Note: I think I know who to ship. Maybe
The series of events that lead to Kroenen getting impaled on a Deathstalker stinger were difficult to explain due to the speed in which they had unfolded. The first thing that happened was Ruby falling from the sky just as they were about to leave from the temple that contained the relics. Her fall interrupted by the sudden appearance of Jaun, who from the west was flung into Ruby as they crashed into a nearby tree.
Next came the redheaded girl who talked to much who rode in on an Ursa, followed by her beleaguered and out of breath Asiatic companion. THEN after that Weiss fell from the sky as well, after hitching a ride on a huge Nevermore. Finally, Pyrrha was running out of the woods, a Deathstalker on her tail.
So much was happening for anyone to register what was going on fully.
"I'll handle this!" Ruby said out enthusiastically once they had regained their bearings, the strong-headed girl rushing after the giant Arachnid Grimm.
"RUBY!" Yang shouted out, Kroenen chased after her instinctively and in hindsight it seemed to have been a wise decision as the Nevermore from above had fired a storm of giant feathers that dug into the ground, creating a forest of spines. Kroenen looked back as Yang tried to find a way in. He looked forward at Ruby who was a few feet from his position, her cloak pinned by one of the feathers.
This is why you don't wear cloaks in a fight.
Kroenen moved trough the feathers, trying to get to her before the Deathstalker did first. It raised its stinger in preparation for a no doubt fatal strike. Kroenen got in, his scythe-tonfas ready.
He raised Blitz and Krieg, ready to parry the blow.
He saw a blur, and ice enveloped the creature. The bright flash that flared due to the magic blinded him for a second, he tried to compensate but it was too late.
The stinger stopped short of Ruby's face, most of it embedded in Kroenen's gut.
Kroenen cursed silently, he had forgotten to consciously use his Aura. This was one of the unfortunates of fighting as an assassin, if you actually needed to use your Aura to defend yourself then you were not a good assassin hence he neglected to teach himself how to use it instinctively. Well at least it missed his heart and the apparatus.
Kroenen's Semblance was different from most others. While many had an external effect on the world his focused the internal. He had the ability to mentally affect his bodily functions, divert the flow of blood and to even activate adrenaline consciously. He could ignore pain, control his breathing, even do things biologically impossible if he had some Dust. It had some drawbacks but experimentation courtesy of the Schnee Dust Company allowed him to circumvent some of them.
He inspected his wound further, realizing that in all likelihood his intestines and stomach were a mess. Whenever he was mortally injured Kroenen's Semblance would forcefully put him in an unconscious state in order to better repair it. To an assassin this was a surprisingly versatile and useful ability. He remembered exploiting this regeneration by stabbing his lungs in the MJCF in order to fool his fellow convicts into thinking he was dead. He woke up in the morgue, almost giving the coroner a heart attack.
He even 'remembered' surviving a point black gunshot wound to the head. Although he had several missing memories from that particular job.
Kroenen wretched the sting from his stomach. Blood dripping everywhere in a gory fashion.
He heard weeping, looking down at a distraught Ruby and a completely dumbfounded Weiss.
"S-Silber." She whispered out in utter disbelief as she saw the amount of blood dipping down into the earth.
He then looked back towards the others, and saw faces of utter horror and shock. Even the Faunas girl seemed to be taken back.
Oh wait, they didn't know about his Semblance.
He lost his balance falling towards the dirt but was caught by Ruby who gently set him down.
"Weiss the wound, close it up please!" Weiss knelt by his side, using Myrtenaster to staunch the bleeding.
Ruby herself tore off a piece of her cloak, wrapping it around his blood stained abdomen.
Kroenen didn't know if he would yell out in anger or cry in laughter. He almost had the right mind to tell them he was perfectly fine. Unfortunately, it was proving difficult to even breath. His Semblance was already beginning the regeneration process.
"Ruby he's lost a lot of blood. This isn't looking good." Weiss stated grimly.
