The Broken Truth
Weiss is once again sitting in the guest room with the toledo under the mattress in case she has to fight her way out. Klarissa entered the room to make sure the huntress is okay. Just as she promised her uncle. "Miss Schnee. Did something happened?" She asked. Weiss glanced at her, taking out the extra scroll she had stolen from the underground passageway. "I found something, it should put them away for good. It turns out that Carlos did have connections with the Red Eye." Weiss hands her the scroll, and Klarissa checks a series of texts and files Weiss can send to her sister anonymously. "Interesting, he's been hiding among the shadows beneath his military status." Klarissa stated, Weiss agrees. "That includes the debt contact. This can't be good. For them if you sister sees this. I'll just have to screenshot them and give the tip to her." Weiss decides to give her one last items or two to ensure it was enough for her sister to believe her. "One last thing before you do." Weiss took off her earrings that her sister have given her, and gives them to Klarissa. "This pair counts as recording devices. Make sure Winter hears this." Klarissa took a peak at those earrings. She then nods in response to the favor.
"You have my word." She replies, Weiss then embraces her, the same way she had with her former butler before she left the Schnee Manor. "Thank you. Just be careful. And give your uncle my regards." She requested.
"You too." They separated as Klarissa makes her exit to make screenshots without getting caught. Weiss then turns to the balcony. The stars glimmer in the dark sky, it reminded her when she and Neptune were 15, and he didn't remember it back then. The night they have met in Poseidon Island. The meteorites have showered from the shattered moonlight. When they watched the shooting stars. Some can be the moon stones. One wish on the star, doesn't matter if they come true or not. But now he is either dead or alive. And Weiss couldn't seem to forgive herself if he truly was dead. She cannot shake the text message sent to Rick from her mind.
"What would Ruby do in situations like this?" She questions herself. Ruby Rose is her team leader and best friend on Team RWBY. Two years younger than her and her other teammates, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. She also left her team for different reasons. They got off in the wrong start from day one in Beacon Academy. Calling her a sneaker-upper for sneaking her way into the academy. But what she didn't know is that she was enrolled two years earlier from Signal Academy. Quirky and adorable as everyone else would describe her. Seeing her with her big sister, Yang, despite having different mothers, was always there for her. Something that reminds her of her older sister.
"I'll just have to wait a little longer to see if I can get out of here." Weiss told herself. "Neptune, if you're out there, please be alive." She buried her head on the bed to get rest for the day to break out of the prisonous mansion. "I won't forgive you, Vega. If he is truly dead, you'll regret the day you crossed paths with me." She vowed.
Drey and Neptune are standing on the ferry to escape from Vale, after Neptune's face was recognized. The least Neptune is relieved of is that his sister is getting medical attention after being stabbed by Rick. Neither of them knew how insane Rick has become since the night of the accident. Still, Neptune felt guilty that he took away someone important to his rival, but how was he supposed to know his semblance have caused this. This got Neptune to question for why Drey would change sides.
"So Drey, what got you to change your mind about Rick? I know he's your cousin, but man it must be hard to be related to that guy." Neptune asks. Drey looks at the ocean, the opposite of his own semblance. On his mother's side, he too has the inflammable semblance. His own semblance was awakened by determination during his days in Shade Academy. He grab onto the rails in sadness. It's like two sides are telling him too much. One side told him that it's wrong to betray family. The other says that this was wrong to let your family members do wrong. He chose the second part to wake up from his cousin's influence. "True, thank you for sparing him. I know I shouldn't excuse him for his crimes. But I'm sorry that I didn't do anything to stop him from fighting you." He apologized.
"Hey, whatever is going on with Rick, it wasn't your fault. Up until now, you understood the fact of how bad things have gone. Warning Weiss about this is the right thing to do." Neptune assures him as he understands the fact that he was a follower of the massive volcano. And that he does so to not feel alone.
