Chapter 24 – The Medallion – Pt. 2

Yang

Waiting for more answers, a response from Qrow and Nox, Yang walks around the area, searching for Kassius. Wherever he is, she has not seen him since he was looking concerned earlier, and she has absolutely no idea of where Weiss and Neptune have vanished off to. She turns a corner and decides to take a chance; he did claim this room after they were offered places to stay. She pushes the door open, since it is not shut properly and she walks into the room. Her instincts were right, and she was not expecting to see what is in front of her.

Kassius is stood by his bed with a sniper rifle being packed into a rifle case, one he has zipped up. Kassius looks over his shoulder swiftly and he looks straight at Yang, seeing her concern on her face. His scars across the side of his face are covered up by the shadows of the room, and he only says one thing. "Busted." He groans.

"What are you doing?" Yang asks him, taking a few steps closer to him. He shakes his head.

"Nope! No way, I'm not getting you involved in my business, forget you ever saw this." He tells her as he continues to pack some essentials up. Food, water, things like that. He aims to go out there for some time if he is taking stuff like that with him. But Yang is not one to take no for an answer, and she walks up to him and grabs his human hand with her cybernetic one and pulls his hand away from the sniper rifle and pulls him away from the bed entirely, looking into his amber eyes. Not the blue ones he disguised himself with as some people are capable of.

"Talk to me." She gently says. He looks away from her but she takes his cheek and makes him look at her, so then he should not feel ashamed for whatever he plans to do. So he tells her the truth.

"I found a lead on Ilia." He says to her, and Yang sighs, closing her eyes and stepping away from him. She and Blake know about his hatred and it is warranted, and both know that if he does go through with this hunt for revenge he has, he might not come back the same man. He could become a monster; it could be just what Hyde needs to take full control.

"Kas..." She says to him.

"You wanted to know; now you do." Kassius sharply says as he pulls his hand from hers and he sits down on the bed, setting the rifle down on his lap.

"Do you really think that killing her is going to fix anything?" Yang asks him honestly and he looks at her.

"Sorry, Yang, but this is not something you're gonna talk me out of. You know the phrase – An Eye For An Eye, A Life For A Life?" Kassius asks her, and he leans forward with angered eyes. "She owes me three lives." Kassius says to Yang, still thinking about his team and how she essentially fed them to the teeth of the Onyx Phantom. There is no stopping him, but she could help him – perhaps even change his mind along the way.

"I'll go with you." Yang tells him.

"No, I'm not risking your safety. Last time I dealt with her, I got three people killed. I will not let you be the fourth." Kassius tells Yang, sounding selfless and even very cold about it as well. Like he would be fine if it ended with him being the fourth life being taken by Ilia Amitola.

"What if you are that fourth life?" Yang inquires. He pauses but then he answers her question.

"You'd be fine without me – with your looks, I wouldn't be surprised if you had another boyfriend by the end of the week." He scoffs, sounding pretty harsh about it as well. Yang looks at him with disgust and she smacks him across the side of his face, and he recoils to the side. Normally, Hyde would have taken over, but he cares for Yang as well...and what he said was pretty uncalled for.

"How dare you." Yang snarls. Kassius stands there and he looks at her. "How could you say that? Guys have clamoured for me in the past, sure, but I never gave up on you. I always had the idea in the back of my mind that we could be together again – because I love you." She says to him, and it gets to Kassius...because of how he dated Vetra when Yang never gave up on him. He looks down at the floor, guilt passing over him. But Yang doesn't ever bring Vetra up, because he didn't know if he would have ever met her again. And that he is so wracked with grief and vengeance that she can't blame him for what they had then – as long as he never gives up on her now. She then crouches down to him and holds his hands as she looks into his eyes again. "I'm with you to the end of the line, Kas." Yang says to him with a toothless smile.

Kassius smiles at her. "What did I do to deserve you?" He chuckles.

"You were there for me, my sister, my father even...when no one else was." She says to him. "You're family, always will be." She says as she kisses him gently on the lips, and Kassius holds her close as well. They press their foreheads close, and then she returns to the previous subject.