"No..No! He's going to make it. I know it. Silber's a fighter!" Ruby's tears were now falling into his lenses, fogging them up and already making his blackening vision even more difficult to see through.
"RUBY! I-Is he going to be alright?!" He heard D'Arc speak out, when did they arrive? He didn't hear them approaching. It appears his hearing as well was shutting down.
He saw their faces above him in a circle. He saw the redhead and her worried expression, hands on her mouth in utter disbelief. Jaune was agitated looking back and forth between Ruby and Weiss. He saw Yang fired up, saying something to a hysterical Ruby. Pyrrha as well seemed to be losing her calm, saying what could have been advice to Weiss. Even Blake who seemed to know and despise who he really was seemed quite saddened of the entire affair.
Kroenen weakly raised his arm, taking something from his neck.
A locket.
"Silber?" Ruby sniffled as she felt the object in her hands. Kroenen closed her fingers up, the locket firmly in her grasp.
"Silber. Why are you giving me this?" Ruby looked at the necklace, it was beautiful. Made of pure silver. A series of strange looking runes etched across its surface.
She looked down and was mortified.
Silber stopped moving.
"Nonononononononononono. Someone please wake him up." Ruby was hyperventilating now, shaking Kroenen in an effort to rouse him from his sleep.
"Nora you can help, right?" Ren asked to which Nora nodded.
Weiss moved out of the way to let Nora through, the girl rubbed her hands as pink lightning danced between her fingers. She tried once, then twice and then thrice. All she got was Kroenen's body reacting slightly. She couldn't directly place her hands on his chest because of the bronze plate.
After about twenty seconds she had given up.
"I-It's not working." Nora shook her head.
Ruby's expression was frozen, she was still as ice, her hands intertwined with Kroenen's own unresponsive one.
Silber was dead. He was dead before school actually began in earnest.
In just a second's moment she thought back to the first time they met. His biting sarcasm and stoicism. How he managed to be so serious yet so playful. Her first friend in Beacon, dead in her arms. The years they could have had together, the years HE could have had with everyone. All gone. All because she was so stubborn.
She couldn't take it; her heart was in so much pain.
"Ruby. This isn't your fault." Yang began to start but Ruby wasn't having any of that.
"No it is. All of it's my fault. Kroenen's dead because he was protecting me. I-If I didn't just thoughtlessly run out he… he- "Yang hoisted her sister up and then slapped her, hard.
The sheer force of it took everyone by surprise.
"Snap out of it will you! We don't have time to assign blame!" Yang bellowed angrily.
"Yang that was a bit harsh!" Blake yelled out.
Ruby rubbed her stinging face, wiping away the tears and mucus with her sleeves before finally giving a hug to Yang.
"You're right. You're always right." Ruby said in a ragged voice.
Yang sighed, rubbing her sisters head as she wept into her arms.
"But what do we do now?" Jaun asked the million lien question.
"First we need to get the artifacts, then we need to return to the cliffs. Once we do so we can lead the instructors here so that we may lay our compatriot to rest." Pyrrha said somehow recovering from the shock of Kroenen's 'death'.
"That…. sounds like a plan." The pause in Weiss' speech was due to her looking at Kroenen, a tinge of regret as she recalled how rude she was to him.
"Wait! Before we go." Ruby had stabilized for now, her earlier torrent of emotions now dammed up. She took off the remnants of her cloak, and placed it over Kroenen.
Respecting the dead and all that.
Ruby looked at the bloodied locket, opening it and felt the rush of emotions threatening to pour out again. She saw the picture of a younger and more annoyed Silber. He was being manhandled by a giant bear of a man who was having the time of his life.
'His dad.' She noted bitterly.
She put on the pendant and stared steely at everyone. One death was enough; she wasn't going to let another happen.
"Let's do this." She said with iron in her voice.
All of them nodded in agreement.
He shot up upright. Taking a deep gasping breath. He felt pain intermingled with pleasure. He felt alive again. He looked down and saw a red cloth draped over his knees.
'Ruby's cloak?' He thought to himself.
