Hello and welcome back! Two weeks sure seems to fly by doesn't it. Sorry for the late upload, but it's here and it's ready. And hopefully it'll be a good one lol. Some questions are answered, some questions are raised, but regardless, I hope you like it.

On with the chapter!


Pyrrha Nikos was never usually one to question the decisions of others, but she would be lying if this one didn't raise an eyebrow. "And in thanks for your presence at the Schnee Charity Ball, my sister would like to gift you these dresses."

Pyrrha looked at the youngest Schnee with a vaguely amused expression, as a portly man wheeled what was essentially a small wardrobe onto her private vessel. He gave a small wave and wink, and Pyrrha was certain his eyes changed colours when he did so.

"And, where is Weiss?" She asked. Whitley opened his mouth to reply, before his bright blue eyes quickly glanced around.

"I am afraid my sister is too traumatised and ill from the events at Beacon to leave the room, let alone our home." He explained, his head shaking slowly as he did. Pyrrha's eyes went wide at his words, immediately disbelieving them.

Weiss had been fine during the party, and she had stayed with her after in that room to share their experiences of what happened in Beacon. There had been a lot of tears, certainly, but nothing whatsoever to suggest Weiss was 'too traumatised' to function.

The very idea filled her with anger, though none of it was directed at the Schnee before her. He clearly didn't believe the words either, if his tone was anything to go by. "I see." She said through gritted teeth. "I trust Weiss has a plan to deal with her… trauma."

"I'm afraid I really can't say." Whitley said with a shrug, though he gained a small smile. "She does send her best wishes, and several dresses." It was the second time in as many minutes he had mentioned the dresses, and Pyrrha glanced back to her airship.

The bald man was talking with her pilot, and they seemed to share a joke of some kind that ended with her pilot laughing. "I see." Pyrrha nodded. "Well, I'll be sure to thank her for those dresses, should I ever see her again."

"Indeed." Whitley nodded, smiling properly as he held out a hand. "A pleasure meeting you, Miss Nikos." Pyrrha's hand almost eclipsed his completely, her own rough with calluses from training, while Whitley's was completely unblemished.

Despite that, there was a strange texture pushed against her palm, and as they finished their handshake, it remained. "You too, Whitley." Pyrrha smiled brightly, before turning to her pilot. "Balius. I think it's time to go, I'm eager to be back in Mistral."

"Nothing against Atlas, of course, but the weather isn't quite what I'm used to." She spoke kindly to Whitley, while Balius and the other man shared a hand shake and went their separate ways.

"Of course. Klein, I think it best we not keep them. I'm sure Father will have questions about where we were during his meeting with Ironwood." Whitley turned on his heel, after a short nod to Pyrrha, and began to walk to the hanger exit.

"Of course, Master Whitley." Klein looked remarkably happy as he stopped beside Pyrrha and took one of her hands in both of his own. "Do take care, Miss Pyrrha." He gave her hands a small pat, and Pyrrha was struck by the warmth that seemed to radiate from him.

"I will. Thank you, Mr. Klein." His presence immediately made Pyrrha want to get back to Mistral as soon as possible and hug her Dad.

"Oh, just Klein, my dear." He released her hands and crossed his own behind his back, practically bouncing on his heels. "Now, this has been marvellous, but you must fly, and I must jet." He chuckled at his joke, giving a small nod and quickly making his way after Whitley.

Pyrrha watched him go, before making her own way into her bullhead. Once inside, with the door closed, she finally opened her hand and uncrumpled the piece of paper that Whitley had slipped her.

On blue parchment, written in fine cursive, were five words. "Take care of my sister."

Pyrrha smiled warmly at it, as she sat down across from the travel wardrobe. "I intend to." She whispered, as the bullhead took off. She'd give it a while until they were out of Atlas airspace to check out any of the 'dresses' that Weiss had given her.

She hoped Ballius wouldn't mind suddenly having an extra passenger.

Taiyang was ready for battle. His armour donned, his weapon in hand, there was nothing that could stop him now. "Prepare to meet your maker!" He exclaimed, bringing his weapon down on those that would dare stand in his way.

The dust bunnies stood no chance against the brightly coloured feather duster, wielded by the man in a frilly pink apron. "Ha! Hoo! Ha-cha!" Each swipe of the duster removed more dirt and grime from his house.

