Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY
BETA: Hotari-chan
CHAPTER 1: Jaune the Grimm knight
A woman with pallor matching her pure white hair walks down in the dark depths of stairs till she arrives at an old wooden iron frame door. Her hair was tied in a large bun, with six offshoots wrapped together and suspended by obsidian ornaments. Her jet black and scarlet eyes glow with crimson irises, and purple veins line her face and arms. She wore a long short sleeve robe that obscured her feet and dragged along the ground and carried a small book in her arm. With time, the wood of the door darkened and rotted, and the iron rusted, as the door had never been touched or seen the light of day.
She gripped the iron handle and pulled. The sound of screeching metal ground along the stone floor. A normal human wouldn't be able to move an inch of the door. She entered the cold small dark room where she could see her breath, hearing the sound of beeps, the sound of a low motor humming, and the hissing of compressed air escaping. At the end of the room, she stared in front of her for a pillar of frost, illuminating just enough to see the floor and scattered tubes and cables. She walked through the cables and tube with ease, without staggering or pausing, till she reached a chair next to the pillar. She sat down, opened her book and began to read the book out loud.
"This is a story about a wizard and a witch. They had four daughters, the four maidens, but what the sisters didn't know was they had two older brothers, twins. Both were identical in appearance, easily mistaken as the one or the other, with blonde hair with blue sapphire eyes. The difference was they were each a representation of their parent's views and determination. The oldest twin possessed his father's intellect and reason, the youngest possessed his mother's powers and freedom.
When they came of age, they left the safety of their home to live their dream of being heroes and training to serve as the protectors of Remnant. The oldest wore a full-body suit of armour of white with golden accents, while the youngest wore an identical suit of armour in black with red accents, and both armed with shield and sword with two crescent moons. They battled together, against evil, whether it was Grimm or Human. While they explored the world of Remnant, they fought and protected those who were in need. Their campaign spread throughout Remnant, wondering which kingdom they served. When asked about their alliances, they responded, "We don't serve a kingdom. We are Huntsmen of Remnant." From then on, they were remembered as the first Huntsmen of Remnant.
Once their adventure was over, achieving their dream together, they now had nothing, unsure what to do next. They already travelled the world of Remnant; trained to be the greatest warriors like their father. They learned together of the exotics Remnant offered, like their mother, without a goal. The only option they had was to return home to their parents.
With a surprise in store when they came back home, they discovered they had four sisters. A surprise from their parents filled their hearts in awe and found a new purpose. They swore an oath together, to train and protect their sisters from harm. Their mother was proud of her sons for protecting their little sisters, while their father smiled with pride of his sons becoming fine warriors and heroes of Remnant. Over the years, the sisters grew and bonded with their older brothers, playing and telling bedtime stories to them in their sleep. It made them inseparable, always going to their brothers for almost everything. Their mother watched; filled with love, with an urge to protect them from the world after hearing the stories of their battles, their encounters and their decisions to protect the weak, aweing their sisters.
It fueled her to follow her husband's word to bring humanity together, to spread their word and destroy those who will deny it, while the husband was conflicted. On that day, a miracle was born. The sisters performed magic, something the brothers failed but were joyous for their sisters. Giving them a stronger purpose to their oath and without haste, they showed it to their parents. It should've been a Joyous moment for their family, but was short-lived. As guilt weighed their father's heart, none noticed the father's expression except his wife and sons.
The father told them the truth that he had been hiding within his family, the purpose of the relics and the day of judgment that he needed to prepare. They agreed: it's not their responsibility to redeem the humans, as they are free, especially the humans who could make their own decisions. Would he risk the lives of his own family when the gods abandoned humanity?
With that, he took matters into his own hands in the dead of night, escorting his four daughters out of the room but only encountering his sons. Armed and ready for battle with their mother by their side, her face scorned of betrayal seeing the man she loved, the man she gave everything to be with him. They fought, while the sons kept their oath to protect their sisters, however, it did not end well.
The youngest son awoke within the rubble and survived, but not without loss. He saw the little toy he gave to his youngest sister as a gift.
A sign that he failed, he searched for his sisters and brother but only found his sisters dead in his dead brother's arms, protecting them. He cried, then hated, then rage consumed the young knight as he roared like a Grimm, giving birth to the Grimm Knight. With the loss weighing in his heart, the lonely knight wandered of the world of Remnant, searching for a purpose while performing heroic deeds."