She looks at him. "How did you find out where she is?" Yang asks. Kassius sits back, and Yang takes a seat on the bed next to him.

"I overheard some White Fang guys talking in the hallway earlier, that said that they heard about where she was going." He begins. "Apparently there's this guy in Mistral, set up shop inside after it fell, calls himself Blackjack and he has been offering services to those who find him, helping them disappear off the map. Many White Fang members have been doing it for some reason, and they said she is doing the same thing." Kassius explains, and Yang nods with agreement.

"So she's making a run for it?" Yang assumes.

"Seems like it – I don't intend on her getting away." Kassius says as he closes the rifle bag. She sits there, and then she touches his leg with her human hand and smiles.

"Then let's go, we can talk to the Architect and convince him to open a portal there for us." Yang says.

"He's not gonna let us go there easily." Kassius chuckles. Yang thinks, they need a convincing lie, and then something comes to mind.

"Well – our bikes are still at Mistral." She says to him, remembering that they are still parked there.

Weiss

Weiss forms a glyph shield in front of herself as the bullets dart towards her and then she rolls backwards, taking refuge inside of the damaged building, holding Myrtenaster close to her chest. Neptune runs from his structure, his eyes widening when he sees a Seeker darting towards him and punching him in the centre of the chest, the speed of the soldier and the strength behind the punch throws him straight through the wall. The wall shatters like glass and he has a heavy tumble across the carpet. Neptune grabs his rifle on his back and points it directly at the Seeker, firing a charged round straight at him. The Seeker shoots to the side, avoiding the bullet as he moves. The Seeker immediately aims his Sub-Machine Gun at him and opens fire, a constant spray of dust bullets shooting towards the blue haired boy. "Come on! That's just cheating!" He argues, rolling away to get behind the desk. He takes his sword and allows it to transform into the trident form, standing back up, spinning it through his fingers to block the bullets from hitting his aura.

Watts walks across the rooftop of the building he in on, his Magnums in hand, his green eyes fixed on where Weiss is taking cover. He turns to two soldiers next to him, new classes that have been created by Merlot's sick scientific experiments. "Take her alive, we need her semblance." Watts orders to them. One of them has extremely powerful looking gauntlets with coils inside, like gigantic speakers with dust flowing through the pipes in the Exo-Suit he wears. The other has the same type of dust flowing through his armour and he holds an Assault Rifle. There is a mechanism in the centre of his chest plate, one that must use the abilities given to him.

"What about the other kid?" The soldier asks him. Arthur smirks.

"Dead or alive – it matters not." Watts tells them and they nod. One of the soldiers, the one with the huge gauntleted weapons, jumps down to one of the fractured buildings and he jumps, the power of his thrusters in his armour sends him sailing across the road of water beneath him. The other soldiers do the same. Weiss looks over, seeing the Acolytes of Lien Mercenaries making their way towards her position, and Neptune's.

"Neptune! We've got bad guys coming!" She calls to him; Neptune is still fighting the Seeker right now.

"I noticed that!" He yells as he slashes his trident at the soldier as he sprints past him, a trail of orange dust behind him as he uses the enhancement. Weiss scoffs, then looking at one of the soldiers coming for her. She swings her sword at him, forming a Glyph that shoots shards of ice directly into his chest, knocking him out of the air. The Mercenary screams as he plummets into the water and is carried off into the current. One of them however has made it and he starts to shoot at her with his assault rifle. But when she goes to attack him, he grabs the mechanism and twists it round forcefully and dust charges and glows across his armour plating with a deep hum. Suddenly, he duplicates himself three times in a row, the original one has dust glowing cyan, the others in the row glow yellow, green and magenta as they all shoot at her. Weiss dives behind cover, her eyes widening when she recognises that ability.

Killer Quartet!

