly chuckles.

"They better be." He replies, looking out at the see as they sit there on the floor.

The boat continues to move across the sea...

And it is very empty right now.


Oscar


"What does this even mean?" Nora squeaks with a raised voice, clutching her hands together tight and standing on the tips of her toes, staring at Oscar who is wide eyed with concern, sat in a chair. Nora looks bewildered, Jaune looks suspicious, Ruby looks shy and Ren is...

Well...

Ren.

Perfectly showing the middle ground between excitement and fear on his face, staring at Oscar as well. "What do you mean – paired?" Jaune questions, his arms crossed and one hand is quite close to the hilt of Crocea Mors on his belt. Ruby's silver eyes dart to his hand and they widen when they see the way that he glares at Oscar. The poor hazel eyed boy does not even seem to realise that Jaune is ready to cut his head off at a moment's notice.

"I don't really know." Oscar softly admits with a shy voice, not looking at any of them, and Jaune grits his teeth with disdain, not towards the boy but the man that has bonded with him somehow.

But before he can take any action to get answers from him, he feels Ruby's tiny hand grab his wrist; he turns and looks down at her as she stands beside him. "Um...Can I have a quick word with ya, pal?" Ruby inquires, pulling him aside and using the speed of her petals to get him away from Oscar. The young man's eyes widen and he gasps with confusion, jolting and staring at the many crimson petals that float down onto his lap.

He lifts those eyes to Nora and Ren who stand there.

"She does that." Nora informs.

Ruby pulls Jaune round the corner and he nearly collapses from how fast he is suddenly yanked over there, stumbling across the mahogany floor. He stares at her, after regaining his balance and the petals sit on his head and shoulders. "What the hell, Ruby?" He questions with a heavily hushed voice, staring at her.

"Me? What the hell is up with you, Jaune?" Ruby questions him, planting her hand on her hip and raising one of her eyebrows.

"Is that seriously a question?" Jaune states, crossing his arms as he looks right at her.

"Jaune, ever since that kid said he is paired with Professor Ozpin you have been on edge. Now I know what happened back at Beacon was bad – what he did to Pyrrha and all of that, but don't you think that we should at least hear him out?" Ruby asks him, Jaune stares directly at her large silver eyes, then looks at Crocea Mors which has her metal forged into the steel.

He lets out a sigh, relaxing his shoulders. "Fine...but that doesn't mean that I trust him." Jaune states.

"Neither do I, the man has the same blood on his hands that Cinder does for not telling us what was going on. But now we have an opportunity for him to tell us why." Ruby explains, and he nods when he looks at her. Ruby turns the corner with Jaune and they both walk back over to Oscar, Ren and Nora.

"Also, please don't pull me away like that again – I nearly threw up." Jaune requests.

Ruby smirks deviously.

"No promises – Vomit Boy." Ruby remarks.

"Oh Ha – Ha!"

As they approach them, they hear the words of Nora that would complete bewilder anybody who did not know her, and even for them it is ridiculous. "Do you think he aged backwards? Will he turn into a cute little baby?" Nora squeals, which makes Ren sigh.

"Gods I hope not." Oscar groans with wide hazel coloured eyes. Ruby sets her eyes on the same aged boy, and there is a great curiosity about him. They both have rather unique eyes, and his hazel ones are almost enchanting.

"I have to admit...this is really weird..." Ruby says as she stands between Ren and Nora, looking at Oscar.

"I know...I'm still trying to understand it all myself." Oscar sighs, sat on that chair still with his hands clutching the cane that Qrow threw into his hands. The many black markings across the metallic structure of the weapon and the faint hum that he can feel through his fingers. He looks at it, like it is so familiar yet so alien as well.

"Okay everyone – let's give him a minute." Qrow requests as he emerges, sobered up after his little drinking session he had, with a glass of water in his hand. The four of them step back, Ruby and Nora act all cute in how they act like they weren't crowding him. Whereas Ren stands there with an honourable stance and a smile on his face that is welcoming. Jaune however keeps his blue eyes focused on the boy, he does not distrust Oscar, but it is the aura of the man trapped within him somehow.

Oscar can sense the tension in his bones, and the distrust in his eyes.

The Farmhand exhales with relief and turns to see Qrow walking in and he smiles. "Thanks." He calmly says to him, and Qrow nods as he walks past him and takes a seat in the chair. Ruby and Nora both sit down beside one another in the second double sofa next to the single chair that Oscar is sat in, the young Silver Eyed Girl beside him. Her unique eyes gleefully bounce over to his hazel coloured ones, leading to a gentle smile and a short nervous giggle from her voice.

