Chapter 8- Voids that need to be filled

In a space, a dark, quiet space, Maven was simply drifting in the cold darkness, like he was submerged in water, floating freely, it was not clear where he was but at the same time it didn't matter for he knew it was the end, whenever he died he would return to this place.

He slowly opened his eyes, as if he was awakening from a dream, slowly but calmly, his eyes went from purple to blue and his form was that of a man with ocean blue hair and was dressed in a formal fashion like a medieval nobleman.

As he slowly moved his head around to look at his surroundings and then to his hand, realising where he was and came to the conclusion, a very sad conclusion.

"Oh… I died."

He spoke softly, he acted completely differently than from himself back in the circus tent, it was like how he acted thus far was also nothing but a dream.

A faint light that grew brighter until it took the form on a spectral girl with long blonde hair, similar to Ray's as she floated around Maven's still body like a fairy taking the interest in a human.

"It seems you failed again, my knight." She spoke with a slight giggle.

"Mary… that's your voice I can hear… is that right?" Maven spoke quietly, he was barely able to move in the space he was in, he could barely see but knew from the voice he heard that she was the one he loved.

"You know you can't give up, until you find my body, I cannot return, you must continue thy search." She spoke, now showing her purple eyes that lightly shone in the darkness, now behind Maven, kissing his neck lightly before pushing him away.

"My maiden, it hurts, being separated from you like this, it hurts so much." He felt his heart clench and grit his teeth for a moment, holding back his tears as all what he want's is to be together with his beloved again but the curse, or rather semblance that was passed onto him rendered him unable to pass as each time he dies, his soul gets transferred to another body and the cycle repeats.

"That young woman, she is the one you want, she possesses what I seek, now do thy best, my knight"

In truth, back at the moment Mary died, her semblance was to pass on her soul with others and thus transferred over to Maven and then this was the beginning of what became Maven, the souls of Mary and Christopher Marionette combined.

She could often tell him to keep pushing forward, killing girls that looked similar to Mary in a attempt to have an empty vessel for his beloved to return to in hope he could hear her laugh, go for picnics with her and be happy again all while not knowing he was being used as a murder puppet while Mary deceived him with false information and methods to bring her back which can never happen, the man was the closest thing to being cursed to eternal life.

But she will keep telling her lies, and the poor man believed them all because his love made him blind, stealing his sanity forcing him to only look one way in hope to bring her back, while there used to be no hope of bringing Mary back, at the sent with SCRW, she had a revelation, a vessel that proved more useful than Christopher, it was Ray, she then wished for Maven to track her down so that Mary can take over her body when the time was right and continue her schemes.

There was 2 reasons for this, one, the story of Maven was starting to become more and more common and to keep his existence a secret she needed a new mind and a new name, to allow her to continue the killing as she loves.

The second reason, Ray's semblance has something more to do with her than just an illusion, she felt something else and needed to confirm.

But for now, here is the history of how Mary and Christopher began which would soon develop into Maven.

Mary was a princess of an old country that is no more, she loved nothing more than watching humanity struggle, the old country wasn't large, neither was it rich, the common folk often struggled to get by with the constant changing weather and high taxes that were used for Grimm protection though the country struggled, the people were tough and were used to the hard labour of farming and defending their territory.

Mary would usually think of ways to make her people suffer and would speak with her father, the king into creating new laws or taxes to make life harder for the people within reason or she would personally go out and subtly ruin whatever village she'd visit disguised as a "Formal Visit"

she often indulged in witchcraft and used her position to manipulate her people while wearing the fake but invincible smile, most importantly Christopher Marionette who was a noble who lived close by fell in love with her at first sight at one of the "Formal Visits" and would do anything to make her happy, his intentions at the time were pure and he was an honest man but little did he know that this would be his downfall.

She took advantage of that.

She spent time with him, enjoying meals together, pretended to be his lover, and even accepting gifts from him, this was all to get him completely on his side and so she could use him as she pleases, she taught him to only look at her and to never cheat on her and would assassinate any other girl that tried to get close to him in secret.

She took a particular interest in his semblance to move objects around him and controlling them at his will, it was a powerful semblance and she wanted it badly, though only working on non-living objects, she taught him and deceived him into thinking he can further strengthen his semblance by preforming it on those who died and using those dead bodies to do his bidding, she called it a curse, something everyone has and is looking for a way to cleanse humanity and with the help of Christopher, it will help her advance her research in finding a cure.

The poor nobleman took that lie without question, love made him blind and Mary knew full well how to utilize that.

