Volume 2 Chapter 2 Child of Summer
Xionas rubbed his eyes as he got up, he hadn't properly slept in days. Nightmares of the Starlight throne and people plotting his downfall, and now this dilemma of breaking his word to Lea. Yet when he approached the gym entrance his fears melted into focus, Yang wanted to fight him. He stepped in and easily dodged a punch coming from Yang. "You'll have to be faster than that, Ms. Xiaolong, to beat me" Yang exhaled and went for a sweeping kick, to which Xionas performed a triple axle flip and kicked Yang in the back "enough games jackass, where did you hear that name?" Yang yelled, throwing a barrage of punches, Xionas dodged them effortlessly. "I don't really know. Something to do with my friend Omega" Xionas said, throwing a punch to Yang's ribs. Yang brushed it off and continued her assault "She was Ruby's Mother, she died when Ruby was young." Xionas stood in shock "And now you know the truth." Omega's voice in his head. Yang seized the opportunity and clocked Xionas in the head, as the world faded into starlight.
Xionas awoke in a dark space, It felt like his mindscape, but Azure butterflies suddenly flew up into the blackness as Xionas stood on a Large glass mural of himself. The image was too large to make out but it looked like him sitting on the sand as the sun set, in the clouds were images of those he cares about: Blake, Omega, and his team. The blackness then started to rain crimson, but it wasn't blood, it was light when the light dissipated Omega stood before him. Xionas always had a leadened heart when he saw his mistake, how he let his friend die. "How long?" Xionas murmured, Omega just stood there, "Answer me dammit! How long were you going to keep this a secret from me?! Your mother was Summer? Jacob Grimm!" Omega started to cry "I only knew her name, and stories my dad told me, and when I saw Ruby through your eyes I knew she was my half-sister." Xionas knew some stories of the pale woman that washed ashore on Menagerie, but that all happened before he was born so he just thought it was a bedtime story. "All this time..." Omega interrupted Xionas "Protect her at all costs" Omega lifted his head and looked at his best friend through tear-soaked eyes filled with determination. Xionas nodded as a light suddenly engulfed him.
When he came to, he was in his dorm room and Blake was screaming at Yang. "First you act all hostile toward him and now you carry him back here without notifying me?" Yelled Blake. Normally she was more reserved, but something Yang did really pissed her off. Then it donned on him...much like his head pain. "So the bimbo managed to knock me out. Kudos, Blake I'm fine. Omega knocks me..used to knock me...around harder. But damn, Yang has got one hell of a left hook" Xionas scanned the room and noticed Ruby standing in the back, Tears in her eyes. "Oh great. Now Ruby is crying" Xionas sighed, exasperated. "Listen, Red, it's not your fault that Blondie over there decided to pick a fight with me. Now, if you ladies don't mind. I'm off to clear my concussion." And Xionas promptly got up and left the room.
Xionas thought he'd visit his new favorite book shop. That is until he saw two strange people enter. One he knew as a Talon, Mercury Black. The other was a tan woman, he only knew one person who'd use someone like Mercury, Xionas bolted until he caught the scent of the person and entered a dark room "I know you're here...Cinder Crimsonhorn" a figure waltzed out of the shadows "actually it's Cinder Fall now,Cousin." Said Cinder. "No cousin of mine stages her Uncle's death, nor does she side with Darkness. The Azure and Crimsonhorn side with the Light. We protect, not destroy." Xionas growled his Ohm pulsating with Hatred. Cinder Fall AKA Cinder Crimsonhorn was the Child of Phi Crimsonhorn and Azalea Azure but unlike her parents she bore no mark of being a Faunus though with the cause of Alpha Crimsonhorn's death being from Mercury she has been dubbed a Snake. Finally had enough he lunged at his cousin, Zaroc engulfed his arm and started seething with Crimson Energy but just then a shadowy figure cut them off as he heard a familiar voice yell "Azure!" From a rooftop. Xionas' focus then switched to Adam sneering from a rooftop and taunting him with a hand gesture, all Xionas did was let out a bellowing roar and charge toward Adam but the shadow intercepted them and Xionas crashed into a warehouse. The figure then materialized and tossed a weapon Xionas thought long gone, His father's other Kama, he had lost it the day of the train heist. The figure stepped out of the shadows and saw a Talon, he knew the Talon uniform, a sleek black sharkskin suit adorned with a rose, Adam's mark, but each Talon had a different mask, a full helmet of the animal that represents them, Fafnir had a Dragon and Xionas had a Salmon and when a Talon dies or retires or even abandons their path, Adam's Path, they put the mask in a hall or shatter them completely, leave no trace only marks. But the stranger had Xionas' mask, to be sure Adam was not playing some sort of mind game with him Xionas picked up the Kama and swiped at the figure, the stranger effortlessly deflected it. Xionas had enough and threw a Zaroc leadened punch at the stranger and the mask crumbled to reveal someone Xionas knew personally