At the turn of the last page of the book, it showed an image of a dark armoured knight roaring to the skies, marking the ending of the story. She sighed, closing the book and wondering how many times she read this book, having the moment of silence to herself.
"This story was passed down to the future generation of huntsmen and huntresses as a lesson, that life as a huntsman is not always being a hero. I am both proud and saddened that this happened to you." She tried to hold in her emotion to not show weakness, whether or not her subordinates were here.
As she stood up and turned to the illuminating frost pillar, she placed her hand against the surface and wiped the frost away to see a clear view of the content of the pillar. It was a man in a suit of black armour with red accents and markings of a Grimm, with a sword sheath by his side.
She stared at the armoured Knight, forgetting how long she stared, forgetting how many times she awakened him, forgetting how many times she called for him, and now slowly, she's forgetting what he looked like every time she put him to sleep. Her son inherited her long-life span that slowed his age and he looked like a seventeen-year-old. He could still die like a normal human. As she knew the curse that she bore, she was forced to watch as time passed while she stayed. Now, she was forced to watch her only son slowly die with age and time. She hadn't noticed, until a cough was heard to take her attention.
She didn't say anything, but simply stared at the pillar. She did not ignore the cough for her attention.
"My Queen," the voice called out
"Watts..." she replied, her focus still on the armoured knight.
"The preparation is ready. Awaiting your orders." She looked over her shoulder, seeing a tall middle-aged man with a slim build and slightly tanned skin. He held on to a large tablet that showed him the status of the inhabitants in the pillar. He had short black and grey hair, as well as a thick moustache and eyebrows, and green eyes. Wearing a grey overcoat with yellow linings, a yellow dress shirt, and a black necktie, his pants were the same colour as his overcoat. His yellow-buttoned undercoat and fingerless gloves matched his cordovan shoes, under which he wore yellow socks.
"Then commence," she ordered as she took a step back without looking away from the pillar. While Watts pushed buttons on the screen then slowly dragged his finger across a scroll bar titled temperature to the highest degree. The frost of ice on the pillar began to melt, and at the same time, the room became warmer and warmer by the second. A beep sounded from Watt's tablet indicates a notification.
He opened it up, showing him a different display of a heart monitor. The beeps became irregular for a second till the beep steadily increased into a more regular pace. A good sign as he sighed in relief, while Salem's focus didn't veer away from her son, till she saw a slight movement in his chest, his breathing. She turned to Watt with a look saying to open it, and he nodded and understood. With a few taps of his tablet. The mechanical locks clicked open with a hiss of cold air escaping from the tube.
The glass door opened slowly, till it fully retracted up revealing the habitant. A metal hand gripped on the edge of the capsule and pulled himself out with a grunt. The black knight's helmet consisted of covering the entire head of the knight with a T-slit shape visor, etched in red markings on the face area, which reminds Watts of a Grimm.
Following down on the knight's armour, he noticed the knight wasn't dressed like traditional knights of old, like in the text. Pieces of armour on the knight were missing, such as the gorget, rerebrace, fauld, and the cuisse. Though he could see the reason behind it, obviously it was to prevent him from limiting his movement and comfort. He replaced them with clothing, such as an edge fur waist cape covering down close to his ankles of the greaves and with tassets overlapping, and a long sleeve jerkin underneath his armour.
The Pauldron rest of his shoulder reached down to his chest armour with a fur edge three-quarter cape underneath, that rested across his back and above his elbow. The couter was mended to the gauntlet, with a fur cuff around the wrist.
However, he was weak from years asleep. With one foot out of his capsule, he stumbled to the floor, only to be caught in his mother's arms. His helmet fell from his head, revealing the young man's face and messy blond hair, which surprised Watt of how young he looked.
"Mother...?" said a weak voice, as she rested his head on her chest and gently combed his hair.
"I'm here, son..." She turned to Watts
"Watts, get Hazel here now!" she ordered, and without haste, he responded with a slight and respectful bow.
"At once, my Queen." Then he left the room.
"Mother," he weakly called out to her again, as she turned back to her son.
"How...how long was I asleep this time?" he asked but she gently cooed him.
"Shhh...rest, son. You're still weak. Once you recover, we will talk. I promise..." With the sound of her voice so caring and soothing, the boy fell back to sleep with his head resting on her lap.