"That's Flynt Coal's semblance..." Weiss says to herself with horror in her voice, taking cover from all the bullets being shot at her. She looks at Myrtenaster and she sends the revolving canister inside spinning round to a red dust shard, giving her the ability to use fire. She rises up and spins Myrtenaster through her fingers before slamming it into the ground, blasting a cloud of flames towards the Quartet. The Cyan one, the real one, retreats and the other ones all follow him, merging back into him. Other soldiers have arrives and one of them holds an electric baton, swinging it directly at Weiss. Weiss deflects the baton with her blade, and then the revolving canister switches to a yellow dust shard, charging electricity through the blade. "That's not nice! Didn't your mother ever teach you not to hit a lady?" Weiss mockingly challenges, kicking the soldier hard in the leg with her heel. The man wails in pain, she then plunges the pointed blade into his chest, electrocuting him as well, before kicking him into the water. Weiss returns her attention to the Mercenary wearing the armour that mimics the Killer Quartet Semblance and he aims his assault rifle at her, firing rounds directly at her. She arches her arm back and points the tip of her sword at the soldier, shooting towards him with a shining Glyph beneath her feet. She smashes the sword straight into his chest, the blast from the impact sending him flying through the air with a scream before crashing into the wall. But he is not done yet, he engages the ability again and all four versions of himself stand tall, opening fire upon her.

She thinks back to the emerald forest a year ago, during the time she first met Ruby. The Beowulves, she can still do something that will take all four of the Quartet members out, but she will need to be fast, and she must wait for him to reload his gun, the others are only firing dust charged ones, all mimicking what he does. She hears the gunfire stop and he quickly ejects the magazine from the rifle and reaches to his pouch to pull the next one out. Weiss leaps from cover, switching the dust back to red so it uses flames and she swings the sword sideways, throwing a line of fire directly at him, hitting all four of them with force. The real one sets alight, screaming in pain as he staggers around before taking one wrong step and plummeting to his death in the water, clipping his face on one of the buildings.

Weiss looks down at where he fell. "Perfect form." Weiss says with a smile, turning and walking away.

Neptune deflects the bullets and then he slashes the trident at the Seeker, but he avoids the attack and punches Neptune in the back, making him grunt in pain. He snarls in anger before turning round with speed, slamming the trident into the chest of the soldier so quick that his instincts were not fast enough. The Seeker crashes into the wall and he pulls himself out. "I hate these guys." Neptune groans as he is already able to fight again, sprinting straight at him. Neptune rolls out of the way, narrowly missing the punch of the soldier. The soldier slows down and then darts jaggedly at him again. The Seeker manages to punch Neptune in the face, knocking him off his feet. Neptune slides across the floor and then presses his legs against the crashed car inside, pushing against it and launching himself across the floor again, swiping the Seeker off his feet, aiming for the backpack with his fist. He smashes his fist into the core in the backpack and there is a powerful explosion where the canister of which had detonated, a cloud of orange dust thrown into the air with red lightning strikes rising and spreading across the room. Neptune shakes his hand in pain, nearly breaking a finger from punching a metal thing that hard. But the Seeker is not done yet, just because he cannot use his speed, does not mean he is not dangerous. He grabs Neptune and throws him into the wall, punching him over and over in the side and the face.

Neptune yells, smashing his knee into the crotch of the Seeker, making him gasp in pain, collapsing to the floor. He then picks his rifle up and shoots him in the spine, killing him instantly. "Wow – didn't think that was gonna work." He chuckles as he walks away. But before he can even relax, the other new Class of Mercenary lands in the room he is in. The soldier's Exo-Suit charges up and then he smashes his fist into the floor. There is a heavy bang with a perfunctory buzzing sound as the pistons smash down into the gauntlet, creating an extremely powerful quake.

Tremors are what these soldiers are called; they are able to use Seismic Powered Gauntlets in combat.