Oscar looks away shyly. "Sorry...I just never have had the opportunity to meet real Hunters before." Oscar stammers, nervous to speak to people in general, let alone Huntsmen and Huntresses. But as always, Ruby has her gift in being able to make anybody feel comfortable around strangers, despite her being socially awkward herself.

"Well – we've never met someone who has two souls – weird goes around with this gang." Ruby squeaks with a bounce in her pose as she looks at him with a bright smile on her face. Oscar smiles back and sighs with relief, like a massive weight has been lifted from his shoulders.

Qrow clears his throat to get their attention. "Hate to break up the whole – getting to know you game – but we need to talk." Qrow explains, and Oscar looks at Jaune, seeing him stood with his back leant to the wall and arms crossed, whereas Ren sits perched on the arm of the chair that Nora is sitting at with one arm behind her as he looks at the young man. Qrow turns his red eyes to Oscar. "Mind showing us that crazy thing you can do, kiddo?" Qrow asks him, and Oscar sighs.

"Yeah...okay..." He agrees, and he looks at them all. "Just so you all know – I am not speaking from my own memories." Oscar advises, which makes them raise their brows with confusion. He closes his hazel coloured eyes and inhales air in through his nose. When he opens them, he looks at Ruby and speaks with certainty of what he seems to remember.

Ruby is stunned by what he says, especially since this is the first time that they have ever met him. "Ruby Rose, you came to Beacon Academy because you wanted to help people and follow in your late-mother's footsteps." Oscar says, and her eyes widen with confusion, and she cannot help but mutter in her thoughts of what he just said.

I...I said that to Ozpin when I first met him...

I was so stupid back then.

His eyes then turn to Nora Valkyrie sat beside her with her leg crossed over the other, looking at him curiously. He also looks at Ren who stands next to her and they both are just as surprised by the things that Oscar seems to know about. "Nora Valkyrie, Lie Ren – you both suffered the horrific losses of your parents from different times and events but found each other when the town of Kuroyuri fell. And have stuck together like glue ever since." Oscar says, speaking without any nervousness or stammering like he normally does, and the statements cause the couple to look at each other nervously.

Then finally he turns to Jaune who still looks very suspicious of Oscar. "Jaune Arc, Crocea Mors is a sword passed down to you by your family and you faked your manuscripts to gain a place in Beacon Academy to become a warrior, despite the fact you never passed any real tests in your previous school." Oscar states, and his eyes widen when he reveals that – he has told them all about this information but he is even more surprised that he knows that.

"How do you know that? I never even told Ozpin that..." Jaune speaks, uncrossing his arms as he stares at the young man, Ruby looks at him and then at Oscar, desperate for answers.

"No, you didn't – but he was no fool, he knew from the get-go that you lied, but he let you in anyway." Oscar says to him.

"What? Why?" Jaune questions with misunderstanding in his voice.

"Because he saw determination in you, something that can transform even the weakest of people in something greater. You being here is mere proof of his reasoning for letting you into the school in the first place." Oscar explains, and just by speaking through using Ozpin's memories that the Professor has opened up for him to use, he seems more like Ozpin in the way he acts and speaks.

"How did you know all of that?" Ren asks him.

"Ozpin has allowed me to access his memories, so I was able to learn about some things that relate to the four of you – so then you would believe me when I say that I am...paired with Professor Ozpin." Oscar explains to them all, and Ruby softly laughs at something she has noticed in the way he speaks.

"Wow...you even sound like him at times." Ruby points out.

"Really? I guess some of it has rubbed off on me." He nervously says, sounding more like Oscar again.

"So – Ozpin can't speak through you?" Jaune asks him.

"No, wherever he is he must be in some sort of suspended animation, separating his soul so then he can assist us without revealing his location to Salem." Qrow explains.

"Indeed." Oscar agrees. "I pick up on the way he acts and speaks whenever he opens information to me or speaks to me, but I am merely the translator of his words." Oscar explains, and then he shudders when he says that. "Translator?" He mutters, since he rarely uses big words like that in average conversation.

But this is no ordinary conversation.

