Klarissa
Cascade woke up on the cool temperature of the sand to stage a rebellion against the Kingdoms of Remnant. The waves are spreading back and fourth like the cycle of tides. The moon is beyond repaired for any reason. Aside from the ocean's waves, he could hear the beautiful humming, the sound of a violin. The area looked calmer, but with the Great War still progressing, it's anything but peaceful. From who he can see from afar is an armored woman with white hair. Eyes that matched the morning sky. Silver armor with shoulder plates each, a white diamond that is the center of the armor chest-plate. Cascade could tell she is a knight, but not like any knight he had seen before. Most of them are male. Cascade has a few scratches from fighting the Grimm in the seas.
It came to the point where Cascade is drawn to her singing. But it came to the point that he never trust outsiders. To her exception, the woman has sing her sorrows of loneliness. Undesirable destinies, fates and unforeseen prophecies. The moon shines in a full light, as if it was responding to her voice. Then he heard her asking herself, or what it seems to be. "Do you wish that there are no such things as war?" She spoke. Cascade isn't sure if he should answer or if she knows that he's standing there. He didn't want to scare her, or to engage in a fight with her. To his shock, she turned and looks at him with a genuine smile. "Well, war is the only thing they know about. What else can they do?" Replied Cascade. She is actually talking to him.
"Tell me something. Do you believe in duty and honor, because of lineage?" She asked him with the next question.
"I don't know. All am I doing was fighting for my people. Nothing else. But to me, war is pollution to peace." Replied Cascade again.
"At least that's one thing we can agree on. How are you feeling?" Asked the woman. It hit him to figure it out that she was the one who tended the wounds. "I saw you drifted from the sea, so I tended your wounds." She explains. Cascade looked down to see himself bandaged from the ribs. "I am, okay. Thank you." He said graciously. "But who are you, why did you help me? You're an outsider." He asked.
"Does it matter? I have a thing for being a medic myself. And...my name...is Avalora." She said staring at him.
Weiss is humming in a bedroom. Where she was locked in, as according to plan for the arranged wedding. Despite not liking to sing, it becomes her passion to keep her hope to escape from the fate that is about to come. Looking from the balcony, where she can see the blue seas. But there are also bodyguards, armed with guns for any intruders trying to break in. Or if Weiss tries to leave. When Neptune promised her to get her out of this miserable scheme at the hands of her own father, and her most hated enemy. She knew there is a risk should anyone be involved. She is a huntress, but there is still the pieces she has to pick up before she is at peace from the past.
Her semblance and aura are slowly coming back. But she have to keep it a secret in order for Jacques and Carlos from going any further to secure the perimeters.
So far, the poison is starting to wear off. I'll just need to keep up the act until the ceremony starts. Then Father and Carlos will have the price to paid for. She thought. Winter isn't going to be pleased about this when she finds out. Then a door is knocked, she expected to be either her father, or Carlos about to talk about the wedding. Which she never wants to hear about, reminding her of how her father had bought his way to her mother. "Come in." She sighed. Wanting the conversation to be over. Instead, it was a woman in her late 20s. Wearing a suit and tie. Brown hair and eyes. "Miss Schnee, is everything alright in here? Master Carlos wants me to check up on you."
"Yes, thank you." Weiss replies. The woman then looks around the hallway, and it looks like there are cameras attached to the ceilings. Then locks the door and walks over to Weiss. "Is something wrong?" She asked, judging by the suspicious look on her facial expression. "We need to talk. There's something you should know about the Vega family." This is unexpected, a servant of the Vega Household is about to tell her something she didn't know about. Another bombshell secret that could lead to her father's arrest once again. This time, forever.
"What is this all about?"
"Do you remember my uncle, Klein Sieben?" Weiss went eye-wide, to have remembered her butler and friend. But she didn't know he has any relatives. "Hold on, you're related to him?"
"My name is Klarissa Sieben. I am a private investigator, working undercover to get the evidence of huntsmen trafficking. Just like The Crown in Vacuo, there was a series of disappearances of huntsmen who're declared dead. But no bodies were found last year. The reasons why any authority figure has shut down the unsolved cases." Klarissa explains. "I was hired as a butler in order to absorb any information about another organization called, the Red Eye. Ever heard of them?" Weiss shook her head in response. "Not that I know of, is this anything new?"
"Actually, this organization has been running more than your generation have." Klarissa recapped the details she heard. "I was only 10 when I first heard about the group. Since then, I was enrolled to a law school while my uncle was working in your manor at the time. While there, I secretly kept digging into some of the abandoned hideouts, leaving some anonymous tips to any of the police stations. Unfortunately, non of them seemed to get to the bottom of this. What I found out about the organization is that it is a secret society being held by wealthy people, sending any mercenary they can find to hire by kidnapping huntsmen. Also a series of destructions that were claimed to be accidents."
