Chapter 21: Homecoming

Setting: Fortuna

The freelancers finished two missions in a row in the last twenty-seven hours. The first job was from a former member of the White Fang who wanted to start a new life, but his old associates were blackmailing him to commit crimes so he hired the freelancers to convince them to stop. They convinced them the best way they knew how by having Silver plant illegal weapons he got from the black-market area of the Bazaar and Violet tipped off Fortuna's task force about the White Fang's presence. The second mission took them outside Fortuna to a small settlement. The job was to stop some scoundrels from routinely ransacking their residents and only stores which they accomplished with relative ease. Now that they made some Lien, the team was enjoying some relaxation time.

Remus was actually doing a favor for Sterling by doing some deliveries around Fortuna. The locations of the deliveries were scattered around every corner of the town. It would've been a chore for Sterling or anyone else, but Remus' Checkpoint let him reach all twelve addresses in under a minute. The time wasn't a problem, but he still felt sick to his stomach when he does teleports back to back like that, so Remus decided to walk home. Turning the corner, Remus stopped when he saw his friend Blood waiting for him with a semi-serious look.

On the other side of town, Violet and Silver were testing out their new abilities by doing a fun exercise; parkour. They were leaping from building to building, doing agile tricks to get around. Fortuna wasn't known for tall buildings. Most of them were two-stories at the most and the tallest one was Concordia which was four-stories tall, but they made it work. Silver used Gravity to jump high in the air then practiced his levitation when he was high enough to work on moving and it was working. It took some time, but he realized he could move using his body. The sensation was similar to free falling, but he could only move in a horizontal fashion and down. Moving up on his own was still out of his reach. Violet was using the Gravity dust in her new kukris to manipulate her own gravity as Silver does with his semblance. She could walk on the surface of walls and ceilings, but that was the limits of gravity outside of combat. Silver hovered to the top of a two-story building while Violet ran up the side in order to get a good feel of her new technique.

"What do you think? Pretty cool huh?" she asked Silver once she made it to the top.

"You know, walking on walls isn't cool if everyone else can do it. Almost feel like you don't need me anymore," Silver said as he pointed to her daggers.

She smiled and thought it was best to tease him. "Silver. Are you jealous of weapons? You know they could never replace you. I mean, who else is going to cook me dinner after a hard day's work?"

"Oh haha, I feel so special. Not that your new toys could ever best my skillset. Ready to keep going?" Silver said as he was ready to jump again until something zipped by at fast speeds.

It turned out to be Hazel using her Hive as a jetpack. Violet turned to see Sapphire trailing behind using her cables from her Spinnerets to swing around from building to building. The two were returning home from academy classes until they saw Violet and Silver leaping around. They decided to join in for some after-school fun. The four of them traveled around Fortuna for two hours. Hazel wasn't doing parkour like the rest of them, but she was doing a bunch of aerial maneuvers to impress her friends and it worked. Sapphire continued swinging around and Silver held on to her sometimes to get a feel of the wind flowing through his hair. Violet felt like she got a real handle on her gravity dust after today's fun and decided to call it a day and return back to base while the others had fun.

Setting: Team VRSZ Base

Violet walked back the base and noticed Remus and Blood were standing at the front door. She thought the two were going to have another duel, but that changed when she noticed there was no battle-ready look on Remus' face like he usually had when fighting someone like Blood. She could already tell this wasn't about a battle.

"Remus, Blood, what are you guys up to?" she asked curiously.

"I'm going to take Remus somewhere. Somewhere I think he's ready to go," Blood answered.

Violet glanced at her teammate who had no idea what the bat faunus was talking about until he continued.

"I'm taking him home. To the village where all the Cobalt tribe hail from."

Violet and Remus were both surprised by his words. She knew that Blood and Remus came from the same place, but she never thought about it any further than that. Their home was destroyed and deserted, a place she nor Remus thought they would go. This was surprising because she was curious about her friend's reaction and, more importantly, his well-being of seeing his home. However, she remembered that Remus' mind was wiped of any memories. She really wondered how he would react.

"Oh," was how she responded.