Oscar picks up Ozpin's cane and he rests it between his legs, looking at the four of them, and then he starts to sound like the other half again. "I suppose that this is very perplexing for you all." He states with the voice of Ozpin, they are unaware that inside his head Ozpin is saying the same thing just then.

"And alarming! And Bizarre! And just really hard to believe overall!" Nora exclaims with her hands stretched out and carrying a perplexed look on her face as Oscar and Ozpin presumed. Oscar chuckles, quite similarly to the way that Ozpin would when they manage to amuse him with their young and adorable attitudes.

"Well at least I'm not surrounded by super serious people, but from what happened at Beacon it wouldn't surprise me if you were a little colder. I know you've all suffered greatly already..." Oscar states, setting his eyes on Jaune who glares at him, and he speaks with such sincerity that Oscar can hear Ozpin saying the same words that escape his mouth at the same time. "I'm sorry." He softly says.

Jaune blue eyes narrow and he softly snarls when gritting his teeth slightly through parted lips. "But...it wasn't your fault what happened, none of us could have known what would have happened..." Ruby gently says to him, placing one hundred percent of the blame upon Cinder.

Then Jaune chimes in. "Isn't he?" He questions, which makes the three of them sharply turn their heads and stare at Jaune, Ruby looking the angriest towards him.

"Jaune!" She exclaims with disgust.

"What?" Jaune questions with the firm shrug of his shoulders.

"I know your bitter but that is not true." Ruby sternly states, and Jaune scoffs, looking away from Ruby's gaze, but Oscar's words catch all of them off guard.

"He is not wrong, Ruby." Oscar reveals, and Jaune turns his head with a startled gasp, staring at him. Ruby slowly turns her head with disbelief, looking right at his astonishing hazel coloured eyes.

"W-What do you mean?" Ruby inquires.

"Well...I am speaking from his memories right now...but do you remember what Ozpin told you when you were upset with Weiss Schnee?" Oscar asks her, and she looks down at the floor.

Weiss...

Haven't heard that name in a long time...

I wonder how she is doing...

Little does she know that she is in the same city as her, as is her sister and multiple other friends that she has missed. But when she thinks on the question that Oscar asked her, she remembers back to that day, when wise was angry at her for helping – she claimed that Ruby being leader was a mistake made by Ozpin. It hurt her deeply, she only wanted to be her friend, and only after that day did they start to grow closer to each other.

Then she repeats what Ozpin said to her when he found her in the hallway, after hearing the argument between the two of them. "He said he made more mistakes than any man, woman or child on this planet." Ruby recites, and Oscar nods his head, remembering when he said that from Ozpin's very own memories.

"Yes...and from some of the memories that I can feel...I don't think he was exaggerating." Oscar says to them all.

"What do you mean?" Ren asks.

"I am not overly sure, I do not know all his secrets or his memories, but I do know that he does blame himself and his actions for what happened at Beacon Academy...and what happened to somebody called Pyrrha Nikos." He says, and they all look at Jaune – even Qrow does when they hear that name. Oscar looks at Jaune when he notices that he is staring right at him.

"Why is he looking at me like that?" Oscar asks in his head to Ozpin to hear him sigh.

"Pyrrha Nikos, the girl you can see in your memory? The two of them were very close, she was in love with him and he began to fall for her – she was who I chose to become the next Fall Maiden...and died because of it." Ozpin explains to him with a sigh, and Oscar closes his eyes sadly when he says that. He did not even realise that he said her name, it was almost out of instinct to say that name, but then Jaune speaking gets his attention.

And he asks the question that he was almost expecting.

"Why? Why did you do that to her?" Jaune questions with a stern voice.

"Kid, I told you what happened." Qrow says to him, pointing to try and calm him down.

"You did – I wanna hear it from Ozpin, or Oscar...or whatever the hell is happening here." Jaune states, sounding exceedingly confused in the situation. Qrow looks at Oscar and the young Farmhand agrees, nodding his head.

"I can remember his reasons for why he chose Pyrrha Nikos – he said that she was kind, thoughtful and caring, but ready to become a Fall Maiden. She was the perfect age and the perfect candidate to become one...it was just...it all happened at the wrong time...he wanted to ask her after she graduated, but the chance never arrived." Oscar explains, and Jaune narrows his eyes with anger.

"Did you know?" Jaune asks him.

"Know what?" Oscar asks him in return.

"That your little proposal nearly destroyed everything that she ever believed in?" Jaune asks him, but clearly actually asking Ozpin and not him. Oscar looks to the sight and subconsciously speaks to Ozpin.