In time, Watts returned with a large man and muscular, middle-aged and broad, with short brown hair, a beard and hazel eyes. His hairy arms had some large scars running up them. He wore a two-tone olive-green coat over a black 3/4 sleeve shirt, and a large belt. His pants were black, with a pouch strapped to each pants leg, and his boots were brown with white fronts.
"My Queen. I have brought Hazel as requested." He bowed with the man named Hazel behind him.
"You called for me?" he asked, as Salem turned with a stoic face towards the man.
"Yes, Hazel, carry my son and follow me," she orders, shocking Hazel with what he's hearing, freezing him in place. Her "son!" Watts wasn't surprised after seeing his Queen behave differently; it wasn't hard to connect the dots between her and the young man.
"Did I stutter, Hazel?" she said threateningly.
"No, my Queen. Apologies..." As he approached his Queen and gently lifted the young man in his arms, Salem stood and picked up her son's helmet.
"Follow me," she ordered. As she's about to leave the room, she stopped by Watts. "Watts, please clean this room up and come to me once you're done" As he nodded in understanding, both his queen and Hazel, carrying the young man, left the room. He stroked his moustache with a light smirk of interest of the knight.
"So, that's the legendary Grimm Knight. The first true Huntsman of Remnant and one of the protectors of the four maidens."
He turned to the tablet and opened up a new window, displaying notes and images of said knight. While he read his notes, his smirk became a grin with excitement.
"And to think, the son of My Queen. Well, this is going to be an interesting day." He turned off his tablet and continued to finish the task at hand.
Without a word or sound, Hazel followed Salem down along the hallways of her castle, while carrying the unconscious young man in his arm, who had to be his Queen's son, quite baffled. He knew the relationship between Salem and Ozpin, of their past and their four daughters, but what he didn't know was that she had a son. He looked at the unconscious heir in his arms,then looked at his queen trying to figure out the relationship. Then it occurred to him, did he inherit his mother's traits before she was cursed and damned by the gods?
They continued walking without a sound, till they came across a forked path, the one on the left leading to the personal rooms of Salem's inner circle and their necessities. The middle led to her throne/war room and a study that could be mistaken to be the largest library of all of Remnant. And finally, the right side was sealed by the claws and arms of Grimm and attacked anyone who dared try to enter. In Hazel's mind, he expected Salem would lead him to the personal rooms, but instead she stopped at the sealed path and swayed her arm across the door. The arms retracted to the floor and disappeared, revealing an old wooden door, the same door from the room underground, out of which they came. It was completely different from the other doors on the floor.
With a gentle push by Salem, the door opened, revealing a completely dark hallway, not an iota of light piercing the darkness. Without hesitating, Salem walked into the dark hallway, letting the darkness swallow her whole, while Hazel hesitated and waited, till he heard a torn fabric fall to the ground, the outside light shining within the darkness. What revealed was a different hallway, compared to the one Hazel was standing in. Unlike the dark purple hallways of stone they always walked through, these hallways were exposing grey stone walls, like from a castle of old, never touched or seen by the light of day. It completely shocked Hazel to the core. With a torn curtain in her hand, Salem blankly stared at Hazel.
"Hazel…are you going to stand there and gawk? My patience is wearing thin." She snapped Hazel back to reality
"Apologies…" He rushed to her side and continued walking in silence, till they finally arrived in front of a double doorway. With a flick of her hand, the doors opened widely, revealing a large room, which looked like a master bedroom. Like a master bedroom, there's a king-size bed in black sheets and covers, along with a study, bookshelf, two closed doors opposite of the bed and swords mounted on the wall. What made this room unique was, in the far corner of the room, there were three stands, two of which carried a full set of armour in a display, each clearly from different eras, yet in perfect condition. The one on the left looked like a normal steel plate full-body suit of armour. The second one was an identical suit of armour to the one the heir was wearing, but instead, it's white with a gold accent with a white fur collar and red cape hanging from its shoulders. It held a white shield with two golden, crescent moons on its face, with a gold frame. The last stand was empty but for a black, tattered fur cape.
"Gently place him on the bed," she ordered as Hazel complied, gently placing the young heir in bed. As Salem sat on the edge of the bed, next to her son, while gently combing a few strands of hair away from his face.
"You may leave, Hazel. Tell everyone that I wish not to be disturbed. Am I understood?" she ordered, with her sole attention and focus on her son. Her tone and demeanor of superiority and maliciousness demanded absolutely.