His Sunny Little Dragon had finally found herself and left to travel to Mistral. It sucked that the house was quiet again, but that meant he could finally clean up properly. Yang wasn't a slob, but they had different ways of making sure things were clean.

His involved dressing for the part and making sure not a speck of dust escaped his wrath. Yang's involved putting on some feelgood music to distract her while she cleans. Zwei hated both, as whenever Taiyang would walk by after destroying more dust, he would put both his paws over his eyes and whine.

"Oh, don't be a baby." Taiyang chastised his dog. "This dust is gonna get busted." He continued to swipe and swing his weapon of choice, eventually making his way through the entire house, stopping at Yang's bedroom.

It appeared in her rush to get back out into the world, she forgot to make her bed. Taiyang gave a small 'tsk' before rolling up his sleeves and getting to work.

Pick up any clothes and toss them in the laundry bin, check. Flatten out her duvet, check. Fluff up the pillows, check. Put the picture of her and a boy back under her pillows, check. Taiyang was in the middle of dusting her lampshade before that last check caught up with him, and he quickly flung the pillows away to get another look at that picture.

"Oh, it's Sun." Taiyang realised. Before he lost his eye, apparently. The picture showed Yang and Sun sharing a one armed hug, both of them holding up the 'rock and roll' sign with their fingers. In the background was Bumblebee and another, darker bike.

"So that's how he knew." Tai smiled, flipping the polaroid around out of curiosity. The words 'Kicked Crue's ass' were written in black marker, clearly in Yang's handwriting. Below it, were another set of words. '1 out of 5 ain't bad'.

"Huh, so they were that close." Taiyang smiled, placing the photo back under the pillows and going back to cleaning.

It took around five seconds for things to finally connect, and for Taiyang to go sprinting back into the room and hurl the pillows away to stare at the words on the back of the photo.

"Kicked Crue's ass." He read out loud. "Crue." He flipped it round. "Sun!?" He flipped it back again. And again. "SUN IS CRUE?!" He exclaimed. Then, a second late. "CRUE IS ALIVE?!" He needed to make sure. He ran out of Yang's room, and into Ruby's.

Ruby had a book filled with photos of her friends during her time at Beacon. Taiyang never looked because Ruby would always act embarrassed, and Taiyang respected her privacy and just figured she was afraid he would get all mushy about his little girl growing up.

But privacy be damned right now, he needed to know whether Sun was Crue and whether Crue was alive! He found the book in question quickly enough, and began to flip through it.

Ruby and Yang on the Bullhead in- oh look how cute his girls were- NO! FOCUS! Tai had to force himself to turn the page, finding all of Team RWBY standing side by side. He knew their names, of course, Ruby had written about them both so much.

But, it still wasn't what he was looking for. More pages, more photos, mostly of weapons, another team they were friends with, JNPR, if he remembered correctly, with a leader that looked concerningly like a relative of his own.

And then finally, he found him. Wolf ears. Dirty blonde hair. He couldn't see his eyes because the boy in the photo was wearing a set of polarised sunglasses, but he was almost certain it was the man he had talked to with Yang's bike.

He was wielding a metallic blue weapon that Tai couldn't place, but it seemed to be the focus of the picture. Underneath, in Ruby's scrawl, were two words. 'New friend!' No name, unfortunately, but at least he was in there.

He appeared more in the next few pages as well, alongside some of the other members of RWBY. He looked happy. A far cry from the man who gave him his daughter's bike. One of the images showed Ruby on Yang's shoulders, wrestling with their teammate Weiss who was on Maybe Crue's shoulders.

A few more turns of the page, a picture of Ruby between Yang and Maybe Crue, being held up by the sheer height of them both with a scribbled 'Best Siblings!' under it. Flicking through more pages, Taiyang finally found it.

It was a picture of all of them, yet for some reason the girls were upside down and the Faunus in sunglasses was the only one the right way up. Squinting, Taiyang realised he was wrong. RWBY was standing on the floor, smiling up at the camera, which meant that somehow, Crue was on the ceiling.

And there, underneath the picture were several different pieces of handwriting. 'CRWBY!' 'For the love of God not that' 'RWBYC' 'Rubics?' 'Rubice?' He recognised his daughter's handwriting, but the other three he couldn't place.

And finally, the last damning piece of evidence. 'RWBY + Crue' written and underlined by four different coloured pens, showing that they all approved. Taiyang stared at the writing, then slowly closed the book and took a deep breath, knowing now that he was certain of one thing.