"What's he talking about?" Oscar subconsciously inquires.

"After we informed Pyrrha Nikos on this information – I must admit we did kind of force the situation on her...we gave her an ultimatum and it was one that she could not refuse. She believed a great deal in destiny, and I found myself using that faith against her to gain her hand." Ozpin explains to him, and Oscar looks surprised and shocked when he says that.

"How could you do that?" Oscar questions sternfully, taking Jaune's side in the situation.

"We were facing a time of crisis, if things were different and Amber were not attacked...perhaps she would still be here today...she is not the first person to die because of my decisions and I know she will not be the last." Ozpin states, almost quite coldly, how he can just say something like that so calmly...it is very intimidating.

Oscar snaps out of it, realising Jaune is still left there waiting on an answer. "He did know...he knew the risks of what would happen when asking her, but the situation was falling apart, he was left no other choice." Oscar defends, perhaps even lying to protect either Ozpin or himself. Jaune scoffs, shaking his head and not buying what the young boy had just told him.

"Everyone has a choice...he could have chosen someone else." Jaune states with anger, staring straight at him.

"Jaune – enough. It's as I told you – Pyrrha made a choice and she chose." Qrow tells him, and Jaune scoffs.

"A choice? What kind of choice was that? Either become the Fall Maiden or everyone you know will die? Only for all of it to be for nothing and she dies anyway? That isn't a choice, he tricked her into believing there was a second choice. You all did." Jaune snarls as he stares at Qrow, and the Huntsman narrows his eyes.

"You have no idea of what the implications were, kid – I have been out there and I have seen the things that she has created. You have seen one of them yourself, that damned Nuckelavee as the Mistraalians call it was only one of them. She has created more and more monsters and they will destroy everything we have ever known." Qrow explains, standing up as he walks towards Jaune. "So you tell me, Jaune – what's worse? Making one girl become a Fall Maiden or sacrificing hundreds of thousands to Salem and her monsters?" Qrow challenges, towering above him with gritted teeth and anger, but Jaune stands his ground with similarly gritted teeth.

"Uncle Qrow! Jaune! Stop it! We need to figure things out!" Ruby defuses, standing up and pushing them away from each other. Jaune stands there with so much rage in his bones, before he grunts, turning and storming off, pushing the door open and leaving the room, walking outside.

"Jaune..." Nora softly says, standing up with Ren as they follow after him.

Ruby stands there, with her Uncle and Oscar, with Ozpin trapped in the back of his mind. Qrow sighs, reaching into his coat and pulling his flask out, unscrewing the cap to take a swig before taking his seat again. Ruby looks at them and she looks so small and nervous. "That did not go very well..." Oscar states, sounding a lot like Ozpin in his tones and even his mannerisms.

"The kid's got a lot of pain in him...I guess I did go a little far by challenging him...but he needs to see the bigger picture here." Qrow explains, setting his flask down on the table. Which brings the question to Ruby's mind, the one she has wanted answered ever since Tyrian and Qrow brought her up when on the road to Mistral.

"Ozpin...well...Oscar..." Ruby softly begins.

"Yes?" He responds.

"Salem...what is she?" She asks him, and Qrow looks at her before looking at Oscar.

"Who?" Oscar asks Ozpin subconsciously.

"One moment." He says, as he feeds information into his head, memories of the demonic monster that is leading the Grimm. The fear can be seen on Oscar's face when the memories flow into his own mind.

Then he seems to snap back into his Ozpin crossed with Oscar personality as he speaks through his memories. "Salem...she is something unique, not Grimm and not Human, but something in-between, something extremely powerful and ancient, and intelligent. She cannot be reasoned with, and she is the master of all Grimm, and only wants all of life to kneel before her feet." Oscar explains to her, and the description truly gives Ruby the chills.

"Have you seen her, Uncle Qrow?" Ruby inquires.

"Once, nearly was killed because of it. She is real smart, pipsqueak." He promises.

"Then...how do we stop her?" Ruby asks him.

"We start...by ensuring the safety of the Relics of Remnant." Oscar tells her.


Jaune


Fists clenched, and body ready to explode with anger...

He storms across the silent street of the Mistraalian town, the fractured moon hangs high in the sky, watching him like an eye. He screams with rage and he swings his fist into a tree with all his might with anger. The crows all scatter into the sky from the tree where he punched it, and he did not feel a thing. The crows all fly high above his head with crystal beaks and red eyes, leaving the scene.

