Chapter 11 – Searching For Winter – Pt. 3

Ruby

Henry Marigold is dead...

Assassinated by the Onyx Phantom. His body is covered up with a white sheet as Oscar throws it over his dead body, blood staining his body where the sniper rifle rounds shot through him. Weiss stands outside the house with her arms crossed as she looks at his dead body through the window. The night is bitterly cold, but she lets Oscar tend to him. Ruby walks over to her friend and she looks at her. Weiss sighs, her breath visible as a could cloud of fog emerging from her lips. "He was a dunce...but he didn't deserve this." Weiss admits as she looks at Ruby. Ruby closes her big silver eyes with a sigh as well, since they failed to save him from the Onyx Phantom. Ruby looks up at the Fractured Moon in the dark night sky.

"Nobody deserves to die." Ruby says, and her comment does catch Weiss' attention.

"Even Cinder?" Weiss scoffs.

"Even her." Ruby says, looking at her.

"How can you say that after what she did?" Weiss questions, obviously with Pyrrha in her mind as she speaks to the Silver Eyed Girl. Ruby looks at Weiss.

"I want her punished for what she did...but I could never bring myself to wish death upon somebody. I will kill people...I have killed people...but I would never pray for someone to die." Ruby explains to the ashen haired girl. Weiss looks at her, listening to her wise words, and then she looks at the dead body of Henry again. They both turn to see Kassius walking up to them with both Lash Equinoxes folded away and magnetised to his armoured legs. He crosses his arms together, looking through the window as well.

"Who was the shooter?" Kassius asks her. Ruby looks back, through her memories from what she briefly saw from the Phantom.

"She was fast...glowing orange eyes..." Ruby remembers, then she remembers when she shot at her and she stopped the bullet in mid air. "And she stopped my bullet in the air without touching it." Ruby explains. Weiss' eyes widen and she looks at Ruby, and the first thing that comes to their mind is the semblance that Pyrrha had, the semblance of Polarity.

"Polarity?" Weiss assumes as she looks at her close friend. Ruby just shakes her head, though.

"No...it was stronger than that. Pyrrha's polarity was strong but she couldn't stop a bullet in its track, veer them off, maybe...but not like that. And my bullets aren't magnetic, couldn't have been polarity. This is something else." Ruby explains.

"Then what?" Weiss asks.

"Telekinesis." Kassius answers immediately, causing the two girls to look at him for answers.

"How'd you know that?" Weiss requests. Kassius parts his crossed arms to turn to them.

"I've seen those abilities before. The assassin that killed my team, but it wasn't a woman who killed them. But from how you are describing her? Sounds like we are dealing with a new Onyx Phantom." Kassius begins to explain. Ruby tilts her head when he mentions that name.

"Henry was about to say that name." Weiss remembers from what Yang told her.

"Yeah. As soon as he said Onyx, he was killed." Ruby agrees. Kassius turns and he walks to the wall and he presses his hands against it. He presses a button, the metal plates that surround him unlock, opening around him and then the whole suit opens up so then he can step out of it. He turns to the two girls.

"The Onyx Phantom is an ancient idea, a Mistraalian Assassin who is a lethal warrior. It has existed for thousands of years, and every Onyx Phantom conceals their identities. Everything but their eyes and they always wear a hood, or a helmet. Women tend to wear a hood, men tend to wear the helmet." Kassius explains to them both.

"Why the difference?" Weiss asks, which is a good question as well.

"Well, the male armour is heavier and more armoured. Whilst the female is lighter but weaker, sacrificing armour for speed. But both are stealthy." Kassius explains. "The Phantoms always wear voice disguisers as well, just to further hide their identity." Kassius explains.

"Why have the assassins?" Ruby quizzes Kassius.

"They were born to be the best-of-the-best." Kassius states. "But...over time...Salem learned of their power and she took the Onyx Phantoms for her own. And now they serve the Grimm." Kassius explains.

"They all have Telekinesis?" Weiss questions.

"Ever since Salem took control." Kassius answers.

"Can we beat her?" Ruby asks.

"We could definitely beat her, they're not infinite like the Knights of Grimm are." Kassius says. He pauses for a moment, looking out at the woods where they were just at. His eyes almost seem like they are connected to those woods, like he belongs there. His cybernetic hand twitches when he looks out and Ruby notices the flicker of movement in his hand. She then looks at Kassius.

"Kassius? Are you okay?" Ruby asks him, walking up to him. Kassius turns his head when he hears her prying.

"Hmm? Oh yeah, I'm fine." Kassius lies, he has always been a terrible liar and both Yang and Ruby know that extremely well. Whenever he lies, he answers far too quickly for it to be the truth, and he replied very quickly right then.

"I know you, Kassius. And I know when you are lying." Ruby says. Kassius sighs, looking down at the floor and then he chuckles a little.