"Ever since I enlisted myself into Clair's employ, I planned to take Remus there to teach him and to get some insight on his people. However, there was never any time in my schedule to actually take him. Instead of waiting, I asked Clair if I could have some time do this and she complied. She really is a generous person…and now we're here," Blood explained and Violet asked one question.

"Um, is this a boy's trip or…can I tag along?" she asked, hoping Blood would allow her to join. She and Blood were good friends, but she didn't know if he planned this to be just him and Remus, meaning she might be intruding right now.

Blood grinned because he understood she wanted to come as emotional support if Remus even needed it. "Sure, I needed to use Fantasia anyway, and I know for a fact that Remus is a pretty horrible driver."

Remus crossed his arms and whispered to himself, "I've…gotten better. Don't know why people say my driving's bad…. I've been practicing…"

Violet giggled, "Oh, I can sing a few bars about that," Remus slumped his shoulders when he heard her say that. Violet continued, "I'll take us there. Just point me in the right direction."

Violet and Remus got ready for the trip while they were at their base. Blood waited and watched from the living room as the two did their work. He watched Violet put a large number of Chesire's Enigmas in her waist bag and Remus actually checking the mechanics of Romulus in its railgun form. Blood was surprised he was so meticulous about tuning up his weapon, though he was aware of Remus' strong attachment to it since he named it after his brother. Violet tapped on her scroll several times before putting it away.

"Alright, I sent a text to Silver. He knows we're going and he'll hold down the fort until we get back. Apparently, Team CLSH invited him on a tour of their academy so he'll be kept busy. You guys ready to go?"

Setting: Desert

The trio of Violet, Remus, and Blood were traveling through the desert in Fantasia with Remus and Blood's home as the destination. Blood informed Violet that the village was located near the edge of Vacuo in the northeast and they should make it there in a day with no delays. Blood was sitting in the passenger seat and Remus was in the back, laying down on both seats, looking up at the sky with his bionic eye while the other's closed. His bionic eye wasn't sensitive to light like a normal eye.

Violet was stealing glances of Blood for some time since she's been driving. She tried to be discreet about it, but the winged faunus noticed it immediately and was waiting for her to speak up. Finally fed up with the uncomfortable looks, he spoke up.

"Anything I can help you with. You've been staring at me for most of the ride. Not sure why. Got something you want to ask?" Blood said as Violet focused on driving. She wasn't pleased with being caught, but she knew she wasn't trying her best to hide it.

"I know Remus doesn't remember anything about his home, but you do. Could you tell me what the village or the Cobalts were like?" She was hoping to get some actual answers.

She knew the pasts of all her members, but Remus' missing child years were the only thing she and he were missing. It didn't bother Remus at all because he never yearned to learn more about his past. He's the type of person that lives and thinks about the present, but Violet wanted to know mostly out of sheer curiosity.

"Hmmm, there's nothing really special about the village. It was a place the Cobalts called home along with other people, but if you want to understand the Cobalts themselves, then you need a look in Remnants' history. Remus, you better be listening too. You need to know more than she does."

Remus sat up properly in his seat to show he was listening. Blood began to tell the tale of the Cobalts.

"The name Cobalt has been around for a long time. Their clan was a line of warriors, some of the best in Remnant. Back in the day they weren't well known throughout Remnant but were renowned in Vacuo. Actually, the kingdom of Vacuo was worried about their growing strength, fearing the Cobalts could be a potential threat if they decided to raid the land. Somewhere down the line, the kingdom decided it was best to try and form an alliance with them to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and to their surprise, the Cobalts agreed. You see, the Cobalts are born warriors, but they aren't savages that look for fights like the usual thieves and scoundrels in Vacuo. Their core belief is fighting for something bigger than themselves. Choosing to side with the kingdom meant peace for them and the people who live there and it was peaceful…until the Great War."

"What happened in the Great War?" Remus asked, fully invested in the story.

"Vacuo entered the Great War as an ally to Vale to fight against Mantle and Mistral. Vacuo used the alliance between themselves and Cobalts to spur them into fighting for their land. They were a great power in the kingdom's forces. A couple of major battles in Vacuo were won with a Cobalt on the field and they became respected by all the other kingdoms."

"They sound incredible," Violet commented, fascinated by the history lesson.