"As you wish, my Queen, I shall leave." Hazel bowed and left without saying another word, leaving his queen and her heir alone. He gently closed the door, but not without a setback. Just as he turned to leave, he found Cinder blocking his path, with her face painted in curiosity, especially at the room he just left.
"Cinder, what are you doing here?" he asked her in an unexpressed tone, as she smiled mischievously.
"You can say curiosity got the best of me. One of my subordinates told me. They saw you carrying a corpse while following our Queen to the forbidden east wing, that's usually off-limits to everyone except our Queen." She eyed the door, wanting to have a peek or see what plan her queen had in mind with such a corpse. Hazel could already tell what Cinder wanted and immediately stopped her train of thought.
"If you're planning to go to that room, I highly recommend you don't. The Queen does not wish to be disturbed." He leered at Cinder with a serious expression while Cinder returned her gaze to Hazel in annoyance.
"Also, you should refrain from calling the queen's heir a corpse. Unless you want to face her wrath." As he walked past Cinder, leaving her in the hallway alone, he shocked Cinder to the core with what she just heard. She turned to Hazel.
'The Queen's heir!?'
Hazel was a lot of things, but a liar wasn't one of them. She turned back to the door, knowing behind this door was where her Queen and her "heir" was. Why was this the first she heard of her Queen's son? She told her about Ozmas and her daughters, but never told Cinder about a son! Just how many secrets had her Queen been hiding, and who else knew about an heir, besides Hazel!?
Her eyes opened only to find herself seated on a chair, next to the empty bed of her son's, then noticed she's covered in a blanket for warmth. She smiled, even though she rarely slept or felt warmth or cold. She couldn't help but feel blessed with such a sweet son, who stayed by her side. She stood and noticed pieces of his armour on the floor, leading a trail to the balcony, where the door was left open and the wind blew. She followed the trail and headed to the balcony, but her son was nowhere to be seen. She was not concerned as she kept walking, to lean against the handrails overlooking the Grimmlands.
A large shadow flew past her, but she ignored it. A soft thump landed behind her, but she stayed calm, just admiring the view. The sounds slowly crept behind her, with a smile across her face as it felt nostalgic. She closed her eyes, remembering her family, remembering her sons frightening her when she was either busy or they wanted some attention. Always scolding and chasing them while they smiled, she could never forget that.
As she opened her eyes, a large shadow loomed over her. While still smiling, she voiced out her command nonchalantly without fear, "Don't even think about it…"
The shadow paused while it sounded like a stuttered raspberry. Salem snickered and turned around to see a young man, with her blonde hair and blue sapphire eyes, around seventeen of age. He was shirtless, exposing large feathery black wings on his back, large enough from him to take flight, and his toned body that girls would drool over. She hoped he would finally find a girlfriend or a concubine, so she could finally have some grandchildren. He innocently smiled while scratching the back of his head.
"How did you know it was me?" he jested.
"I'm your mother. I know everything. Now, where have you been?"
"Heh, I thought you know everything." He smirked as she embraced him.
"It's so good to finally hold you again, Jaune." Her voice hitched, trying to hold her tears as her son hugged her back.
"Me too, Mum…" After a few minutes of their embrace, they separated as Salem wiped her tears, while her son simply smiled at his mother again. Her attention stared towards his wings, and she smiled.
"I see, you kept your sister's gift." She smiled as Jaune retracted his wing into his back.
"Now, come to Jaune. I need you to meet my subordinates." As she headed back to the room, Jaune followed. When they're back in the room, Salem waited by the door while carrying her son's helmet, while Jaune picked up, put his armour back on and approached the third stand that's carrying the tattered black fur cape. He pulled it out and hung it on his back. He approached his mother as she handed him his helmet, and put it on. Red glowing eyes emitted from the helmet.
Salem pulled out her scroll which caught Jaune's attention. He was fascinated by such an item, never seeing it before he was frozen. Salem called her subordinates and met in the war room to discuss their plans. It amazed Jaune even further that something so small could communicate with people with ease.