He looked around, they were all gone. Ruby, Yang, the Faunus girl, Weiss and Jaun. Even the Nevermore and the Deathstalker who stabbed him were missing.
All that was with him were the forest of feathers, his blood and the red cloak.
He placed his palm on the red bandage wrapped around his gut. Hissing as he felt the sharp pain.
Blitz and Krieg were neatly laid by his side. He retrieved them and stood up groggily.
He turned in a three hundred sixty degrees arc. Trying to gain bearings of his environment. He reached for his gasmask, flipping a switch near where his ears were. The inbuilt scroll in his lenses activated. He wiped away the fog and stared at a digitized overhead map of the area. A blinking red light way out of his current direction.
'She took the pendant.' Kroenen said pleased, it seems the tracking device was still in working order.
Kroenen was about to head off, but stopped and stared at the red cloak on the ground. He spent a few moments in making a decision, taking the cloak and wearing it.
Might as well return it. A thank you for the attempt at 'saving' his life.
Even as Jaun yelled over the din of combat she couldn't help but hesitate. Jaun, Ren and Nora were currently fighting against the Deathstalker that killed one of their own. Ren had been swept aside like a doll, her heart twisted slightly in fear that another was going to be added to the tally of the dead. Her grip on the spear was weakening. Could she do this?
"PHYRRA COME ON SEVER ITS STINGER!" Jaun reiterated, the Deathstalker snapping away from across the chasm of the now broken bridge.
It's stinger listlessly dangling above it.
She took a deep breath and prepared to throw it but was interrupted.
A whirling storm of blades sliced its way through the Deathstalkers tail, the stinger impaling itself on its thorax. The blur of steel landed just behind them.
"S-Silber?" Jaun said with his jaws hanging.
The newly arisen Silber was on his knees, spinning away his blades. A dashing read cloak on his shoulders that made him look like a dorky superhero.
"Where are the others?" He asked unheeding of their confused dazes.
"HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?! ARE YOU A GHOST?! THIS IS SO SURR-"Pyrrha covered Nora's mouth. Shushing her.
"T-They're up ahead! Hurry I think they might need help against the Nevermore." Kroenen nodded, dashing right ahead.
"Now how are we going to get there." Jaun said absentmindedly.
Nora took out her grenade launcher, reconfiguring it into a Warhammer.
"WAIT NORA DON-"Jaun couldn't finish as Nora hammered the bridge into pieces, the momentum launching them towards the Deathstalker.
Weiss with a flourish froze the tail of the Nevermore, back flipping in preparation for Ruby's plan. Yet the architect herself seemed to hesitate.
"Ruby whats taking you!?" Yang yelled as she pulled back Blakes ribbon across the coulum, pulling it as tense as it allowed.
Ruby stared down the screeching Avian Grimm, mindlessly fiddling with the bloody pendant around her neck. Could she do this?
She felt a hand on her shoulder. She was pulled and forced to face an angry Weiss.
"Look Ruby I understand you're still glum over Silber but now's not the time. Show us what you can do." Weiss was oddly supportive, the look of irritation that Ruby had associated her with softening into one of sympathy.
"But-" The Nevermore screamed loudly, arching its back and spreading its wings.
"It's about to fire more of its feathers!" Blake yelled out in warning.
A flying tonfa-sycthe flew across the air and the blade embedded itself into the Grimm's eye, the Nevermore collapsed, madly bobbing its head in an attempt to dislodge the weapon only to get painfully electrocuted for its efforts.
The girls turned their head staring at a familiar figure.
Silber stood on top of a column, Ruby's cloak billowing dramatically.
Ruby's eyes widened, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks.
Silber was alive, somehow he was alive.
Before they could have a touching reunion Kroenen jumped down and dashed towards Ruby in a speed that even she thought was fast.
In one swift notion Kroenen swept Ruby off her feet, holding her in a bridal carry with only a single hand.
"What do you you're doing feeling my sister like that?!" Yang screamed in utter hysterics in response to Silber's actions. Completely forgetting that he had just rose from the dead.