He still has his fist pressed against the tree with tears streaming down from his eyes, but not from pain, but from heartbreak. He was hoping he could be given some closure or some satisfaction for what happened to Pyrrha if speaking to Ozpin would help him understand – but it has just made it all the worse for him. Now he knows that she was in agony about the very thing he said that she should do, to run head first into the jaws of death and not look back.

Behind him, Nora and Ren approach him, the last members of his team that are alive, and they both slowly walk over to him. "Jaune?" Nora softly whispers and she reaches out to him, but he lashes out, swinging out and yelling with agony in his voice.

"Don't touch me!" Jaune screams with rage.

Nora recoils back from just narrowly missing his arm, Ren stands there and sees the tears in his eyes and any sort of protective nature is soothed...because he understands this pain. He felt it when he saw the Nuckelavee again, like watching his parents being killed by it all over again, he is just imagining what must have happened to Pyrrha again and again.

I...

I saw her die, Jaune...

Cinder shot her and she...burned her...right in front of me...

I'm so sorry Jaune...I'm so sorry...

Ruby's tearful words echo in his memory when he visited her and Yang one time during the autumn, because he needed to know what happened. He will never forget those words, because they are the only thing he has to know what happened to that perfect girl, that beautiful ball of light in his life...

The ball of light he shunned for so long.

"Jaune..." Ren softly says to him to calm him, then he squeezes his eyes shut and the tears push through, the weight of sorrow pushes him to his knees, and he lets it all out. Crying into his palms on the spot on the gravel pathway, Nora and Ren both stand there, before they crouch down beside him and touchingly surround him. Nora rests her head on his shoulder gently whilst Ren crouches down and places his hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, Jaune..." Nora promises with kindness in her bright cyan eyes.

"No..." Jaune sniffles.

"No?" Nora asks him.

"I should have been there for her...she was always there for me...and I failed her!" Jaune cries out with anguish, wishing it were him that was killed by Cinder and not Pyrrha. Nora looks at Ren and she is trying her damndest to hold back her own tears – seeing Jaune like this is painful, he has always been able to keep headstrong and inspire them.

Now he is the one that needs the help opposed to them.

But Ren always knows how to help people, just as Jaune always does as well. "You didn't fail her Jaune, Pyrrha was always going to fight a battle she knew she couldn't win." Ren states, and he looks at him with confusion.

"What do you mean?" Jaune questions.

"She was always building her skills, always throwing herself in front of the enemies of other people. She was always ready to give her life for the cause, and if she could do that and save you and the rest of the world at the same time? I think she would be honoured to be given such an opportunity." He states, and he carries a kind smile on his face as he says that to him. Jaune thinks on his words, and there are some areas of truth to them because he is not wrong.

Pyrrha was always one to face death and punch him right in the face, and battle off every disciple that he brought with him. She was sick of being known as the invincible girl, she always wanted people to see her as something more than that.

Someone that they could believe in, but not see as a tool.

Jaune sniffles as he sits there, leaning his back against the wall. "Be proud of her Jaune, her memory – because thanks to you she actually had some happiness in her life." Ren says to him with a smile.

"Yeah, did you see her face when you danced with her at the party?" Nora asks him, and he looks at her with tears running down his cheeks.

"What do you mean?" he asks her.

"I think she was smiling the whole time. I would bet a lot of lien on the idea that it was probably the best night of her life." She states with a smile on her face.

Jaune brushes his wrist across his face to wipe the tears away from his bloodshot and tear soaked eyes. "I-I just wish she could be here with us." He sniffles.

"Me too...I bet she could show us the best restaurants in town." Nora giggles to lighten the mood, and Jaune chuckles.

"Yeah, just don't mention Pumpkin Pete's around her, unless you want an hour long explanation of how bad they are for you." Ren remembers.

"Oh gods..." Nora groans, making Jaune chuckle.

"I'm surprised she even ate the Cotton Candy I got her – that was when I knew something was up." Jaune states with a chuckle.

"That's a good point." Nora giggles.

"She never ate many pancakes of mine either." Ren remembers.

"That was all Nora." Jaune defends.

"Hey!" Nora squeaks.

"What? You devour his pancakes faster than anything I have ever seen." Jaune tells her, and Nora ponders on that.

"Yeah I do..." She smirks as she winks at Ren.

"What does that mean?" Ren asks.