Everyone gathered at the table in the war room, waiting patiently for their queen, ready to discuss their plan against Ozpin. Tyrian jittered manically with excitement to be bathed in the presence of his Queen. Across from him was Watts, with his attention on his pad reviewing the schematics that he managed to steal at Atlas. Next to him, to his left, was Hazel with his arms crossed and quietly patiently waiting for the meeting to begin, where he could be mistaken as asleep. Finally, across him was Cinder, with her two subordinates Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black standing behind her. Mercury leaned closer to Emerald.
"Hey, Em, what's going on?" he whispered.
"Why are you asking me?" she scoffed.
"Don't you get the know-how from Cinder?" he replied, then turned and asked Cinder.
"Cinder, do you know what's going on?"
"No, this is sudden, but I can make a guess," she replied with a feeling it had to do with their Queen's "heir". But she kept it to herself, in case she was wrong.
"What is it?" he asked, then suddenly the doors opened, slamming into the walls. Standing there was their queen, and behind her is a knight in black armour with a blood-red accent and glowing red eyes, a black aura flowing out of his armour. It instinctively spread absolute fear to everyone in the war room, except Salem as she smiled and walked to her throne. The knight followed, and the rest froze in fear. As she sat on her throne, the knight stood beside her. She raised her hand to the knight as a silent command, and the knight nodded. The aura ceased seeping, while everyone in the war room finally calmed down in their seats and both Emerald and Mercury toppled on the floor in exhaustion from fear.
"I would like to first thank you all for coming on such short notice," she stated as her subordinates didn't argue, but nodded, as there's no need for an apology from their queen. They all turned their attention to the knight. While Tyrin sneered towards the knight in jealousy, how dare he stand next to his queen. If anyone would stand by her side, it would be him.
"Oh yes, how rude of me," Salem spoke up and raised her hand towards her knight. "I would like to introduce a member and founder of our group. This is Jaune, my son and heir. But many of you may know him from his legend...the Grimm Knight." Just as Salem stated the Grimm Knight everyone on the table stared at him with shock, except Watts.
"Son, why don't you remove your helmet and let them see your face. Since you'll be working together with everyone, it's ideal to get acquainted."
The knight nodded and slowly removed his helmet, and Cinder, her subordinates, and Tyrian leaned forward out of curiosity. Believing the heir would look just like the queen with bleached skin and hair, but to their surprise, he looked like a normal young man with blonde hair with blue eyes.
"Hello, my name is Jaune, son and heir of your Queen and my mother Salem. I look forward to working with you all to destroy Ozma." As he stated Ozpin's true name with all his hate and anger, he oozed out a dark aura. Once again, it spread throughout the war room, freezing everyone in absolute fear, like they're going to be executed on the spot by the most painful death imaginable.
"Son. Your aura," she stated, snapping her son's rage back to reality and quickly ceasing the flow.
"Apologies." He ceased his aura while calming everyone. "Now that is settled. Watts, are we ahead of schedule?" The meeting continued, while Jaune stayed quiet and learned his mother's subordinates.
The older man named Arthur Watts seemed to be a scholar, in which field he was unsure. But if he had to guess, it had to be about these small square plates of metal that Mother called technology. Next was a rare scorpion fauna named Tyrian Callows, and already by looking at him, he could tell he's mad but sane to worship Mother as a goddess. Just seeing his build and his way of dress, especially using his scorpion tail to hide as a belt, he seemed to be his mother's new assassin. Then followed by the larger man, which he believed was called Hazel Rainart, and g by the looks of his arms covered in scars, he doesn't use a weapon, or rather he is a weapon.
And finally, the one that deeply disturbed him, Cinder Fall. From what he gathered, in their heated discussions, Watts and Tyrian didn't see Cinder eye to eye. From what he could tell, she must be the newest member of his mother's inner circle. What disturbed him was when mother brought up the subject of the four maidens, and asked Cinder about the Fall Maiden. He was under the impression that Mother ordered her to recruit the Fall Maiden, but instead, she not only killed but also stole her powers.
When Cinder confessed, she only managed to steal half of the Fall Maiden's power thanks to a special parasite Grimm Mother created. It was designed to feed and transfer the Maiden's power to Cinder. It was only a matter of time for the Fall Maiden to die and Cinder to become the Fall Maiden.
With everything discussed, the subordinates paid their respects and left except for Watts. With them gone and only the three remaining, Watts asked,
"Are you in need of my assistance?"
"Yes, Watts, before the meeting, my son made a strong argument that he needs to be re-educated," Salem stated.
"Re-educated?" he repeated, crooking an eyebrow.