Ruby's tears quickly dried as she tried to process just what was going on right now. Her face heating up as she felt his hand grabbing her thighs tightly.
In one single bound he leaped towards the ribbon, Ruby's and his mass stretching it backwards. Weiss regained her wits and quickly conjured a glyph to increase their momentum.
"You can do this Ruby." Ruby nodded at Weiss' parting words, pulling the bolt of Crescent Rose. Kroenen as well pumping his tonfa's shotgun.
They shout up with great speed, Ruby and Kroenen both firing their weapons cyclically in order to boost their momentum. As they neared the Nevermore Kroenen threw Ruby in a final effort to increase her momentum. She yelped in surprise as she bursted towards the Nevermore with her Semblance.
Kroenen crashed into a pile of rocks near the Nevermore's claws. He fought his way through the rubble just in time to see Ruby dragging the Grimm along the cliff, glyphs appearing before her steps as she reached the top and with one great pull decapitated the infernal creature.
It was an impressive sight.
The giddy hug he received hurt, but he didn't feel inclined to say anything about it. Ruby was just as fast in letting go as she was in embracing him, probably out of embarrassment.
"So uhm, well I think this is a good time if any. Ah how are you still alive?" Ruby asked. She was barely containing her relief in knowing he was still kicking.
"What do you think? My Semblance." The gang were converging on their position, directly below the base of the cliffs.
"So your Semblance is self-resurrection? That sounds pretty nice, probably great for parties eh?" Yang's joke fell flat as Kroenen started violently coughing.
"Hey Silber are you okay?" Ruby asked with renewed worry.
Kroenen frantically grabbed his gasmask, wrenching it away.
The girls gasped as they saw his face. Fine chiseled features marred by a hairless and heavily scarred scalp. Blood was seeping from his clear blue eyes, his aquiline knows and dripping from his strong jawbones.
Kroenen was gasping for breath now, his hands wrapped around his neck as he tried to ride this attack.
Ruby held on to him as she helped him maintain his balance. Her eyes alight with anxiety and fear.
"I'm fine. This happens." He gasped out.
"This happens?" Weiss had her hands on her hips, unsatisfied with such an answer.
"Yes, whenever I get hurt really badly. My Semblance kicks in, I pass out for a time and wake up fine and dandy, but it comes with a price." He said pointing to the blood pouring out of his orifices.
He was telling the truth in a backhanded manner. These attacks weren't exactly a result of using his Semblance. If he needed to be accurate he would have said that they were the symptoms of Dust infusion deficiency.
Kroenen had become a lab rat for the Schnee Dust Company's experiments on Dust and its direct biological effects on the human body. They had inherited this from the remains of Merlot Industries and their work on something called 'Project Chardonnay'. The infusion that they created was a prototype, it didn't have any addictive qualities but it was taxing on the body. Kroenen didn't care for the long term effects of it. He rarely made use of it, and if it were to kill him then let it kill him. He was chronologically 50. He had lived a long life.
"Does it hurt?" Kroenen looked as Ruby with an incredulous expression that screamed 'Yes Captain Obvious it does'.
"I-I'm sorry." Ruby looked down, teardrops hitting the ground.
"I'm so sorr-"Kroenen slammed her head with an open palm.
"Ow!" Ruby yelped out.
"Can you please stop crying? It's getting on my nerves." Kroenen said in annoyance.
"Hey don't be a jerk, she really was torn up when you were bleeding all over her." Blake for the first time since this conversation started spoke out, clearly upset that Kroenen was so callous of Ruby's feelings.
He stared at the Fanus with his eyes, eyes no longer hidden by plastic lenses. Blake slightly sifted her gaze, not willing to have a staring contest with such cold eyes.
He turned his attention back to Ruby, she was still sobbing quietly. He took off the cloak on his back, and placed it over her.
"There, a dorky cloak for a dorky girl." Ruby laughed.
She looked at him even with her reddened eyes, she still managed to smile. A soft and subtle thing that conveyed so many emotions. Warmth, gladness, relief, satisfaction and contentment.