"You are just as stubborn as your sister." He says with a smile as he looks at the small black and red haired girl next to him. Even Weiss feels like she should be by his side as well, they know about what he lost down there, and that he has lost a lot since he left Yang. Even though he has her back, he is still grieving the loss of someone he loved. "My team are still down there...that was what I was really looking for. Not Death...Not Fear...none of them. I was just trying to find where they died, so then I could bury them." Kassius says to Ruby and Weiss. Yang walks out from one of the houses and she sees Weiss and Ruby talking to him. She walks over and she puts her hand on his shoulder.

"What's up?" Yang asks, then she follows his eyes as they look at the trees in the distance, and she already knows.

"Do you know where they are?" Ruby asks him. Kassius just nods as he looks down at his feet again. "Then let's go." Ruby says. Her immediate want to help nearly makes his eyes pop from their sockets when they widen, turning to face her and Weiss as they pass Yang.

"Wait, what? No...I can't ask you to do that." Kassius says, being as humble as ever. Yang looks at the man she loves then at her brave sister with Weiss.

"You're not, we're volunteering." Weiss retorts with a courtesy. Ruby and Weiss walk on but Kassius and Yang remain stood where they are. Ruby and Weiss stop, looking back at Yang and Kassius as she hugs him gently, then they both affectionately bump their foreheads together, holding that position as they close their eyes, stood there. Weiss looks in awe to see Yang like that, so soft and so nutty about a guy. "I've...never seen Yang like that." Weiss says to Ruby. Ruby smiles at them both being together.

"I have...once." Ruby says. "Those two have known each other for years. He was her best friend at school...then later down the line they became more than that. But they had to split because Kassius got a place here at Haven, whilst Yang and I got a place at Beacon." Ruby explains to her. "Yang never got another boyfriend because no one was ever as good to her like he was. He never had to pull any ridiculous pick-up lines or anything...he was just being himself." Ruby explains to the Atlesian Girl.

"But he got another girlfriend?" Weiss asks, sounding confused.

"Well...he never thought he'd see her again...neither did Yang for that matter. But she could never find someone like him. I guess when you grew up with someone like him at Patch, it is hard to move on. And from what he told me...even Vetra was nothing like Yang was. Apparently it wasn't as natural as it was for those two. But losing a girlfriend like that? No one should suffer through that." Ruby explains to Weiss, and Weiss sighs, closing her eyes for him.

"Come on, let's help him out." Weiss says, patting Ruby's shoulder, walking past her.

A couple of hours pass...

Team R.W.B.Y walk with Kassius into the woods in search of the bodies of his team where they were left. He looks around, fireflies fluttering and flashing in the beautiful night sky and all around them. Kassius continues to walk through, memories flashing before his eyes as he recognises the place that he wanders through. He sighs, the foggy breath leaving his mouth. "I remember this place like it was yesterday..." Kassius says to them, Blake turns and looks at him. She and him have both lost something like this, she has lost something quite recently.

"I'm sorry, Kassius." She says to him. Kassius looks at her and he smiles.

"Me too." He says, directing his answer to her parents. Ruby looks up at the stars as she wanders in the woodland. They pass by a tree and he stops, his eyes fixating onto one point. Yang stops Ruby and she just looks at Weiss and Blake. They both stop, and they let him have this moment to say goodbye. A horrible thing to see, the skeletons of his own team in a clearing in the middle of the forest. The green grass around their bodies where they fell. He slowly walks towards them and Yang walks with him, looking at their bodies, their weapons still beside their corpses. Their bones laid out as they died. He looks down at the bodies, tears welling up in his eyes. Yang takes her hand and she holds his gently and he holds it back. He lowers his head, exhaling. He turns to Blake who holds a shovel and he holds out his cybernetic hand. Blake throws the shovel to him and he catches it. "Goodbye, guys." He says to their bodies, stabbing the soil with the shovel's blade. He stamps down on the shovel, pushing it further into the dirt.

He digs for quite some time, creating holes for their skeletons to be rightfully buried. Weiss and Yang help by putting their skeletons in the graves that they have managed to dig out for them. When all four have been gently and respectfully put in, they also rest their weapons on their skeletons like a warrior, buried with their weapons. Kassius then takes up the job of filling the holes back up with the shovel, throwing dirt back into the hole for their bodies to be left to rest. Ruby and Blake find twigs that they connect together with grass and vines to create three crosses for the graves, planting them down at the heads of the graves. When complete, the tam all pay their respects with a moment of silence. But Kassius stands there, holding one of Lash Equinox in his hand, he flicks his wrist up and the blade folds out from the hilt, extending out before him, the light from the Fractured Moon reflecting from the metal blade. He turns the blade to the ground, sinking it through the floor as he kneels down before the graves of his team. Yang stands there, looking at the man with empathy in her large lilac eyes. Tears fall from his eyes. "I'm sorry..." Kassius says to the graves, looking at the three of them. "I should have saved you..." He says. Yang wants to comfort him, but Weiss stops her from interfering, he needs his closure. It should be done on his own. So the team leave him to his own team for the time being until he is ready.