Of course though, this made poor Christopher happy, he easily fell for her trap and helped her in her research, torturing the common folk in secret, kidnappings and developing his semblance to raise more bodies, it was going well until the king caught on what was happening when he sent a spy to find out what his daughter had been doing in secret.

He made a hard decision upon finding out what his daughter had been up to.

The king rounded a group of his guards to capture Mary and Christopher, even to execute them if they resist, in that mean time, the ruthless princess set fire to her room and was indulged with self-immolation in an attempted to burn away the evidence along with herself with Christopher banging on the door, crying his eyes out and desperate to save his love, his "Maiden" But in her last moments she said.

"May we find each other in another life, another time and then we can truly be happy, where we become one, time will pass, our bodies may perish but we shall never lose hope for the love between two shall not break, farewell o' dear life, it was fun but now it is time to start anew."

This was more of a chant she uttered from her witchcraft research more than a farewell that guaranteed that her soul would move inside Christopher's, has it did, the guards put an end to his misery, dealing him a swift death from behind, thus sealing the two together and began what was now the man named Maven, moving from body to body, killing those who he thought would be the vessel to let Mary come back or who are reincarnations of her, following her whispers to kill and deceive until he was able to infiltrate a circus and murdering all those in it and using their bodies to work for him in securing more victims and making his work more efficient as it was the plan Mary set so she could witness the lives being taken and enjoyed the ugly side of the world more than the thought of Grimm taking out humanity, she loved watching humans kill and betray each other, this world was just a big game to her.

After the whole ordeal in the old country, the father realised his mistakes and that his love for his daughter got the better of him, with no real successor to succeed him the next years got worse till the point where the country collapsed and was overrun by Grimm, just at Mary had planned, destroying as much evidence as she could before moving on.

Now back in the reality that the two existed in.

"Remember our promise, my dear knight, the one you seek is at an academy, the one in gold with the pure heart, she is who you seek but first we need a pure vessel to complete my re-existence into this cruel world so I can save it from salvation." The ghost of Mary continued to softly whisper to him, her voice was soothing, almost impossible to ignore.

"Yes, my maiden, I believe I have found you at long last, while she may be small, she is without a doubt your body, without a doubt, the one I seek." He said, completely sure that Ray who he was talking about being the one he has found.

"Excellent, we shall begin the next part of bringing me back, don't fail me, my knight."

"yes, my maiden, I love you my grace."

"And may our love bloom once more."

The ghost of Mary dissolved back into the darkness as another light shone in front of the unfortunate man, the beginning of his next life was to begin with a new mission on his mind.

Now in the Bosu local health care centre, Claus was getting a final check up on his injuries, he was discharged, thanks to his aura being able to heal his wounds quickly and walked back to the room the rest of his team was staying but scars on his arms where the wires cut in deeper were apparent.

It has only been a day since the incident occurred, luckily Gort was rushed to the hospital and given treatment in time and now he is in a stable condition and has just recently woken up, despite his injuries, leaving the hospital with a cast on his arm but most of his injuries were mostly healed thanks to his aura but he had a duty to check on SCRW since something like this obviously would've shaken everyone up.

Claus was the first back, in the room was Sky, Wave and Ray with their stuff packed up, quietly playing a round of cards until they saw Claus walk in and launched to their feet and ran up to the man, Ray was about to win a game with a royal flush but that didn't matter right now.

"How are your injuries!?" Sky was the first to ask, standing closer to him than the others.

"They are fine, luckily I healed quickly even though I'm stuck with a couple of scars, but I'll happily call them battle scars." He gave off a smile.

"Ahh, that's a relief" Sky gave a fake smile, taking a step closer to her teammate and then punched him in the face with all her might, sending him into the wall and then used her assemble semblance to drag him back to Sky where she tightly grabbed his jacket and was about to give him a mouthful, Ray and Wave jumped back and fell over in surprise to that reaction.

The night before Claus returned Sky was scarily quiet, they just assumed it was because of the fight which is to be expected, they were all on the low side but didn't expect this.

"What the hell was you thinking back then! Those wires could've cut you into multiple pieces you idiot!" She stopped for a moment to allow Claus to give a reply, trying to hold her sudden bit of anger in but failing badly, Wave jumped at Sky's sudden actions and knew it was high time to run out of the room and get Wulf who had been looking after the team while Gort was out of action.

"Bu-"

"No excuses, no if's no buts! Don't do anything to put your life in danger you hear me?! What feelings do you think I would be feeling if I were to lose you! If you had died back then… then… answer, say something!" Sky was being unreasonable, she needed to calm down but couldn't.

Ray wanted to say something but for the first time, she was actually too scared to say anything.

