Chapter 20

Author's note: Wow. Chapter 20 already! I'm actually surprised at how far we've gotten in this story. And I have much more planned.

Seriously, thank all of you. Your support has helped to motivate me to keep going with this story. I now have a proper reason to write as good as I can. But this is still a hobby on top of it all. Thank you all so much, and Enjoy!

When Silver arrived at the table where everyone was talking, Ruby stood up and left the room in a hurry. Silver looked as she ran out of the house. "Where's Ruby going?"

Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other. "She blames herself for what happened yesterday. Speaking of which, are you alright?"

Silver nodded, before standing up. "Let Tai know where I am, alright?" He then went after Ruby, but not before smiling at Yang as he ran out.

"It's amazing how fast he can recover." Ren noted as he came from the kitchen carrying a stack of pancakes.

"Yeah. Speaking of which, what was that smile he gave you?" Neptune turned to Yang, who shrugged.

"I'm her girlfriend. Plus I looked after him last night."

Weiss grinned at her answer. "Care to explain the love bite on your neck?"

Yang's eyes widened as she reached for her neck. She looked at a mirror on the wall and spotted the mark on the side of her neck. "Oh… I, uh…"

"Ren? What's a love bite?" Nora asked as she dug into her pancakes. Jaune also asked the same thing to him. Ren struggled to come up with an answer while Pyrrha blushed.

Sun turned to Blake next to him. "Are you following any of this?"

She just held the book she was reading closer to her face, hiding her red face. "Nope. Not at all."

"Ruby!"

Silver struggled to run after the girl. She was fast, and with his scar he couldn't sprint properly without it threatening to open again.

He tripped over a root and hit the ground, hissing in pain. He pushed himself up. "Ruby, please! Stop!"

She finally stopped running, and when he caught up he slumped over, panting. "Ruby, what's wrong? Why are you running?"

Ruby turned, and her eyes were filled with tears. She tried to speak, but couldn't. Silver reached out, but she stepped back.

"Ruby, please. It wasn't your fault." Silver reached out again, and this time Ruby let him hug her.

"B-but… you almost died!" She screamed out loud, sobbing. "I almost killed you, I-"

"No you didn't. It was Bronze who almost killed me, not you."

"But... Crescent Rose…"

"You couldn't have known that silver was my weakness. But hey, look at it this way." He smiled. "You have Crescent Rose back, so the only way she can get it back is through you."

Ruby sobbed for a few more minutes, but after she calmed down her silver eyes looked up to him. "If she comes anywhere near you or my weapon, I'll tie her up and feed her to an Ursa."

"Well, when she comes for us, you'll have every opportunity to do that."

Ruby wiped her eyes. "That's not going to happen."

"What do you mean?"

"It said so on the news. Aside from the land which they've got now, they're not going anywhere else. No one is going outside of their territories, so I think we're safe." She gave a shaky sigh. "I'm… sorry… for running."

He gave her another hug, one that she returned. "It's ok. We've all been through a lot."

They both started walking back. "But." Ruby looked at him. "I'm still changing the blade."

"How about you mix it with bronze?" He joked, and they both chuckled.

"I can't. We've got no bronze, but if we had I would surely do that."

They finally reached the house again after another few minutes of walking. When they walked in, they found most of their friends around Yang, who was covering her face.

"What's going on?" Ruby asked. Jaune and Pyrrha looked up, happy that she was back.

"Well, after what they found out… How about you ask your sister?" Weiss asked with a very large grin on her face. Yang glared at her, face as red as her eyes.

"DON'T TELL HER." She growled. She then turned to Silver, her face softening slightly. "Does she know?"

"Know what?" Ruby turned to Silver, who was now red faced. "Did I miss something? Why are you blushing?" She pointed to Yang. "And what's that mark on your neck?"

The next few days were spent by the huntsmen and huntresses on recovering and training.

True to their words, the Allegiance of Steel didn't attempt to take any more land than what they had. The territories taken were mostly mining areas and mountains. Atlas and Mistral were hit particularly hard with this.

They released new laws in their captured territories to the locals who were still there, such as taxes and curfews. However, an unpopular one was that any Huntsman or Huntress caught in their new kingdom was to be immediately shot on sight or executed, if not detained and deported.

Already, several had met their demise in the territories, and this stained the image of the new nation. Atlas and Vacuo were still fighting on the borders, while Vale and Mistral attempted to keep hostilities and combat to a minimum.

Currently residing on the island of Patch, team RWBY, JNPR, Sun and Neptune were all recovering from the attack. Sun, Neptune and team JNPR had run into Bronze's forces on the way to Patch and managed to fight them off. CFVY and the other huntsmen and huntresses had stayed behind in Vale and Beacon in case of an attack against the school.

Silver's scar was healing well, but it was still sore most of the time. But he kept training as hard as he could with the other huntresses and huntsmen to increase his skill and strength.

Ruby was still finding it hard to not blame herself for Silver's wound, but she was focusing on making a new blade for Crescent Rose. She was trying to get her hand on Bronze still, but all the weapon smiths on the island for some reason had none of the metal anywhere. After all, it wasn't really important for weapons or construction as much.

Pyrrha's weapons weren't actually made of bronze, but were lined with copper instead. She swore to avenge her friend and has since been training as hard as she could against not only the others but with Qrow and Tai.

Jaune, Nora and Ren were continuously training to prepare for when they would fight against Bronze or the Allegiance of Steel. Jaune especially, as he saw Silver as his brother. They personally trained with each other.

Weiss reached out to the SDC to find out as much as she could about their new enemy and their movements. She also called in Winter Schnee for reports from the Atlas military and their intentions.

Blake was helping Weiss with her research, but was still distracted by Sun, who insisted on helping her with Neptune.

Qrow stayed for a few days but left afterwards, supposedly on a mission set by Ozpin.

Yang was personally training with Silver for the upcoming journey they would take. Their relationship now became more and more close.

As for Tai… he found out eventually. And challenged Silver to a fight. Cost of losing? Silver would never be able to reproduce ever again.

Silver fought hard.

Approximately a quarter of the forest was destroyed during the five hour fight to the death, but Silver managed to survive. He then got Tai's consent. Not that Tai was happy about it, but there wasn't anything he could do now.

A week later…

Silver lay on the bank of a small river in the forest behind the house. He'd found the place during his spar with Tai a few days before and found the place peaceful.

His scar was still there. It would be permanent, but his internal organs and body were completely healed. The doctors were surprised at the speed of the healing, but they put it down to his large amounts of aura. It probably had something to do with Yang though...

He was now resting against a tree, sighing as he watched the sun start to set and the clouds turn slightly pink. He looked up as all his friends walked through the bushes and sat down next to him. "Hey."

"So what's up?" Sun was just finishing a banana and slightly leaned on Blake, who pushed him off forcefully, blushing.

"Hello, everyone. I just want to meet with you all here for a reason." He sat up a bit and sighed. "I… promised Yang and Ruby that I'd tell you about my past with all of you."

Yang and Ruby looked at each other. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I guess you need to know your enemy. Mine." He took a deep breath. "Shall I begin?"

They all nodded, settling down.

"Very well…"