And by using it in this extremely damaged building, it has spread cracks across the ground. Neptune holds out his hands to remain balanced but it is not easy with the supports of the building starting to come loose, cracking and crumbling apart into little pieces beneath them, he then charges towards Neptune and he backs up. "Now, now – just hold on!" He attempts before he takes a punch to the chest by the Tremor, the impact sends Seismic Waves through his body, making his whole skeleton and muscles inside vibrate from the force. He screams as he is thrown through a building, landing inside of a completely different one. He looks up and sees Weiss fighting some other soldiers above him. She looks down and sees him there.

"Hi there!" She calls.

"Hey what's up?" Neptune responds, getting back up.

"What's on your mind?" She asks him.

"That guy." Neptune answers as he points at the Tremor as he jumps inside. The Tremor wears a helmet with a glowing orange visor that is locked onto him and he immediately swings at him again, but this time he ducks to avoid it. But the swing sends the piston forward anyway, blasting a wave towards him with a bang, one he luckily avoided. Weiss keeps on protected herself from the soldiers across the way in the town, using her Glyphs to great effectiveness. Until a potential idea brushes into her mind as her eyes widen. Weiss closes her eyes after taking cover and she slams her blade down into the ground and begins to Summon the Giant Armour, her glyph forming on the cracked floor right now. It spins faster and faster, making the ground shake as she summons, and then the powerful pulse from its creation blasts bits of rubble away from them, actually making the Tremor and Neptune stagger from it. The glowing Giant Armour stands tall with the huge sword of light gripped in his hand. It kneels before her, bowing its head to her as if she is its queen.

Weiss points Myrtenaster at the men across the way from her. "Deal with them." She orders. The Giant Armour rises up and then it jumps across the town, soaring across the town and landing before the soldiers. The Giant armour growls as it brings the powerful sword round with force, slicing across the soldiers, the impacts sending them into the air as he cuts them down. Weiss watches as the Giant Armour lays siege across the town from her, turning her attention to the Tremor that Neptune is fighting. Neptune kicks him in the side of the head, shooting his rifle over and over but the soldier has tough armour plating, he able to survive the attacks of his enemy with ease. The Tremor recoils back from the impact of the blue bolt of charged dust that has hit him in the shoulder, electricity coursing across the shoulder plate he wears. His gauntlet tightens into a fist and he punches at Neptune. Neptune rolls out of the way and slices the Trident as his rifle transforms across the Tremor's back. The man inside roars with pain, staggering straight into the blade of Myrtenaster. The blade sinks into his chest, accurate enough to miss the armour plates around him. The blade protrudes out his back and he arches his fist back as he bleeds internally and externally to try and kill her before he dies. Until the Trident stabs into his back and they both activate the electrical dust that can be charged through their weapons. He bellows in pain, his cadaver shaking erratically as he cooks alive by the electricity being fed to his body like that. Eventually, the body crumples to the floor, charred from the burning and face crashing to the ground, blood leaking from his wounds. Weiss smiles and offers him a high five, opportunity that Neptune can never risk missing. Neptune slaps her hand and she gasps.

"Ow!" She squeals, grabbing her wrist, her palm red.

"I'm so sorry!" He apologises.

"How is it that hurts more than anything these guys have done?" She laughs with amazement.

"Maybe my high fives are my semblance." He jokes, making her laugh from the idea of a high five being a semblance. They enjoy this moment of victory for as long as they can. Watts clenches his hand into a fist and he looks at the Giant Armour as it slaughters the other Mercenaries that have attacked. He whistles to his robots and they start to engage the Giant Armour, warping around with their weapons ready. Watts stands there with his hand crunching the other fist, cracking his neck.

"My turn." Watts growls. He steps back and then runs extremely fast, taking a leap of faith, soaring over the water beneath him and he lands, rolling across the roof of another building, redrawing his Magnums. He rises up with his Magnums held tight, walking towards where they are. Weiss turns when she sees him in her peripheral vision, he stares straight at them both and a grin appears. "A pleasure to actually meet you personally, not when you tried to help the girl." Watts chuckles with a smile.

"Where is she?" Weiss demands, pointing Myrtenaster at him and he points the barrel of his Magnum at her.