"Yeah...what does that mean?" Jaune also asks nervously.

"You'll see Pancake Boy." She flirtatiously says as she stands up, and they both stand up and watch her prance back to the house.

"I'm scared." Ren states with terrified and shrunken irises.

"Me too..."


Yang


The young Blonde Woman stares at the photograph of Team R.W.B.Y together as she sits on the spare bed that Kassius has offered her, despite the fact that it is a double bed. She has not actually checked the house and made sure that he is not lying to her. But her lilac eyes are focused on the picture in her cybernetic hand, Ruby's happiness, Weiss' happiness, even Blake's...and then how she used to be. Yang closes her eyes and she sighs, she does not know how she feels about Blake.

She is angry for her leaving her alone after she lost her arm, but she also does not blame her for anything. All she wants is to talk to her, to understand why it all happened in the first place.

Yang sighs, folding the picture and putting it back in her pocket when she hears Kassius moving something next door. She peers round and notices that he has a pillow that he throws onto the couch. Her eyes widen and she stands up, looking at the bed and realising what he is doing. "Kassius?" Yang calls him.

"Hey, Firefly." He responds.

Firefly...

That has always been his nickname for me, unlike Firecracker...he has always named me after a cute little twinkling fly.

Firefly has always been Kassius' nickname for Yang, she has been called Blondie and Firecracker, but there was something about Kassius' one that was different. One that didn't link to her hair colour or for her explosive temper, this was calm and gentle, the side to her that many people rarely see behind that tough and confident exterior.

Around him, she is quiet and shy, not from fear, but because she feels like she can be honest with him.

Then it hits her...

He has given her his bed...

"No, no...Kassius you don't have to do that..." Yang stammers, not wanting him to give up his bed for her, but his answer is fast and swift.

"Not my bed." Kassius tells her, and she stops in her tracks.

"Huh?" She asks.

"This was the house my Team and I lived in." Kassius informs, and the past tense breaks her heart. But she does not ask him, she can tell that his team are gone now, probably died during the defence of the City...so she just asks him a different question.

"Then...why are you sleeping there?" She asks him.

"I can't sleep in there...prefer the couch." Kassius replies, laying down on the sofa and putting his arm behind his head on the pillow, not closing his eyes yet, just staring at the fireplace.

Yang walks over to him and she sits down on the carpet in front of him, looking at him. He looks at her and then at the room with confusion. "Oh don't tell me you like the floor." Kassius scoffs.

"No, it's just...wanna talk is all...you know me, can't stay still for five seconds." Yang says, and he chuckles.

"What you mean like our sleepovers we used to have all the time?" He asks her, making her giggle at the memories.

"Oh no..." She sighs.

"You would talk and talk until midnight, sometimes even till three in the morning." He chuckles.

"You never tried to go to sleep though." Yang adds with a smile.

"Eh, true." He agrees with a shrug, then she sighs.

"My sister is here...Weiss too..." Yang says with a soft voice, and he turns his head to look at her.

"Excited?" He asks her.

"Kind of..." She replies.

"Kinda?" He questions.

"I'm worried of how she's gonna take it...I was a coward." She says to him. She clenches her hand into a fist and snarls at herself with anger, but Kassius laughs at her when she says that, catching her off guard.

"Coward? Ha, don't make me laugh." He chuckles, standing up and walking to the edge of the desk that is at the end of the table.

"But I was, Kassius. Ruby was out here, fighting the Grimm. She took on the Nuckelavee, whilst I was sulking back home." She explains to him, Kassius listens to every word. She fiddles with her long blonde hair as she tells him that.

"Yang..." He says affectionately. "That's not like you." Kassius says, pointing his metal finger at her. He walks over to her and he crouches down in front of her. "Just because you fall over, it doesn't instantly mean that you can get back up. Sometimes it takes a lot of time..." He says, and he pauses for a couple of seconds, and Yang looks him into those large blue eyes when he pauses.

His eyes close and he exhales, standing tall again. "Trust me, I know what that can do to people." Kassius promises. Yang stands up slowly, looking at the man she once loved, and likely still feels those exact same emotions right now towards him. She walks over to him, noticing that there is something wrong.

"Kas..." She gently says, her metal hand holding onto his. He looks at her when she catches his hand. They hold that admiration of each other's looks for a couple of seconds before Kassius slowly pulls his metal hand away from her. She looks at his hand and then at him. "What's wrong?" She asks him.