"You don't understand. When I was a kid, kids would pick on me for not unlocking my semblance. That is when Rick have stood up for me, I don't know if this is out of pity or using me. Without him, I am nothing to anybody else. But my mom denies it, no matter if I'm being honest. Rick was always there for me, so I was there to have his back. If it meant getting into trouble with anybody else, or to hurt anyone, I would get his respect. So I entered Shade Academy with him and got in the same team as him. Still, looking back at the time we almost drown you. I was afraid if I stop him, he'll hate me. And not be my friend anymore. Just last night for when I heard for what you accidently did to my uncle, I already saw of how vengeful, no insane he has become. No wonder why he changed. In our family, there was always aggression, but my mom and uncle are different. Seeing this today, it looks like I am the coward around here." Drey explains his side of the story regarding his reasons for following Rick in the first place. "I guess Mom was right to tell me to stay away from Rick, no matter if he is my flesh and blood." Neptune looks up, he felt sorry for both Drey and Rick, but it wasn't an excuse to have a will to kill.
"Drey, I didn't know that your uncle was there on the night of the accident. But I won't excuse myself for what happened to him. All I can say now is that I am sorry that this happened to your family." Neptune apologized. "If anything, I'm the coward around here. Because I cannot get over my fear of water. Even if I went to Haven, my feelings about water, would never go away." Neptune looked at his hand, a reminder of the day of the accident.
"I'll be honest with you, Vasilias. The damage is already done. At least Rick would have time in prison if there's a chance he'll think for what he have done." Drey points out, now all he could do now is to redeem himself from his cowardice. He was glad to have stopped Rick before he can make the final straw on himself and Neptune. "But I doubt that's going to happen."
"You know, you don't have to come with." Neptune insisted. But Drey remains silent for a moment and shook his head. "Um, no. I do. Because I believe Rick might have something to do with the Red Eye. Have you already heard about it?" This got Neptune to snapped his eyes wide. The name Red Eye was one of the horror stories he heard as a child. A long-running organization before the White Fang. How they kidnapped huntsmen and huntresses for unknown reasons. One of the rumors he heard from his teammate, Sage, is how they would also perform experiments nobody knows what it is. Even the rumors about how the Red Eye members secretly collects those with semblances from prisons.
"Yeah, my brother have told me those horrific stories about the Red Eye. I thought they were a myth." Neptune replies. Neptune was shaken by that name. "Not to mention that there are families reporting huntsmen missing, not because they vanished out of thin air. But because they disappeared from prison. Either they escaped or imprisoned. Some of the fellow huntsmen named Flynt and Neon told us that they claimed to be wrongfully arrested for doing the right thing in missions, then the fact that Weiss' sister acting strange. Unless...something has threatened her. What if it has something to do with the Red Eye, to capture all the huntsmen in prison already?" Neptune theorized. "And that she knows something we don't."
"From what I got from Rick, he was paid to give him the list of every huntsman and huntress we encountered and give it to the one he calls, Red Ghost." Drey adds. "Then send it to him, only for them to be gone the next. The next batch of them were luckily been petrified by one of the Thunderbolts, who I could think is the leader. Petrifies them to prevent them from being capture. Back then, that's when I saw some red flags. I suspected Rick to have been working for the Red Eye, and sold you and the heiress."
"Ex-heiress turned huntress actually. You probably never heard, but her father took away her inheritance a long time ago." Neptune points out. "It's not easy for her to be rich when it comes to him. He made her life a living hell over a legacy."
"Oh, yeah. I forgot." Drey scratches the back of his head. While still hiding behind his brown lensed sunglasses. "The other part, I never knew. I just didn't realized that there was shame to be related to someone who is tainted in mind. Now I'm ashamed to be related to Rick. Say, you said your brother's body wasn't found since the night of the accident, right?" Drey adds.