"I-I'm sorry okay?! I'm sorry!" Claus pleaded, bracing himself for another merciless punch.

"What kind of apology was that?! Promise you won't put your life in danger, right here and now, promise!"

"I promise, I swear I will never put my life in danger like that again, how does that sound?!" Claus yelled back and as he did, Sky pulled him in for a tight hug.

"Good… you scared me so much back there you know? I don't know what I would've done if I had lost you back there, we need to keep each other safe after all." Sky let out a sigh, her pent-up anger was now released but now she broke down into tears on him, she was emotionally drained, although she was happy to have gotten her team back together while at the same time traumatising them on what she's like when angry.

Claus, didn't say anything back, he was just happy have someone care for him this much that they went out of their way to literally punch some sense into him but at the same time learned how ruthless she is when she's angry also swore to himself to also never piss her off again, he separated himself from Sky and smiled.

"You happy now?"

Sky wiped her tears and smiled back though it was shallow.

"Yep."

Ray poked her head out from behind Sky and approached with one long but curious step towards Claus, her cheeks blushing slightly and looked away.

"So… about the fan thing… was that really true?" She asked, curling her hair with her fingers, remembering his words from that particular night.

"They're true, I am your number one fan I guess..." He replied with all honesty that made Ray hiccup and cover her mouth, shooting a look at Claus, taking a deep breath and recomposing herself.

"Well I guess it can't be helped since I am so beautiful and all, that just means I need to put in more work to make myself more popular." She boasted with a laugh to hide her embarrassment.

The Idol booped Claus' nose and turned back on him with a smile, going to her bed and sat on it playfully, picking up her cards.

Claus was stunned for a moment, not knowing what to say, same with Sky but she just learned to accept that was normal behaviour of Ray.

"Hey, what's going on kids? Your big boy came to me saying you were fighting."

Wulf walked in the room with Wave following closely behind, leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed.

"Oh nothing, I just needed to knock some sense into my teammates, that's all." Sky said, she had the feeling she was about to be scolded by this huntsman.

"Oh, the good old sock and teach em, I used to get that a lot in my training, there's a reason why I don't travel in teams anymore though it was fun while it lasted." Wulf scratched his head, sounding disinterested in the subject.

"Huh? What happened with your team?" The engineer asked curiously.

"Nothing special, I wanted to be on my own and disbanded from my team after an argument, that's all." He said, glancing at Sky and narrowing his eyes closer on Sky, staring down at her.

Sky suddenly became flustered and stepped back, the stare she was receiving was very unwelcome.

"W-what is it?"

"ya know, isn't that plain body suit cold?" He randomly said out of place.

Sky suddenly flared up and took another step back, quickly scanning the room for somewhere to hide.

"W-What do you mean?" She asked, her voice shaking, looking at her clothes, she thought as long as they covered some of her legs and arms along with her main body, she would be fine, she never had a problem with it back at home but that's because she never went out in public very often but now she felt attacked by this man's statement and immediately wanted him gone.

"I'm saying it gets cold around here, plus wouldn't you be attracting some attention with something tight like that too?" he added, it was clear as day, he was perverted.

This was something Sky was very uncomfortable with hearing about, she looked at Claus and Wave who were also looking at her and felt like she was being stared down at from all other her body and leaped for one of the beds, covering herself in the blanket out of pure embarrassment and she felt uncomfortable being around these guys now.

"It's not for me to judge, I just said my opinion really, you can do what you like." Wulf laughed out loud (Though he liked what he was seeing) while everyone else pretty much frowned at him, he was being a jerk to the poor engineer as well as insensitive.

Sky felt creeped out by this huntsman and really wanted him gone.

"You name is Wulf right? What the hell gives you the right to talk to a girl like that?! Do you talk like this to the others?!" Ray snapped at him, marching in front of him and glared up at him.

"Freedom of speech kid, heard of it?" He mocked her.

"I have but you had no right to say that outright to our leader, she's self-conscious you know?! Apologise now!" she screeched at him.

Wulf knew what type of person Ray was and succumbed to her reluctantly.

"Alright, I apologise, I'm sorry if I made you feel like that leader girl, you're a good person, too young for me but I know you'll go far, trust me... well actually when you graduate call me" He said, taking a cigarette out of his pocket but Ray snatched it away with a frown, she hates smoking.

"You're quite harsh, you know, can't a man smoke?"

Wave was about to take action to get Wulf out of the building until he heard a familiar voice

"This building is smoke free just so you know." A low and powerful voice ripped through the room, Wave looked in the direction to where he heard it and saw Gort approach the room with his arm in a cast and his other arm held onto his cane.