"I can't exactly question you for your decisions...not after the things that I have done." He says.

Yang gets closer to him, looking him in the eyes. "What is it?" She asks again.

He shakes his head in anger. "My team...we made up Team Cordovan. Spelt K.R.D.V, I was the leader. Then it was Rajah, good guy, he was from Vacuo. Believe it or not but he didn't really like to wear the uniform." Kassius points out as he explains who his team are. Yang laughs a little at that, thinking of Sun and probably just to make him feel comfortable. "Then there's Draven who was very efficient in combat, born in Mistral like Pyrrha Nikos was. Raised by a Mistraalian Knight." He explains.

He pauses for a second, closing his eyes. "Then there was Vetra." Kassius explains, stopping at her, looking at the room that Yang is borrowing. He shakes his head, pacing back and forth. "I didn't I was ever gonna see you again and we broke up when we left." Kassius says, turning to her. He is afraid that she would be mad, but Yang could never be angry at him, because she still, and possibly will always, be in love with him. She just smiles and understands.

"It's alright, we ended it when we had to part ways, I understand." She says to him. He smiles and he sighs, leaning against the wall.

"A bunch of people all from different places who all have suffered and then this one guy from Patch shows up and he becomes their leader. We ran multiple missions against the Bandits in the area, destroying their operations, helping out the little guy. They were hopeless before, and I gave them hope!" He says, holding his hands out, but not in a bragging manner, more in a way that sound like he is annoyed by it.

His arms drop down to his sides again, returning to this odd forlorn personality that is overcoming him. He doesn't look at Yang, like he feels ashamed. "And now they're dead...shows what I know." He says to her.

Yang's eyes widen when he says that. "You mean...Vetra?" Yang asks.

"All of them...killed by one person." Kassius answers to her. Yang covers her mouth for him, feeling so many sad emotions. The venom in his voice when he speaks about this one person almost scares her a little.

"What happened?" She asks him.

"It was my own damn fault. One of my friends betrayed me." He says in anger to himself, walking around the room again. "A Faunus named Ilia, she sold us out to the Assassin who found us and she vanished without a trace." Kassius snarls in anger.

Yang might not know it yet...

But this is the same Ilia that Blake was a close friend to – Ilia Amitola...seems she has more secrets than most people seem to realise.

"Wait? What do you mean?" She asks him, attempting to understand what happened exactly.

"Ilia asked me to meet her in the forest outside Mistral. I got to the meeting point and she wasn't there. When I got back, the Assassin was in the middle of slaughtering my team. I tried to help but..." He says.

That's when he lifts his metal arm up, looking at it, moving each individual finger and then clenching it into a fist. "The Assassin threw a grenade at me and the explosion gave me this. Blew my arm apart, nearly killed me in the process." He illustrates, lifting his metal hand up above his head slightly. Yang gasps, shocked from how...the pain he must have felt. At least Yang only lost her forearm, not her entire arm from the shoulder down. "I had to watch as I bled out as the Assassin killed the rest of my team...stabbing Vetra through the heart right in front of me. The Mistraalian Knights found me a few minutes later, it was too late to save my team, but they saved me." Kassius explains.

He closes his eyes with distress and tenses his arms as he stands there by the table. "Like it was some sort of sick joke to give me this damn arm, like a constant reminder." He says, staring at it. Yang's compassionate personality is strong towards him, wanting to help in any way she can.

"Are you sure it was Ilia? She didn't get killed by the Assassin too?" Yang asks him.

He shakes his head dismissively, and with certainty too. "She wasn't killed, I asked a contact to trace her and she got transport out of there. She sold me out and ran, I lost her trail when I got to the docks." Kassius explains to Yang.

Yang walks up to him. "Do you need my help with anything? I will always help you, Kassius." Yang says to him, reaching out to his cheek. He closes his eyes and he pulls his body away from her and she looks at him, nearly heartbroken from how he steps away.

The thing with Kassius, is that when something in his life goes wrong, he is terrified of seeing it happen a second time. It seems like those same emotions are coming to play here with Vetra and Yang right now.

"Not yet, I'll keep searching for something on her. One day I will find Ilia and I will make her pay for what she took from me, then I will find the Assassin and correct what happened that night. But until then, you are my priority, I just want you to find Ruby and be happy." Kassius says, his mind still set on getting vengeance and yet he still wants her to be happy as well..