"Yeah, why?" Neptune questions. He then got intrigued for the facts for the possibilities of his brother's whereabouts. Drey then lowers his head in deep thoughts, looking back, his father was a huntsmen before he disappeared. When he was ten years old, Drey and his mother visited the prison where he was charged with thievery. Possibly because he did something he didn't mean to do. But upon arrival, he was nowhere to be found. When his mother asked where he is, they didn't give an answer like he didn't exist. It haunts Drey till this day.
"What if Jupiter knows something about the Red Eye and nobody believes him?" Drey theorizes. Neptune glanced away to think that this is the reason for why Jupiter never said a word of his resurface. Nor did he show up in his family's doorstep to say that he's alive. "Then I guess that's why he never showed up. That's why the Thunderbolts are here to begin with." Neptune replies. "No. Then that means, that man, Carlos Vega is working with the Red Eye. And the Atlas general didn't know about this. Dang it, he must've sent Rick to find our location so that he can use Weiss for a debt that was placed on her father."
"Maybe you're right, I found something that might help connect the dots in Mountain Glenn. It was said to that there were sightings of illegal experiments in an underground lab." Drey points out. Showing him the map with an "X" marked on the location of where Mountain Glenn in the Emerald Forrest.
"Now that you've mentioned it. We should check it out. I have a bad feeling he's was going to do the same thing to her and the other missing huntsmen alive." Neptune suggested and accepted Drey's help. The two formed a truce after hearing one's side of the troubles and the other for recklessness. Neptune shakes his hand to first find the truth and then save Weiss from an uncertain fate. He then turns to face the sun rising from the water. The skies have turned light blue when it reaches midair. "Truce?" He asks.
"Truce."
Wait for me, Snow Angel. He thought.
Mountain Glenn
Neptune and Drey have climbed the edges of Mountain Glenn in the Emerald Forest that was already infested with Grimm. Mostly beowolves and ursas. Still, it was nothing they can handle. Drey leads Neptune the way to the underground lab that was disguised as a hospital according to rumor. "Ugh! Even if this place is old, haven't they thought of remodeling this town?" Asked Neptune in disgust with all the cobwebs after some just got caught onto his jacket. "Man this place is scarier than I remembered when Roman Torchwick came here with the White Fang. When Team RWBY arrived here to rid the Grimm in this expansion."
"Jeez, forget Torchwick. Do you want answers or no?" Asked Drey, sternly. Neptune then quickly forgets about the cobwebs for the more he walks inside the ruined hospital. "I knew I have hidden the files somewhere while I was with Rick. I have the feeling he might use them to hunt down more huntsmen." Drey explains. The lightbulb in the aisles flickered from the weakening state of power outage. A water drop fell on the back of Neptune's neck. Causing him to jump. "Ahh!" He took out his Tri-hard to get ready to attack, and rapidly spins to see if there's anyone behind him. Annoying Drey in the process. "Shh! You're going to attract more Grimm." He whispers loudly. Neptune nods, knowing fear counts as one of the negative emotions that Grimm would smell.
When they reached door A-09. They entered slowly to where the files are hidden. Drey turns on the sink on the right handle, and it opens the front wall as a secret passageway. "Well, well. What do you have here?" Stairs are also shown. "This hospital was once established by Carlos' father, Montero Vega. As a charity event for the Vega Corporation. It was shut down due to the Grimm attack. It was never rebuilt since then."
"Any more bombshell they wanted to keep shut?" Neptune adds. Then they walked down the stairs with help of Drey's semblance: Inferno. To lit fire from his hand to see where they are going. Since the power was always out. When they reached the floor. Drey found a lantern to lit his flame to see clearly. The room was lined up with pods, 10 on each row. The Grimm was said to be a cover-up to prevent anyone from finding out about the devious experimental plans. Some of the pods have broken glass for those who're able to escape. Others however, have skeletons for those who didn't make it out alive.
"This is even more grim. How come you're the only one who knows this?" Asked Neptune.