"Yang is going to kill me."

Fire. Flame. Destruction. Devastation. Revenge. The thoughts swirled through Cinder's mind as fire flew from her fingertips, slicing four Grimm in half with barley a blink.

Her breath came out in short pants. Even though the Maiden powers were coming to her easier than before, they were still taking a lot out of her. The ground beneath her suddenly began to quake, and she looked up in time to see a Beringal leap out of the shadows towards her.

A fireball formed in her palm, immediately rocketing towards the Grimm and shooting through it like paper. The Beringal fell to the ground, dissolving within a matter of seconds. It was too much, as Cinder fell to her knees, breathing heavily.

"Enough." A voice commanded. Cinder heard the steps of her mistress approaching, as Salem came into her view. "I thought you were the girl that wanted power." Her pale hands were clasped over one another, looking at Cinder disapprovingly.

"Did you lie to me?" A question, nay, a demand, that Cinder knew had only one answer. Of course she wanted power. She wanted strength. She wanted it so that no one could dare challenge her, dare hurt her or scare her ever again.

A set of steely blue eyes flashed in her mind, as she flinched, before turning to Salem and shaking her head. "Then stop holding back." Holding back? Holding back?! Cinder wanted to scream, but she knew better. She had been training day in and day out with these powers, there was no 'holding back'.

"If you wish to master your new powers, you must-" Whatever advice, and Cinder hesitated to call it even that, Salem was about to give, was interrupted by the sound of a door being thrown open. Not to long after, the sound of someone crying seemed to echo through the halls.

Shortly afterward, slow, careful footsteps made their way into the training chamber. To Cinder's surprise, it was Tyrian. She was surprised because she had never seen him tread so carefully, or with such a lack of energy.

Granted all his energy was of the 'manic' sort, but the point still stood. And then, as Tyrian got onto his hands and knees to grovel, Cinder saw it.

Tyrian's tail. Or what was left of it. His stinger was gone, a bloody stump remained. A viscous purple scab covered the separation point, and it looked as though it hadn't been treated properly. He still had about three quarters of his tail left.

"Your task." Salem made no mention of his grovelling or the fact a part of him was missing. "Were you successful?" She asked. Tyrian's golden eyes, usually always so shining with the glee to serve his Goddess, were duller than usual.

"N-No." His head hung low, ashamed at himself for failing. In response, Salem said nothing, placing both her hands behind her back and beginning to walk away. "But-But, hope! Is not lost!" Tyrian raised his head, throwing his hands out desperately.

"My tail-my stinger! I poisoned him! Qrow. He will not be a nuisance to you any longer, no. No, no longer, I've done that. Have-Have I done well? Have I pleased you?" Tyrian spoke rapidly, trying to regain any trust he could in his majesty.

Salem slowly stopped walking, absorbing his words. "The last eye is blinded." She hummed in thought. She turned, her red eyes staring through Tyrian. Just before she could speak, the sound of the doors being thrown open echoed once more.

"TYRIAN!" A voice screeched. Cinder found her head spinning, as Solaris ran screaming into the chamber. She stopped dead in her tracks upon seeing Tyrian's form, with a deep intake of breath that seemed to steal the air from the entire room.

"Oh my buggy!" She fell to her knees, directly next to Tyrian and wrapped her arms around him, bringing him into her embrace. "Who did this to you?! Tell me! I'll gut them like a fish I swear it!" Solaris' blue eyes flashed gold as her teeth grit together so hard they could break.

"It was the Silver Eyed Warrior!" Tyrian hissed. "She knew of the Golden eyes, and she had assistance. One of them-" "It doesn't matter how much assistance she has!" Solaris blonde hair shook angrily. "She will regret the day she dared hurt my precious buggy!"

Solaris hugged Tyrian even tighter, rocking him back and forth gently. "My Lady! Please let me go after this Silver Eyed Bi-oh." Solaris had finally turned her attention from Tyrian to Salem, and it brought the attention of the others to her as well.

Salem had frozen in place, staring at the interaction between Tyrian and Solaris. Her eyes were wide, her red pupils shining through the black sclera like a beacon in the night. And yet, she had an expression on her face that Cinder could not place.

It looked like a feeling of melancholy had come crashing down on her with all the force of a tidal wave. "My Lady?" Solaris repeated softly.