Kassius remains there, like a knight with his sword embedded in the ground with his eyes shut. "Vetra..." He stammers as he remembers her face. "I should have apologised sooner..." He says to her grave. "I never should have said the things that I said to you...I was mad and I was stupid." He snarls at himself. He lowers his head in anger at himself. "You were right." He says to the grave. "I wasn't over her..." He reveals. "I wasn't over Yang...I never could have...you always told me to follow my heart..." He slowly says to the grave.

Yang looks at him from behind a tree, always concerned about him. His mental state has been fractured from when the Onyx Phantom took his team from him, and he always describes his metal arm as a constant reminder of his failure as a leader. But there was nothing that he could have done to save them, the Onyx Phantom had them outmatched. Kassius remains there on one knee with Lash Equinox stabbed into the grassy soil. "But I did love you..." Kassius says to her grave. "You were there for me here at Mistral when I was hating myself for leaving her..." Kassius explains to her grave. "I don't know if we can restart things...after everything that has happened...I don't know if she still holds those feelings." Kassius says to her grave. "It's her choice...it always has been...but I won't ever forget you, Vetra. You once told me that if you didn't come back from a mission, or if we had to end things...that I could move on..." Kassius says. A little chuckle emerges from his smile. "I hope that you were right." He says.

Yang smiles sweetly as she listens to him, her heart fluttering with love at his words, but also aching for him as well. "For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. Return to the Infinite and the Unbound, my friends...perhaps I will meet you at the shores when it is all over." Kassius speaks, reciting a similar line that Pyrrha said to Jaune when activating his Aura. His aura flashes, a dark red flash across his body and it pulses into the three graves and then he opens his eyes. He stands tall, looking down at the graves. Yang walks up to him from behind and he turns, looking into those beautiful purple eyes. She beams sweetly and offers him a hug, and he accepts it, wrapping his arms round her, his hand moving through her long blonde hair. She gently caresses the back of his head as she holds him.

"I'm sorry, Kas." She says to him. They break the hug and she holds his cheek with her hand. "Are you alright?" She asks him. He looks back at the graves, a deep and heavy sigh released from his lungs.

"Yeah...I've had enough of this place." He says, walking away from her, ripping Lash Equinox from the soil and flicking it downwards, folding the blade back to the hilt. Yang looks at the graves, then she follows him.

Cinder

She walks through the outskirts, her amber eye examining everything around her. The mercenaries of which they travelled here in have gone off, searching for Adam. He is here somewhere. Walking with her is Tyrian with his blades extended as he looks around. "Where is he?" Tyrian snarls in annoyance, his scorpion tail twitching as he walks. Cinder rolls her eye as she walks, missing her two friends right now.

"He's here." Cinder assures him.

"Are you sure?" Tyrian scoffs, hopping onto a rock, crossing his legs together as he sits on the boulder. Cinder sighs, looking up at the childish huntsman as he sits on the rock. She stands in a very feminine posture, placing her hand on her hip and tilting her head.

"Look, he has been meeting with Sienna Khan here. Hazel has informed it, he will be here." Cinder says, walking onward as she holds the Obsidian Bow in her hand. Tyrian sits back up, following the young woman across the street, landing down on the soil behind her as they walk onward. But whilst they walk, Tyrian stops as he looks out at the forest in the distance. Cinder doesn't stop however, she just keeps on walking to achieve her objective. She groans in annoyance, turning around to learn what he is staring at. "Oh, what now?" She groans. He just looks at her with a mad smirk.

"I spy...with my little eye..." He says, pointing to the woodland with his finger. Cinder follows his finger and sees what he saw. "A silver eyed warrior." Tyrian finishes, and Cinder's eye widens in disbelief when she sees Ruby walking with her team and Kassius, back to the city. She tenses up when she sees her, blaming her for everything that has happened to her. Blaming he for all of her failures and the punishments that have followed from them.

"Call Hazel and Watts...we have a change of plan..." Cinder snarls.

Sun

Sun walks across the area, his eyes examining the locale for any signs of Schnee life. Scarlet walks with him, along with Sage and Neptune, their weapons ready for combat. The Mercenaries will attack them, they already have engaged Team R.W.B.Y in a high speed chase on the roads only a couple of hours ago. Sun spins Ruyi Jingu Bang through his fingers, whistling to himself as he walks. "Winter?" He calls out, on a hunch he hopes that she will hear him and listen. Scarlet walks up to Sun's shoulder and he bumps his arm to get his attention. "Yeah?" He says in response.