"If I did tell someone, who's going to believe me anyway?" Drey asked.
"I guess that's a fair point." Neptune agrees. Neptune digs into one of the containers where there are number of subjects in each category based on the letters that begins with the last name. Then Neptune found his surname and Jupiter's first name in one of the files in subjects "V." How did his name even got here in the first place? Drey checked the desk full of documents and there was one that he has discovered during his days in Shade Academy. When Neptune opens his brother's file and read something horrific that would also haunt him for the rest of his life.
Name: Vasilias, Jupiter
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Residence: Mistral
Education: Sanctum Academy, Haven Academy
Status: Escaped
Then the "S" files where it says, "Schnee." He also pulls it out if the draw and reads the profile.
Name: Schnee, Winter
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Residence: Atlas
Education: Atlas Academy
Status: Subjected
It hit Neptune like bottom rock. The age of 24 is when students in academies graduate to become official huntsmen. Why would they targeted graduates from each if the academies? Who would be blind enough to sold them out? Drey then reactivates a computer that was offline years ago. "You might want to take a look. You're not going to like this. There was something else I found while I was there." Neptune followed when the mainframe turns on. The files are locked in a password bar. Neptune uses Rick's stolen scroll to hack into the computer to enter the files. Neptune's heart dropped to read some of the facts that he didn't like. No, more like fearing the worse possible ways the pods were here to begin with.
During the past 34 years, I have began my experiment to enhanced humanity and faunus kind. To eradicate the creatures of Grimm, we fight fire with fire by putting the implants of Grimm limps into the body of a living being. It can being great use for the empowerment of huntsmen and huntresses to use their agility and semblances and increase of their strengths. By combining the injections of the serum created by Dr. Merlot and the DNA of Grimm, the experiment was far from success. With the first year students in Huntsmen Academies volunteering to take the vaccinations, it can make a remarkable use for military weapons. Although, those who did not take the vaccines will face the consequences by having to be taken and be subjected to the vaccines. Which would result in them becoming Grimm-human hybrids.
-Red Eye
Neptune froze reading the names of the people who signed the contract. That were signed to participate in the project. Names he never thought he would see; "Montero Vega, Dr. Arthur Watts, Dr. Merlot, Jacques Gele, Leonardo Lionheart." He froze seeing that name. He fell to his knees. Drey glanced at him and knelt down to see if he's okay. But the blue-haired huntsman was far from okay. He never thought that his former headmaster would sold out his graduates. Why his brother, why his team? Was he and the rest of Team SSSN next to be his next victims in the experiment? "Lionheart, why?" He whimpered.
"I told you you were not going to like this? But on the bright side, your brother and his team manages to escape. There's a good chance you'll still be able to find him alive." Drey assures him. They both got up with heads up. Neptune was glad his brother didn't get injected with the serum. But at the same time he was upset to hear of Lionheart's betrayal. The real reason why huntsmen and huntresses in Mistral are gone. "Come on, let's get out of here." Drey told him and Neptune follows with the files recovered. But before they could exit, there was someone standing in the way. "If you're not careful, that's where you'll be caught for trespassing as well." They then draw their weapons to see who it really is.
"Winter?" Neptune questions.
"You have nowhere to run now, Vasilias." Winter responded coldly. "For my sister's sake, I will fight you if it means to the death."
"We're dead." Sighed Drey.
Author's note: The experiment that involves Grimm-hybrids by either kidnapping graduates, or having them to volunteer by luring the good-hearted to do what they think for what was best for all of Remnant prior to the series of RWBY. Winter and Jupiter are in the same generation of graduates listed to have been subject to those experiments. Only the difference was that Jupiter and his team were recovered from the ocean after the accident and placed in pods while they're unconscious. Winter was tricked into taking the vaccination that has yet to react. Team ZRVT escaped with their lives and nobody believes them when they tried to reach out any authority figure. Talk about a dark turn of events.