"They were incredible and Vacuo recognized how valuable it was having the Cobalts by their side, but it didn't last forever. The Great War came to an end and resulted in many casualties, but the peace between kingdoms was forged from the fires of war. This brought about peace to the world, but it ended the alliance between the Cobalts and the kingdom forever."

"Really?" Remus asked.

"What was it that made them break ties with Vacuo? Did they actually dislike the notion of world peace?" Violet asked with concern. She didn't want Remus to feel like he came from a line of actual warmongers. She was relieved when Blood shook his head.

"It wasn't the peace that upset them, it was what was created from it. The leaders of each kingdom came together and decided to create new laws and decrees to prevent another war from happening ever again, but one thing that was born from this union was celebrated by all except the Cobalts."

"What?" Remus asked and Blood gave him his answer.

"The Vytal Festival."

"That thing the academies do every two years?" Violet asked then continued, "What was their problem with that?"

"Cobalts are a line of proud warriors. To them battles were for self-defense, protect others, eliminate enemies, life and death. They saw the tournament as nothing more than a disgrace. Fighting in front of spectators, for glory, purely for entertainment was something every Cobalt hated. Do you understand that Remus?"

Remus thought about it by looking back at his time in Never-End. He could admit to himself that he entered for the sole purpose of fighting and he enjoyed it, something very unlikely for a traditional Cobalt. His outlook changed when he battled Chrome and how he was beaten to near death with the crowd cheering for his demise. It wasn't a pleasant moment to look back on, but he understood why his people disliked tournaments and that kind of fighting.

"I do," he said out loud, but in his head, he made a promise to himself. He vowed to never participate in that type of fighting again and fight for the reasons his ancestors did; to protect themselves and others, for something greater than him.

"The alliance with Vacuo was broken and the Cobalts secluded themselves to their village. They stayed there till… till the time the Grimm came and wiped them out more than a decade ago. Now we have Remus Cobalt, the last Cobalt. You're their legacy Remus and I wanted to take you to your birthplace to truly realize that."

"…Um…okay," Remus answered. He was surprised by what Blood said and the added responsibility of being the last Cobalt. He never thought of it in the slightest until now. It was very unexpected.

Violet was driving Fantasia so she quickly turned around to get a glance at his face. She noticed how he was affected by the gravity of Blood's words. There wasn't anything she could say to him. Remus had to accept the facts Blood gave him. He sat in the back, thinking to himself about all the information he was given.

The ride to the village was very long and very quiet. Not a lot was said after Blood's semi-lecture and there weren't a lot of settlements or towns northeast of Vacuo so it was a straight shot to the village. The journey took the whole day and it was dusk before any of them knew it. Violet stopped the car so they could rest. She opened the trunk of the car to pull out one of the extra reserves of gasoline for the car and three bottles of water for everyone. The three of them were going to sleep in the car to get some rest until dawn and Blood would take over the driving. Blood lowered the driver's seat and laid down there, Violet did the same with the passenger's seat, and Remus laid down in the back, staring at the star-filled sky. Everything Blood told him was still on his mind.

He wasn't upset or happy with what he learned about the Cobalts. Honestly, Remus didn't know what to feel. He's a Cobalt, but he never had any real connection to that name and the fact that Blood told him he's the legacy of people he's never even met is the thing that kept him up at night and he wasn't the only one.

"Remus, are you alright?" she asked with concern.

"Yeah. It's just a lot to take in," he answered while still looking at the sky. Violet got in the back with Remus so they wouldn't wake up Blood. Remus sat up so she could take the seat next to him.

"I can imagine. Hearing about that stuff was really something. Your family is amazing," Violet complimented to lighten the mood, though she didn't know if he was even sad or upset. Remus' emotions were easy to discern ninety-nine percent of the time, but this was the rare one percent where no one could understand what he's feeling.

"Uh-huh. They're…great…and I'm supposed to be one of them. Even though I have no idea what that means."

"It doesn't mean as much as you think. You're still the same Remus Cobalt you always were, it's just that your last name has more meaning to you now. Nothing about who you are is going to change, I promise," Violet said with a small smile.

"…Do I really have a legacy to uphold?" he asked while slouching down, looking at the floor of the car. Violet could definitely understand something about family legacy.