"You're the mother goose?" good timing, I was getting bored of these kids, I need to go pick up my weapon anyway, here's my business card, call me if you need my services and also when the little huntress leader graduates." Wulf said, pushing himself off the door frame and looked Gort in the eye, slipping a card into his pocket.

"As much as I owe you for coming to help in this incident, I won't tolerate foul language, assessment or any other offensive behaviour to my offend students." Gort gave a glare, powerful enough to pierce a Grimm, while it didn't intimidate Wulf, it was enough to make him back off as he knew the story of One Strike Gort well and knew well not to mess with him.

"Don't worry I was only giving these kids pointers, I wasn't gonna do anything bad to them, anyway I got a job to do, see ya." Wulf took his leave, giving a wave to Sky and the rest of the team as he left.

Gort took a look at his team, relieved that they were mostly unharmed but felt regret to have them come rescue him.

"I apolo-"

"You don't need to apologise, we are here to help each other, right?" Claus said, nodding at his professor.

"You've got a point there, still I have shamed myself in front of you all and I tend to make amendments for that when we get back, in particular you Claus, you knew what to do and acted rationally to try get the best outcome in your power." Gort said, the shame he felt in failing was a big burden on him.

"But what that huntsman said, do I really dress revealing at all?" Sky asked, still hiding in the blanket.

"I don't really see that, the way you dress is fine Sky, it should not be a concern, the more unique you are, the easier it is to stand out." Gort said, trying not to lower her confidence any more.

"If you want Sky I've got some spare clothes for you to put on while we return to Beacon." Ray offered which Sky was happy to accept that offer.

"When we get back we can discuss that, to think some people act and think like that scares me a little." She said, she wasn't used to the different types of people in Remnant and this was a little scare for her.

"Ahem… the airship will be here in 30 minutes so make sure you're outside in time for that." Gort said, walking out of the room.

"Well no point in worrying about it, let's go." Ray grinned at Sky.

"Mhm, let's go"

Back in Beacon, Gort left to report to Ozpin and had sent SCRW back to their rooms to rest, the whole incident would be recorded into the academy where there had been similar instances of someone like Maven who had been targeting mainly girls and the investigation to capture him is still underway.

Sky had been trying on different clothes made by Ray, wanting to change her gear to something more for civilisation rather than clothes that are just for the workshop while Claus accompanied Wave to the hospital to visit Anabelle.

Sky came out of the changing area that she had built in the room so that the girls would have privacy when changing instead of going to the bathroom each time, she was wearing some white trainers with light blue ankle socks, some grey shorts with a white belt with a gold buckle, a light limp shirt with a wrench print on her chest and a golden coloured bracelet on her wrist to compliment her look.

"How… do I look?" She asked nervously as Ray inspected her.

"As jealous as I am, you actually look good in that." Ray sighed in her annoyance that the clothes that she helped Sky buy suited her so well with her looks.

"From now on I'll do a swap of different outfits sometimes to get used to being in the streets more and to find my Ideal style, after what that huntsman said, I'm really not comfortable with being in that body suit in public anymore, I guess I'll only wear it for when I do work on my machines and for training missions." Sky admitted sadly, her cheeks going red remembering that moment, but she shook it off.

"If I'm honest it did stand out quite a bit among us all but that itself is a charm no one can replicate." Ray said but she didn't mind how Sky looked because it was a part of her job to look like a mechanic/engineer, she also felt like she needed to add something so Sky would still give that impression, so she brought out a little box.

"Before I give you this I must ask, should you really be doing this now? We just got back and I'm exhausted, shouldn't we be resting?"

"Sorry, I'm used to working long hours, so I didn't really think about it."

"No matter let's finish this so I can sleep her hours, anyway, here"

"What's this?"

"Open it"

Sky looked curiously at the blue box with a red ribbon on it, she undid the ribbon and took the top to reveal a pair of fingerless gloves and large gear hair clip on top of them. She slipped the gloves on and put the clip in her hair to complete her makeover, walking over to the mirror and smiled at her new appearance she was proud of.

"I look great! Thank you Ray!" Sky ran over to hug the poor Idol briefly and looked over her new outfit, feeling satisfied with it.

"it's no problem, you just got to keep up with the current style, didn't anyone tell you on your fashion sense?"

"Not really, I never went out a lot, I would usually stay at home unless I accompany my brother to the stores sometimes to help with getting parts for the things he makes." Sky said with a smile.

"Your brother, he makes all that stuff?" Ray asked.

"Yeah… but he's missing, like there are people still looking for him, so I can just believe in that for now, but I can't stay sad forever, Jet wanted me to make the most of my 4 years here, so I'll have to do my best." Sky nodded to herself and took a deep breath.