"Beyond your reach." Watts promises, and Neptune clenches his hand into a fist as he stares at the moustache bearer.

"You should've never taken our friend." Neptune says and Watts laughs monstrously.

"Believe me, I feel we should have killed the girl earlier instead of letting that Scorpion Psychopath be allowed to fuel his madness further. But – here we are." Watts states as he holds his hands out.

Weiss' eyes narrow with anger. "Yes...we are." She says, forming a glyph beneath her feet that sends her flying towards him with a yell. He immediately shoots at her but she twirls through the air, kicking him in the side of the head, causing the doctor to stagger. He swiftly spins round and his magnums transform into a pair of knives as the grip folds back into a hilt and the barrel is pulled back and the blades connect together into the serrated blades, the revolving chamber remaining in there, and similar to Weiss' blades, they can manipulate dust in combat. He can move quick as well, not as quick as Tyrian, but he is still a lethal opponent. Weiss begins to fall back into a defensive strategy against him as she uses the blade of Myrtenaster to deflect the blades as he slashes at her, jumping high in the air with them and slashing them across her aura. A white flash of energy ripples where she was hit but her aura is still strong. Weiss retreats back, giving Neptune the chance to go on the offensive, yelling as he slams the blade of his trident towards Watts. Watts holds both of the daggers high and uses them to deflect the blade of the Trident, before he sends his boot flying up into Neptune's chest, punching him in the face afterwards as well.

Watts straightens his tie and clears his throat. "Impressive skills, the two of you." He admits as he walks around them.

"Why are you helping Salem, Watts? What do you get out of it?" Weiss grills him with Myrtenaster pointed right at him.

"I simply believe the current bureaucracy of the world is rather pathetic, it requires revitalisation. Salem aims to change things, I will serve her proudly." Watts tells them as he paces back and forth.

"You really think she is gonna do this to change the world? She wants to wipe Humanity and the Faunus out!" Neptune argues.

"Now that is where you are wrong, you all think of her this way, but you know little. She aims to start the world anew, and the Relics will offer that chance to her. No more war, no more extremists...under a rule where we have full control over what people do, there would be no more suffering." Watts explains.

"Freedom is peace." Weiss says as she stands there, and that makes Watts scoff and shake his head.

"You naive children." He sighs. "Freedom does not bring peace – Freedom breeds chaos, just look at the White Fang. All this chaos for what they call equality, and yet they continue to slaughter humans in droves for their own beliefs. No...for there to be real peace, there must be a constant control over the people, and if that means controlling their minds...then so be it." Watts explains, Weiss' eyes widen.

"Merlot..." She gasps when she clocks onto what he is talking about. He really wants to control everyone not just the Grimm or even the Faunus...he wants everyone to bow before him.

"At least you are fast at figuring these things out." Watts chuckles. Even though they all have an idea of what Ruby's part in all of this is, Weiss has an idea to try and trick him into telling her where her friend is.

"What has Ruby got to do with all this?" She questions, and Watts smiles.

"I know the game you are playing, dear Weiss." He says to her, spinning his daggers through his fingers as he gets ready to fight them again. Weiss glowers and she and Neptune stand ready.

"Go!" Weiss shouts and they both attack him at the same time. He swings his knives at them, blocking both of their attacks with them pushing them away. The revolving chamber spins round and the red dust ignites flames around the curved blades, and he starts to attack, fire trailing behind the razor sharp blades. Neptune holds his trident up to stop the blades at Weiss darts towards Watts, smashing into him with force, knocking him back. She starts to get a few good hits in with Myrtenaster but when Watts kicks her in the chest, she falls to one knee, panting from exhaustion, a weakness of hers. She holds her hand to her chest to recover her strength, in the mean time, Neptune is busy fighting him. Watts ducks down to avoid the razor sharp, glowing blue blades of his trident. Neptune spins it round and transforms it into his rifle form, launching the glowing blue energy based projectile towards him. The round hits Watts in the chest and he slashes and slashes against him, cutting his aura down in each hit, until Watts grabs his arm and something happens.