"Remus, do you remember the time I told you and Silver my birth name and my family?" He nodded and she continued.

"My family is full of backstabbers and lunatics who'd betray each other if it meant a better seat at the table. My family is the worst group of people you could ever meet, let alone be related to. My own father, the head of that mad family, saw his own daughter as nothing more than a tool to increase his social status. Refusing to be part of that insanity, I decided to run away from it all and start a new life with a new name."

"…Um, why are you telling me this?" Remus asked, a little confused about why she was retelling her past.

"Legacies don't define a person. If that were true, then I'd be no different than my family, but look at me. I rejected everything about the Underlands and I'm better off because of it. The Cobalts are definitely better than my family, but their legacy doesn't have to define you either nor should it change who you are as a person. Despite what Blood told you, whether you uphold it or not is up to you because you have a choice," Violet explained and it gave Remus more to think about.

"And if you ask me, based on what Blood told us about your family so far, I think you're doing a great job keeping the legacy alive. You really are just like them, but that's to be expected from a fellow Cobalt, right?" she said with a grin to cheer him up and it worked. Remus felt a lot of weight leave his shoulders when she voiced her opinion about the matter.

Suddenly, Remus felt Violet's arm wrap around his shoulder. She pulled him in to lay his head on her shoulder while she leaned her head on his. Remus wasn't uncomfortable, but he was pretty confused about why she was doing this. "…Violet, what are you doing?" he asked as Violet kept a firm hold on him.

"This is how friends comfort each other when one of them is down," she answered.

"Oh," was the only thing he could say as Violet held his head in place for a couple more seconds before letting go. "Thanks," he said as he cracked his own smile.

Violet was happy to see he felt much better about this. "And if you want, you could the same thing I did and change your name," she said as a joke and Remus chuckled.

"What would I change it to?" he asked and she smiled.

"Doesn't matter. Make it anything you want."

"I could copy you and be Remus Tulipe."

"Sorry, only one person in the world can have that name. If you want, I could think of something for you?"

"No, no, no. It's my name, so I should think of it. Oh, I think I got one,"

Blood sat in his seat, eyes closed and silently listening to the whole conversation. He was feeling guilty about putting such a burden on Remus so quickly and was relieved to know Violet helped him feel better. Their humorous conversation was the last thing he heard before falling asleep with a grin on his face.

Setting: Destroyed Village

In an unknown village, someone was there, resting on the roof of an abandoned build. The person couldn't be seen, because of the darkness of night, but their action could be discerned. The person was looking up at the sky like Remus was doing in the desert. The person was also holding onto some kind of stick-like object.

Setting: Desert

The sun finally peaked over the horizon, signaling Blood that it was time to press on. He turned on the Fantasia's ignition and drove off, waking up the other two who were sleeping in the back while leaning against one another. The trio continued their long journey to the northeast corner of Vacuo where the desert area was beginning to change to grasslands. They encountered Grimm, but fought them all off, in fact, Blood gave Remus the wheel and he ran over any Grimm that had the misfortune of being in his path. After running them over, Remus would insist on driving to his home, but Violet and Blood were adamant about him not driving no matter how much he begged.

Setting: Cobalt Village

It took them all morning to make it, but they finally made it to their destination. Blood stopped the car right at the entrance of a desolated village so they could walk through the destroyed gate. The village had many homes and buildings which was surprising for a settlement in Vacuo. The architecture of the buildings was quite detailed and pleasing to the eye, but that only applied for the buildings that were still standing. A lot of structures were destroyed and toppled over, obviously from the massive Grimm invasion, and the air of the place was hollow like it wasn't obvious enough that the place lacked life.

Remus looked around at the village, looking at each building, expecting to get some recollection or hidden memory, but nothing came to him. It showed just how effective Lupa's lobotomy procedure was. Violet took a look around the area herself to see what kind of life the Cobalts had and what kind of life her teammate would've had if the Grimm to exterminate them all. Blood walked into the village with purpose. He trekked all the way to the center of the village, where a large, but the demolished house stood along with the remains of a stone statue in front of the building. Despite most of it falling off, the statue was still discernible.