He shakes his head, getting the thoughts out of his head. "Well...I guess you know now." He says to her. "So if you ever need to talk about this." He says, gesturing to his own metal arm. "I'll always be there." He says with a smile. He walks past her and leaves the room. Yang stands there, watching him leave. She stands there and she wipes a tear from her cheek for him

But before he leaves...

There is one question left on her mind.

She turns to him before he leaves the room.

"Is that room Vetra's?" She asks him, curiously yet also nervously. He stops in the doorway, then slowly looks round his shoulder at her.

"Yeah..." He answers, continuing on and leaving the building to get some air.

She stands there, tears in her eyes for him.

"I'm sorry, Kas..."


Ruby


The doors burst open as Nora emerges with a gleeful smile on her face, standing on one toe like a ballerina. "We're back!" She gleefully coos in a singsong voice, as Jaune and Ren both walk back inside, and Qrow cannot help but notice the rather concerned looks on both their faces as they look at Nora.

"Something wrong?" Qrow asks them.

"Nope." They both swiftly answer fearfully of Nora, since she has earned that fear of being completely unpredictable. She did manage to give Jaune an atomic wedgy so powerful that it nearly broke his aura in one blow, and he has a lot of aura in him. Qrow chuckles, since he can see fear of a woman a mile off, he has seen it on Taiyang's face constantly when he was at school with him.

Qrow chuckles. "I won't ask." He says as he leans back.

"So, what did we miss?" Nora asks as she prances into the room, standing behind Ruby with a smile, making Jaune and Ren chuckle at her infinite glee – despite everything.

"Well...we have a plan of what to do next, we need to find the relics and secure them. And Ozpin has an idea of what to do." Ruby simplifies for her, looking back at her. Nora gasps, jumping on the spot and landing next to the chair where Oscar sits.

"This is perfect!" She squeals with happiness, and the fear is now in Oscar's face as well. "First we were at a dead end – now we can take little cute boy Ozpin to Lionheart and set things straight!" She squeals with happiness, and Oscar shudders with a groan.

"Please don't call me that." Oscar groans.

Subconsciously he speaks to Ozpin. "Is she always like this?" Oscar inquires.

"Oh...she is calm right now." Ozpin informs, and his eyes widen.

"Calm?" He whimpers fearfully in his head.

Qrow looks at her and he manages to calm the ever growing ball of explosive excitement down a peg. "Yeah...we don't think that's the best idea so far." Qrow states, and Nora groans, her arms slump down and she walks between Jaune and Ruby on the chair and she slouches down between them, crossing her arms with an annoyed expression on her face. Ren sits on the arm of the chair and looks at Oscar.

"But...I thought all the Headmasters follow your orders?" Ren presumes.

"Well, they follow his word, not mine. And there is no certainty that they will believe me, even if I have the cane. It could easily be a simple knock-off in Lionheart's eyes." Oscar explains, remembering certain things about him very well.

"You have access to his memories." Ruby suggests.

"Sure, but that isn't what the issue is." Qrow tells her as he looks at the four young Huntsmen and Huntresses.

"How so?" Jaune inquires.

"Remember our first conversation with him? He was denying everything we told him with his own information – but Ozpin told him that if we had important information he would do something. But he hasn't, and that is quite worrying." Qrow explains, standing up as he walks over to the window, looking at the Headmaster's building in Haven.

"Exactly, he is not just behaving irrationally – Ozpin is used to that from him. But Ozpin is saying that he is disobeying direct orders given by him in case he had to go into hiding." Oscar explains to them all.

"Something's not right, I don't want to jump to conclusions but I also don't want to rule anything out either. Nobody outside this room knows that Oscar and Ozpin are sharing a body right now, and at the moment it would be best to keep things like that." Qrow suggests.

"Keep all cards in our deck, huh?" Jaune presumes.

"Precisely, Mr Arc...Uh...I mean Jaune." Oscar stammers, a bit of Ozpin coming out when he says that.

"But remember, we do have that meeting with him in the morning. He did say that he was stressed out with everything that has happened here at Mistral, and he has also said he has got some Huntsmen who are interested in helping us out." Qrow explains to them all.

"Team S.S.S.N? They are here in Mistral." Nora remembers.

"Maybe...we'll find out tomorrow. But until then, we keep Oscar and Ozpin a secret. He can come with us, but we cannot arouse any suspicion. Understood?" Qrow asks them all.

"Got it." They all agree.


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