"Did you hear?" Scarlet asks him.

"Hear what?" Sun asks.

Scarlet gestures to Neptune. "About him and Weiss." He whispers. Sun's eyes widen and he stops in his tracks, looking at the Pirate and then he looks at Neptune with a surprised expression. The blue haired boy pauses in his tracks as he looks at his leader.

"What?" Neptune asks with a little bit of fear in his voice.

"You and Weiss?" Sun asks with a smirk.

Neptune rolls his eyes in annoyance. "Oh god, did you tell everyone about that?" Neptune asks Scarlet, which makes Scarlet grin at him with his hands held up in self-defence. "Well how's that any different to you and Blake?" Neptune asks.

"Nothing...just surprising that you managed to win the Ice Queen over." Sun says with a little bit of amazement in his voice.

"It wasn't easy...I really had to work at it." Neptune points out. Sun chuckles a little as they walk. Sage continues to walk with them but he pauses when he hears a woman moan in pain. His eyes turn to a woman in the dark with some brown robes over her body. He looks carefully and sees a dirty white strand of hair dangling from the hooded head of the person. He walks towards her carefully and he reaches out to her.

"Hello?" Sage asks. The woman yelps in fear, drawing a sword and pointing it directly at his throat. Sage surrenders, his hands held up in defence to show that he won't hurt her. She has large pale blue eyes and is in her twenties, white hair and she is quite tall. It's Winter...

Sage notices that her hand is pressed to her side, just like the girl said to Weiss when she got here. "Winter..." Sage realises.

"No...I'm not..." She says, backing up from him with fear in her voice. This is the most frail she has ever seemed in front of somebody. She backs up against the wall and he holds his hands out, showing that he won't hurt her.

"I'm not an Acolyte of Lien, I'm from Haven, you may have met these two before." Sage says, pointing to Sun and Neptune. "Your sister is looking for you, we are helping her." Sage says to her. Sun, Scarlet and Neptune look at Winter and they carefully approach her. Neptune and Scarlet keep watch for any Mercenaries coming near.

"Winter? We need you to come with us, your injured, we can help." Sun assures.

"How do you know my sister?" She demands.

"We are friends of hers, one of us is more than that." Sun says with a smirk when he looks at Neptune. Neptune groans and turns to Winter as she looks at him, she hasn't got the energy or the time to argue with the boyfriend of her sister. But she does get one word out.

"Boyfriend?" She snaps, before wincing in agony from the pain in her side.

"We need to get her to the Safehouse." Scarlet says.

"Good idea. Let's go, come on." Sun says, offering his hand to her. She looks at him, hesitation in her mind. "You can either: come with us, or, deal with the Mercs who are here." Sun says. Winter sighs, since she really has no other option, she takes his hand and she goes with them.

Ruby

Kassius has returned to Qrow after the help that Team R.W.B.Y have provided. The team walk through the alleyway of the buildings to get back to the place where Qrow was, taking a scenic route. Ruby looks over at Yang as they walk. "Is he okay?" Ruby asks. Yang looks at Ruby, remembering how he was feeling when she spoke to him after he could have a chance to say goodbye properly.

"It will take time, but I think we helped." Yang says.

"It feels good to help someone every now and again."Weiss says.

But then, as they walk through the alleyway, they all stop when they all hear someone screaming in terror from something inside with them. They all draw their weapons for combat, but then...there is a haunting sound that makes Ruby's eyes widen in fear. A blood-curdling hysterical laugh echoes from down the alleyway. Yang, Weiss and Blake notice the fear in those silver eyes, since she remembers who that laugh belongs to. Blake looks at Ruby. "Ruby? What's wrong?" Blake asks her. The laugh echoes again, getting louder now, and Ruby is stuck in this state of fear.

"Ruby, who is that?" Weiss questions.

That's when he turns the corner. His booted footsteps round the corner first and his brown trench coat surrounds the white sleeveless jacket with leather belts strapped to it. His scars on his chest are visible in the moonlight as he glares at them. His long damaged scorpion tail curved up behind his back as he stares at them, blood staining the wrist blades that are retracted at the moment. Moonlight reflects off the metal rings in his ears as he walks out into the light to look at them. A smirk forms on his face as he licks his lips like a psychopath. His eyes lock onto Ruby Rose and Yang's eyes widen in fear. "My little flower...we meet again..." He greets as he stares at her.

"Ruby?" Yang stammers in fear.

"It's...Tyrian..." Ruby stutters. Tyrian looks at the rest of the team and he gasps with happiness.

"Oh! And the rose has her beautiful petals with her. How pleasant...I shall enjoy plucking them from you." Tyrian snarls with a smirk. His wrist blades extend forward and he sprints straight at them, his arms held back and he laughs maniacally as he charges.

His laugh echoes across the city as he attacks them.