The lower half of the person's body was still intact, but the right of the torso was gone along with the right and left arms. The head of the statue was broken in half with the top of the head destroyed, leaving only the mouth and chin. Blood could tell this was a woman, and more importantly, someone he knew. He stared at it for so long that he didn't notice Violet trying to talk to him and neither of them were aware of someone approaching.

"Blood are you okay?" Violet asked with a hand on his shoulder.

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm…fine," he answered back, but even he wasn't so sure.

Coming back to his home after the carnage he saw was harder than he thought. More than a decade passed since that day, and he still wasn't completely over it.

It was Violet's turn to look at the statue. She glanced at it then looked to Blood asking, "Do you know who that is?"

"…Yeah. Not someone I knew personally, but someone I admired when I was a kid. She's…"

"The former leader of the Cobalt line, Rhea Cobalt," a feminine voice said out of nowhere, surprising them both.

Violet and Blood quickly surveyed the area but didn't see anything until the door to the household behind the statue opened. The person that stepped forward was a young woman with a metal staff in her hand. Violet and Blood stared at her in confusion and disbelief. Remus caught up to his friends and got a look at the woman too.

The woman appeared to be in her early twenties and she wore dark purple shorts with a blue sleeveless shirt that had a black hood stitched to it. She wore black shoes and a silver armlet on her upper right arm. One thing that stood out the most was the strange markings around her arms and legs that could only be described as tattoos on first glance. However, to Violet and Blood, the markings weren't the things that drew their attention. It was the physical features she had that reminded them of Remus. She had dark skin, black hair that reached down to shoulders, and the thing that reminded them most about Remus was her golden amber eyes that looked like they were staring into their souls.

The woman glanced at the two for a minute before setting her eyes on Remus. She didn't say anything as she analyzed him with wide eyes. Remus noticed her stare and looked back, but he didn't come to the same conclusion as she did. No one said anything until Violet spoke up. "Who are you? I have a good guess, but-" Violet was interrupted by the woman.

"My name is Azura, Azura Cobalt. And who is he?" she asked while looking at Remus.

He didn't know why she was so interested in him and didn't see the harm in telling her his name. Violet and Blood, on the other hand, were warier of the unknown Cobalt.

"Hi, I'm a Cobalt too." Azura lifted her eyebrow in skepticism until he said, "My name is Remus Cobalt." Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Remus? Your name is Remus?" she asked. Her expression changed to shock as she waited for his reply.

"Yeah, Remus," he repeated.

Azura was speechless for a few seconds then walked up to him, or tried to until Violet got in her way, stopping Azura in her tracks. Violet didn't know Azura's real intentions, so she didn't want her anywhere near her teammate. Blood thought the same thing, but he was still astounded by the fact that there was another Cobalt in the world and wondered if they were more.

Azura didn't take a step further, lest she angered Violet, and asked Remus another question.

"Remus, do you…have a brother?"

"Oh, you mean Romulus. He isn't um…he's dead. Been dead for a long time and, well it's a long story, but he's gone," he answered rather sad about thinking about his brother and the Alpha, but quickly got over it.

Azura shocked expression remained as she came to a realization. "You really are Remus."

"Okay lady, what do you know? And what's your relationship with Remus and Romulus?" Violet asked in a demanding tone.

"Romulus and Remus. The sons of Rhea Cobalt, head of the Cobalt line," Azura said and it surprised everyone else.

Even Remus was astounded by this news. He returned to his old home, met another Cobalt who told him his birth mother was the clan leader. It was a lot to take in and it made him think about what Blood told him before, mostly about how accurate he was about legacy. Azura however, had a new expression on her face, a serious one and Violet took note of it.

Fortuna is very similar to Dubai in both location and design.

The home for the Cobalts is called Cobalt Village in the setting, but that's not the village's real name. Truth be told, the Cobalts never decided on a name for their home because they didn't care.

In mythology, Rhea Silvia is the mother of Romulus and Remus, just like in VRSZ. And Rhea's husband is unknown. There is a debate about the identity of their father with some myths claiming it to be Mars or Hercules, both gods of war. The two gods inspired my decision to make Remus and the entire Cobalt line, very battle-oriented.