"And when we complete our training, hopefully he will be found and if now, we will find him ourselves."

"Exactly, he's really, really strong so he would likely be waiting for me to find him, like a big game of tag you know?" The engineer now giggling to herself, thinking more about the positives than the negatives.

"I like how you view things you know? But enough of that let's get the guys back and show them off your new look." Ray smirked.

As they were about to leave, a guy with blue long blue braided hair and dressed in a similar fashion to Gort except he didn't wear a jacket, it was a black waist coat, knocked on the door that was open.

"Hello, I heard I could find the members of SCRW here." He announced.

"Hello? Well my name is Sky and I'm the leader, what do you need?"

"My name is Shun… I'm professor Gort's son that you went on a mission with recently…" He spoke nervously, his voice being surprisingly high pitch despite his father sounding so low.

"Ooooh… I didn't know he had a son, what can I do for you?"

"Well… I just came to say thank you for saving my dad, I really mean it!" He bowed his head and yelled out, forgetting his indoor voice that startled the two.

Sky just stood there unable to say anything for a moment but regained her composure.

"It was nothing, he was our professor so of course we had to help him." She said with a smile.

Shun looked up at Sky, noticing her outfit and went red and looked away.

"Well I'm a part of team STAR, we are a second-year team and well… if you need any help, d-don't be afraid to ask me… have a nice day." He said and left the room suddenly, leaving the two confused about what just happened.

"Well he does seem nice enough at least." Ray said, focusing on sorting out her makeup from her bed.

"Although I didn't expect our professor to have his son at this academy though." Ray sat back on her bed and looked up at the ceiling.

"Well it's an interesting thing to know anyway" Sky said.

"But more than anything I can't wait for the other teams to get back, so I can talk to them about their different adventures." Sky's eyes lit up as she loves hearing about the tales of others from the many tales she was told when she was younger.

Professor Mint suddenly barged herself in the room as if she was looking for someone, startling Sky again.

"You haven't seen here have you?" She asked, referring to Claus.

"You surprised me… No, he's gone to the hospital."

"Is that so? Okay, thanks and I'm glad you all came back safely." She expressed her gratitude and left the room in a hurry.

"What was that about?" Ray asked.

"I don't know but she seemed to be in a rush." Sky shrugged her shoulders and sat down on her bed.

"Hey, do you want to try some makeup for a change?" Ray offered, holding out some foundation.

"no thanks."

The engineer went to look out of the window to notice an Atlas airship flying over the academy, she yelped and fall onto her backside upon realising it belonged to Atlas.

"What's wrong Sky?!" Ray leaped from her bed to look over at Sky.

"It's Atlas! What are they doing here?" Sky exclaimed, grabbing a hold of Ray tightly and shaking her around like doll, the Idol, grabbed the engineer's shoulders and forced her to stop shaking her.

"They always appear when a large event is about to take place, don't you know that? They are like the lead security force in Remnant!"

"Aww I don't want them to be here!" Sky ran to the window again and look up to the airship, soon noticing there were more than one of them, making her extremely anxious as she really doesn't like Atlas.

"Why? Do you have a past with them or something?" Ray asked, now curious.

"Uhh… something like that ahehe… though my brother knows all about it, I was just always told to never trust them"

Suddenly a loud crash could be heard from the outside, Sky seeing pillars of smoke started rising from Vale, provoking her instincts to suggest something bad is happening in the city.

She dashed to pick up her weapon that's in carry form and equips it to her side and grabs a hold of Ray telling her to follow.

"Why are you dragging me so suddenly?!" She asks, picking up her weapons on the way out of the dorm.

"Something's happened in Vale, something really bad, we gotta go!" Sky yelled out, letting go of Ray and running on ahead, the Idol now picking up speed to catch up to her, she decided not to ask anything else and just followed her.

"Shouldn't we call the boys, so we know where they are?" Ray asked.

"They took a GPS with them, it's fine." Sky added, Ray was taking back a bit now knowing that Sky has made GPS' without telling her.

Meanwhile in Vale, Claus and Wave found themselves surrounded by various Grimm on their way back to Beacon, consisting of Beowolves, Creeps and Ursa majors, then noticing that there was a large hole where a team was laid on top, from assumptions it was team RWBY from the colour schemes of 4 girls among the wreckage.

Whatever they have been up to, it's caused a lot of trouble here now.

Claus raised up his weapons and went back to back with Wave who had his bow out, pulling on the string with a red tipped arrow.

"It's time for a quick side quest." Claus said with a smirk.

"I agree." Wave nodded.