"As you may already know, my son was frozen for a thousand years. The Remnant he knows no longer exists. My son even asked me: what is a scroll?"
"As embarrassing, it may be, I requested Mother for one of her subordinates to educate me on the Remnant today. And she speaks highly of you, Dr Watts. Of your vast knowledge of Remnant and expertise of your field."
Upon hearing this, Watts felt honoured and surprised to hear it from the prince. He thought the prince would be like Cinder, spoiled, hard-headed and even painful to deal with, but his Prince's mannerisms, body language and way of thinking was that of a respected noble. That was rarely seen these days in Remnant. Though when he thought about it, if the prince was sent to the field to work with Cinder, there was a high chance she'd get him killed and make it look like an accident or an eventuality to help her plans, due to his Prince's lack of knowledge.
Upon seeing this development, Watts bowed his head towards his Queen and Prince.
"It would be an honour, my Prince. Should we begin immediately?"
"I'm starting to like this one, Mother. I see why you highly suggest him." Jaune smiled while Watts felt honoured to be praised by both his Queen and Prince. Is this what Tyrian felt like?
"Very well, Watts, my son is under your care," she ordered and turned to her son. "Jaune, learn well from Watts and get acquainted. After all, you'll be working together in the future."
"Of course, Mother. If you'll excuse us." He respectfully bowed to his mother and left her side, and stopped by Watts.
"Dr Watts, if you please, lead the way to the study. It's been a thousand years, and I'm still learning my way around the new tower." He smiled.
"Of course, my Prince. Please, this way." He bowed with his arm gently directing him out of the war room.
Arthur took the lead in front of his Prince, escorting him to the study. A moment of silence filled the air, till Jaune coughed into his hand to start a conversation. To Watts' surprise, it wasn't a conversation he expected.
"Dr Watts, can you tell me more about this Cinder woman that my mother trusts so much?"
"Cinder?" He looked over his shoulder, crooking his eyebrows to the heir, till he remembered that the prince was a young man. Though he might be a thousand years old due to his cryo-sleep, he was still a young man in need of a woman's touch.
"Well, my Prince, to be perfectly honest, Cinder is beautiful for her age, that man would pay to have a-"
His prince interrupts him in a callous tone, "I'm not asking if she's a potential candidate to be part of my "concubine". I am asking as an individual, her past, her strength, her weaknesses and her true goal."
"Oh..." That was what his prince meant. He read the room terribly, then again, this piqued his interest. He didn't see Cinder like all young men would in his situation.
"Very well, my Prince...Cinder is a skilled fighter, trained very well in both the arts of the swords and the bow. As well the use of her Maiden powers." Then he noticed his prince's hand clenched tightly. He could already tell, thanks to his doctrine of Psychology, talking about the Maiden's power was a sensitive subject to his Prince. If he remembered the old text he read, his prince and his brother swore an oath to protect and love his four sisters, the original four maidens, but failed. He quickly continued his analysis of Cinder before his Prince might go into a rage.
"She also has the tanas of strategic battle, and I regret to say, intelligence that almost rivals my own." He sighed in annoyance.
"And judging from your behaviour back at the war room, you and Cinder don't get along too well, do you?" His Prince voiced his output, freezing Watts, for him to see such behavior in front of his Prince, especially first impressions. His prince walked past, took notice, and smiled at Watts.
"Don't fret over it, Doctor. If it makes you feel better, I don't trust Cinder one bit. Even if she has my mother's favor. What else can you tell me about Cinder?" Watts gave some thought as he stroked his chin.
"She possesses a unique semblance called scorching caress. Able to superheat and manipulate the object's shape. And picked a little from her past as a child that she's been sold, mistreated and overworked at a young age by her step-family in Mistral." His prince paused for a moment and gave some thought.
"Hmm...seems she's unstable but easy to manipulate if given the right tools," His Prince said with a smile, which took Watts by surprise. He smiled as well, glad to finally have an ally with intelligence and audacity much like his Queen. Then again, he was her son. Compared to his so-called "allies", Hazel was a calm and collective man, but headstrong and honour bound. Tyrian was crazy, and Cinder was naive and greedy for power. But curiosity of his prince demanded him of such information on Cinder specifically. Was he interested in her and put up an act to despise her, or did he truly despise her?
"My Prince, if I may be so bold, may I ask why such an interest with Cinder?" he asked, stopping the prince in his tracks, who turned to Watts pondering for an answer.