Kroenen had to begrudgingly admit she had a pretty smile.
"I dunno the cloak suited you, you looked like a comic book hero….dork." Kroenen frowned.
"Okay copying my lines doesn't work for you. Try to be original please." Ruby never understood how Silber could say such things with such a calm and monotone voice.
Kroenen gagged out in pain as he felt another set of arms around his gut.
"YOU'RE ALIVE! YOU REALLY ARE ALIVE! FLESH BLOOD AND OH DEAR BLOOD!" Jaun let go as he saw the blood on his sleeves. Kroenen turned with a wince.
"D'Arc, please warn me next time." At that everyone burst into laughter. Much to Kroenen's chagrin. Why were they laughing? D'Arc could have had reopened the scar tissue and they'd have a repeat of that previous drama.
They were now seated within an airbus. Ozpin congratulating them on a job well done, barring the few 'hiccups' here and there. They were now on their way back to the Academy, where they would start their paths as Huntsmen and Huntresses.
Kroenen elected to seat himself near the door so he could be the first to leave, he had originally sat near D'Arc. Yet the boy had beem called on by Yang, and in his place a very irritated Ruby appeared. Her cheeks puffed up in a huff.
"Yang put you up to this right?" Ruby nodded in silent outrage.
"She really thinks we make a great couple doesn't she." Kroenen stared at her, his gasmask back on his face. Was she asking him or just stating it?
"Do you think it's because of the scythes?" Kroenen shrugged, that was as good an answer he could think of.
Things became quiet between them. Not for long though, a hallmark of most of his conversations as of late.
"Hey Silber, why'd you do it?" Ruby looked away, trying to avoid eye contact.
"Specifics please." Ruby struggled for a bit before turning and looking at him. Was she trying to fight the urge to look away or something?
"Why'd you save me?" She clarified.
"I can regenerate, you don't." Ruby seemed unconvinced.
"Is that all?" Kroenen placed a finger on his chin, trying to think of something that would get her to stop bugging him.
"What do Huntsmen do?" The question put Ruby off-balance.
"Fight against the Grimm?" Kroenen shook his head, disapproving of the answer.
"Try again." Ruby shut her eyes. Using what brainpower, she had to think of something.
"Sacrifice." Kroenen answered for her.
"Sacrifice?" That wasn't a word she expected to hear.
"Weather its your wants, your comfort or even your life. The purpose of being a Huntsman and Huntress is sacrifice. The Grimm are endless, they are relentless. No matter how good you are, eventually down in the line you must sacrifice something. It could be minor or something major, but you still need to sacrifice." Ruby was taken back by the sobriety of the answer.
"So you wanted to sacrifice yourself for me?" Kroenen nodded in confirmation.
"That and I think you're cute. "Ruby puffed out her reddening cheeks.
"Stop joking around. It's bad enough Yang does it too." Kroenen craned his neck near her ear.
"Who say's I'm joking? Kroenen whispered seductively.
Ruby pushed his face away, clearly annoyed and flustered in equal measure.
"Stoooooooop!" She whined as her cheeks burned up.
"Fine. Reject my advances. Not as if I died for you or anything." She hated how neutral his voice was, it was almost impossible to tell if he was serious or not.
Kroenen noticed she was fidgeting now, her thighs rubbing against each other.
"You want to say anything else?" She took something from her neck, the pendant.
"I suppose you want your locket back huh?" Kroenen waved her off.
"Keep it. Whenever you do something stupid I'll be there as long as he have that on." Which was a technically true statement.
That smile again, that annoyingly sickeningly sweet smile.
"I'll treasure it always." Gah this girl.
She was truly going to be the death of him.
A lone figure, deep within a forest a feathers.
A red moon, its baleful light shining on everything down below.
This being of cloak and shadow knelt, its gloved hands touching the dried blood that seeped into the ground.
It felt power, it felt the end of days.
"Your greatest son is now with us. Rasputin." The figure grinned their eyes burning with fire.