"But it wasn't, right?"
"I don't believe these are accidents. I could tell that some of members left the insignias of the red eye with a black pupil, as a symbol of the organization. Though police disclaims this and declared them as accidents. It all traces back after Uncle Klein was fired from his position when he helped you escaped from the Schnee Manor. Your father was one of the few persons of interests, including Montero Vega. My guess is that my uncle knows something off about him that we did not." Weiss felt bad that Klein had been relieved from his job because he helped her evade her father from locking her in the manor. She still thought it was her fault that this happened.
"How's your uncle?" She asked. Concerned for how he was doing.
"He's doing okay. He's living in my home since then." Klarissa assured her, to Weiss' relief. "I'm sorry that this happened to him. My father is not the kind of person you want to meet." She remarked. Both agreed what kind of a joke Jacques Gele really is. Klarissa then told her side of the story for the reasons for why her uncle was working for the Schnee household in the first place. After her parents died, he took her in to provide her the education she needed for her today's career. And she was thankful for that. There are times Klein have told his niece about Weiss, as thought to be a greedy girl when he has told her another side of her. That's where she learns about getting to know one another before making judgement. After he was fired, Klarissa promised her uncle if she ran into her, she'll give her his regards. "Thank goodness, I just wish I would just said goodbye before he left."
"Don't worry about it. Right now, you need to worry about getting out of this place. But we need to buy ourselves some time before you do. I'll keep searching around this area so that we can put them out for good. The best we can do now is to keep low. Meet me in my dorm tomorrow, and I'll inform you more about the details." Klarissa instructs her. And Weiss agrees. She was glad there was someone inside the Vega Manor to have been on her side. Carlos did not know that one of his employees is an undercover investigator. She then sat on the bed, reopening the letter that Neptune had written to her. She was glad she had already hidden it before her father could take anything else away. It was still the only treasure she will cherish forever.
Neptune is back in Vale rowing in the lifeboat. He was all alone wandering the streets after putting back on the hoodie he left on a hidden spot where no one will find it. It was very dark in Vale City. He was thinking about reporting a kidnapping to the authorities, but if he did. The he'll be caught and nobody will believe him. Cause he's a wanted man. He was a junior detective once, but now those days are over. Then he heard rumors about more kidnappings, it's not just huntsmen that somebody is hunting down. But also those with semblances, whether it was children, teenagers, adults, or elderly. Could any of this connect to his brother? Then loved ones of the abductees said that they tried to call the police, but there was nothing they can do. Or so they claimed to be. No bodies found, no evidence found. Then some of the huntsmen were arrested for treason. He then remembers from what Flynt and Katt have said when huntsmen have claimed to be wrongfully arrested. There's more to the story that should've been investigated. Or rather, someone was trying to shut them up. Looking back, the pair did seemed too astonished to stay in Atlas. About Winter's behavior. It reminded him of The Crown, an organization that involves twin semblance users who're descendants of the Vacuan King. And tried to bring back the monarchy. But it failed.
It came to Neptune that Winter might also have some connections to the kidnappings. Regarding his brother Jupiter, she must've been cornered and got threatened somehow. He didn't want to blame someone who's only doing this for his/her loved one. But at the same time, it's unforgivable. For Weiss' sake. Then he saw something sparkling beneath the sand. He then followed the spark and dug up the item, that is half-buried. It was a red moon stone, the Autumn Moon Stone. It glowed by the moonlight. Then he heard someone moaning. Like someone's in pain. He glanced up to see a familiar figure limping, while holding onto the brick wall. It was Drey. Only this time, he's on his own. "Drey?"
Why was Rick not with him? That was the question he didn't want to find out. But when he looked around. Drey held his abdomen. To Neptune's shock, there was molten metal cooled off mixed with blood. He was breathing heavily. Something was wrong. He was doing fine with Rick, until he was stabbed. He began to question himself, was it Rick who did this? Did he just left him for dead? What did he do to deserve this? All those questions would have to wait as Drey fell to his knees and Neptune caught up to him. "Drey, what happened? Where's Rick? Who did this to you?" He shook his shoulders. But Drey was in so much pain. He fell unconscious.
Neptune wasted no time to search through his pockets to find his scroll. And dialed his sister's number to get him help. He may be his enemy, but he didn't deserve to die after being abandoned by his partner/cousin. "Hey, Sis. It's me, I got someone who needs medical attention." Neptune contacts Ceres to let her know that he is borrowing Drey's scroll. "Just hold on a bit longer, okay?" Neptune assured him, not leaving his side until the ambulance arrives.
"...You need to run...Rick...he's gonna-he's gonna..." He rasped, coughing out blood, not a good sign for his health. "Don't start explaining yet, you have to get to the hospital first." Neptune told him.