Neptune watches as he sees small robotic things emerging from his sleeve and they start to electrocute his arm. Watts kicks him in the back of his leg and then jumps high in the air, spinning round with a roundhouse kick that sends Neptune into the floor with force. His Trident sliding across the floor. "Impressive moves, Neptune." He chuckles. He reaches into his jacket pocket and he takes out a remote device and presses a red button, the robots start to electrocute him, putting him in immense pain. "Designed this myself." He tells him. "They are able to use your own aura against you." He chuckles, he screams in pain and Weiss gets back up, but before she gets close enough.

Something happens. Neptune's eyes unexpectedly glow bright blue and so does his hair and he bursts up to his feet and thrusts his hands forward. Weiss watches in awe as a cloud of forked lightning bursts from the tips of his nails and into Watts, crackling across his entire body as he yells. He has unleashed his Semblance on Watts, he can manifest electricity through his body and use it as a weapon. Watts roars in pain, staggering backwards, and Neptune looks at her. "Go! While I can hold him there!" He tells her. Watts' hand tenses as the electricity harms his muscles. Weiss nods and she charges towards Watts whilst Neptune holds him there with his beam of electricity, she can actually see his skeleton at times as the electricity flashes inside of the growling man. She now starts to slash away at him, wearing his aura down as she slashes. She forms a multitude of glyphs around the doctor and she leaps at one, and with tremendous speed she bounces around him, slicing across his aura, and after the fifteenth hit.

There is a deep orange flicker of energy around him. Before she can hit him again, she is punched in the face by something. One of the machines that he has built, different to those they have met before, unlike the Valerian Knights, these ones are more Steampunk-Esque. Smoke pouring from the pistons as it judders, grabbing Watts and pulling him towards a Bullhead that has arrived. Neptune releases him and collapses to one knee, Weiss putting her hands around him, staring up at him. Watts looks down at them as the Bullhead rises into the sky with him inside it. "We will meet again, Weiss Schnee! Count on it!" Watts roars, the door closes between him and her, and the vessel soars into the sky, leaving them behind.

Weiss watches as it leaves them both, before caressing his cheek, the electricity wearing off around him and he looks at her, his deep blue eyes no longer glowing. His hair no longer glows as well. "So that's your semblance?" She asks with amazement.

"Yep..." He chuckles. "I used it during the Vytal Tournament through the Trident, and when I helped you earlier on." Neptune says with a smile.

"Is that another reason you don't like water?" Weiss asks, he sits there and pauses, and realises that it is a good point.

"Maybe." He laughs. Weiss wraps her arm around him and kisses him lovingly on the lips, he holds her close as well. They break the kiss and he feels her arms connecting around his neck, and the cold metal of an amulet on his collarbone. His eyes widen and he looks down at it, lifting it up and seeing the family symbol on it. He then looks at her and smiles.

"Is that it?" Weiss asks him as she looks at the beautiful medallion. He touches her cheek and kisses her again and it catches her by surprise from how sudden the kiss was.

"That's it." He agrees with tears in his eyes, looking at it.

"You faced your fears, Nep." She says to him affectionately. "They will always be with you now, I'm proud of you." Weiss says to him with a smile. They hold each other close and he smiles.

"I never thought you would actually want me." He says with a nervous laugh. She hugs him tight.

"How could I have resisted an idiot like you?" She asks with a giggle and he laughs, hugging her back. She releases him and looks into his eyes. "Come on, let's get back to the others." She says to him, but before they get up, she hears her scroll going off. She reaches into her dress and pulls it out, seeing Yang's face on the screen. She answers it and holds it up to her ear.

"Yang?" She speaks.

"Guys! We're in trouble!" Yang shrieks with gunfire erupting around her in the background, her eyes widening. But then they hear the phone being knocked from her hand, and someone else picks it up.

"Better hurry, Miss Schnee." A chillingly familiar voice says.

Her eyes widen.

The voice belonged to the Spectre.

Meaning the Onyx Phantom cannot be far away.