"Food for thought. Now come, I'm eager to know the changes of Remnant." They continued heading towards the study, as Watts smiled and followed. Unbeknownst to him, a figure peeked out of the corner, watching and listening to them in the distance and following them to the study. That figure was Emerald, a young woman with medium-brown skin and dark-red eyes. Her hair was light, mint-green with a straight fringe as well as two long locks on each side in the back. She had been following them, under order by Cinder.
Minutes after the meeting, they returned to Cinder's room to discuss their side of the plan. As soon as they made it back, Cinder's team broke down. As soon as Mercury closed the door, he fell to his knees with his hand still grasp on the door handle.
He gasped deeply, like he held his breath for the entire meeting. It was fear that overwhelmed Mercury, suffocating him with the Grimm Knight's presence. With the amount of killing intent, it felt like the Grimm Knight was pointing his sword directly to his throat, and any sudden movement would be the end of him. Emerald was in the same boat as Mercury. Her hands were still shaking, and just thinking of the Grimm Knight scared her to the core, as she was on her knees too.
Cinder, meanwhile, knew how to keep her emotions in check, as she remained strong to her subordinates, but understood their situation. If she was honest, she was never comfortable during the meeting, besides the annoyance for her allies. No, it was coming from the stares of the Grimm Knight, of a predator, and no, they weren't the eyes of lust for her, but prey to kill. She was afraid of the Grimm Knight, but for some reason, why is she thrilled seeing him?
She shook her head and turned to her subordinates, and they noticed Cinder's determined stare.
"You know the plan. Let's get to work," she ordered, snapping them both back into reality, calming down and standing in front of her.
"Mercury, get in contact with Roman for an update of his progress and find accommodation for us in Vale, while I deal with Adam and the White Fang." She turned her attention looking out of the windows.
"Wait? What's Emerald going to do?" he asked, a bit annoyed as she got to do nothing. Cinder turned around and faced the group with surprised expressions on their face, but she ignored it.
"Emerald will be given a difficult task. Since we have a new ally, who happens to be the queen's heir. We have nothing on him, except legends that may or may not be true. So, my dear Emerald here will be spying on the Grimm Knight. Any questions?" While their expression was grim, they knew they couldn't argue with Cinder, but Emerald stepped forward.
"I have a question, Ma'am. A-are you okay?" she stuttered at the end, hesitating.
"What kind of question is that, Emerald?" Cinder crooked a brow towards her.
"Well, it's just...you're crying, Cinder." Mercury pointed it out, as she placed her hand against her face and felt tears flowing down on her cheeks.
Why was she crying? Wait! More importantly, why was she thinking of the Grimm Knight and relieved to see him!? What's happening to her!? She began to panic and confuse, close to her breaking point, then immediately noticed her team showed concern to her. She couldn't let them see her break down even further and snapped at them.
"Why are you still standing around!? I gave you your orders! Go!" she shouted, startling her team.
"Y-yes ma'am!" Emerald replied and rushed out of the door, with Mercury following suit. As soon as they left with the door slammed shut, Cinder fell to her knees and cried for the Grimm Knight. Unknown to her, it wasn't her that was crying for the Grimm Knight. It's what she held deep within, her powers of the Fall Maiden, tears of joy and love for her older brother to return. Even after a thousand years, the bond between siblings stayed strong till now, and it was not only Cinder who was affected.
In the depths of Beacon Academy stood the Headmaster, a middle-aged man with tousled silver hair and thin brown eyes. He had a light complexion and sharp facial features.
He wore shaded glass spectacles and a small, purple, cross-shaped pin on the cowl around his neck. He had an unzipped black suit over a dark green, buttoned vest and green shirt. He also wore black trouser shoes and long, dark-green pants. In addition to his cane, on one hand, he carried a mug in the other, bearing the Beacon Academy emblem, as he took a sip and sighed in regret, thinking this could've been avoided.
He stood in front of a comatose young woman, fighting for her life inside a machine keeping her alive. The one he failed to protect and regretted saving her, the Fall Maiden Amber. Just as he sighed and was about to leave, an anomaly happened, specifically on Amber's face. Ozpin gave a curious glance towards the maiden, and saw a lone tear flow down her face.
"I wonder, what are you dreaming, dear Amber? Or should I say, my dear daughter…"