Crimson eyes blinked, and the expression was gone, replaced by a cool indifference. "See to his wounds, Solaris. And when you feel ready, seek out Aloe." With that, she turned on her heel, striding out of the room at an unusually quick pace.

The only sound left was Tyrian's quiet sobbing, muffled by Solaris' chest. The two women turned to look at one another with a surprisingly lack of animosity. A silent conversation, the main topic of which being 'What the Hell was that?' took place, before Solaris gently lifted Tyrian in an almost bridal style.

His mutterings of 'disappointed my Goddess' eventually faded as Solaris carried him out of the room, leaving Cinder alone. There was an odd shuffling sound in the corner, and Cinder glanced over to see a lone Beowulf.

Presumably, it was another target for her to train her Maiden powers on. And yet, it wasn't attacking. Salem had yet to issue it a command, so it just… sat there. Like a lost dog, wondering where its owner had gone.

Cinder looked between the Grimm, the door that Solaris had gone through, and where Salem had left.

She followed.

"This place looks like it's seen Hell twice over." The Wolf muttered, staring up at the Pastel estate. It was a large, three-story mansion that was nested in the Upper Cliffs, apparently the place where the rich and powerful of Kuchinashi made their home.

The estate had certainly seen better days, with broken windows and peeling paint, The Wolf wondered what happened to put it in this state. He shook his head, he could wonder all he wanted after finding Tortuga, who, if his Semblance was correct, was somewhere inside.

"Heading in now. Go no contact." His helmet muffled his words, so in the unlikely event anyone was listening to him outside the estate, they wouldn't be able to understand his words.

"Understood." Winter's voice came through the earpiece, and a short moment of low static sounded out before: "Be careful, Crue."

With that, the notification of the call terminating on the other end sounded out, and The Wolf walked into the estate. The mansion had two, surprisingly still standing, doors of rich mahogany. He doubted he could just push them open and walk in, he'd have to make himself known.

A fang filled grin sprang to life under his helmet as he recalled the mask Vermillion wore. The Wolf came to a stop before the doors, and knocked heavily while calling out. "Little pig, little pig! Let me in!" Almost immediately after, the doors swung open.

A person The Wolf didn't recognise opened the door. Human, with dark grey hair and a rifle slung over his shoulder, looked at him with shocked blue eyes. The Wolf let himself in, shouldering the stranger and entering the foyer of the mansion.

He was glad he wore a helmet, because he was fairly certain this eye had bulged out of his skull at the sight of the numerous criminals occupying the building. Each of them looked to be Huntsmen trained to some degree, and all of them were staring at The Wolf.

"Wolf." A voice called out. From a balcony looking over the foyer, leaning on the bannister as if he owned the house, Vermillion Raddock stood tall before a large window, though his hands were clearly gripping the wooden supports so hard they nearly cracked.

"I think I told you once before, it's The Wolf." He hung his thumbs in his pockets, as the Huntsman from before closed the door behind him and rejoined the band of miscreants. The Wolf tossed a glance back to the door, seeing a large deadbolt lock going upward.

"Yes, you mentioned that before." Vermillion growled out. "So glad you could join us. But, tell me, where did you go after our meeting in the Skilful?"

"To meet with an elite Atlesian strikeforce-fuck." The Wolf let out a sigh, as the sound of several weapons cocking sounded out throughout the room. "Palter's here, isn't he?"

"Yes-damn it!" A voice that The Wolf recognised exclaimed in anguish. Several rifles, swords, bows and a whole mishmash of mechashift weapons were pointed at The Wolf.

"We have eyes and ears everywhere, Wolf." Vermillion held his arms out wide, smiling widely behind his mask. "And we do not take kindly to interlopers. Especially when we are so close to our goal."

"Goal?" The Wolf asked simply, body still lax in the face of the situation before him.

"We intend to recreate something you bore witness to, the Fall of Beacon." Vermillion flinched, before his head snapped to glare at a direction off to the side, presumably where Palter was. In the end, he decided not scream at his subordinate, realising the situation was clearly in his favour.

"Haven will fall. And the Hana guild will gain international renown, part in thanks to our benefactor." This was clearly old news to those around him, as they all jeered or grinned. "The full might of the Hana guild will descend on Haven, and we will rule the criminal underground of Mistral." Vermillion threw his arms out, gesturing grandly to all those within the estate.

"Well, that saves me a lot of trouble." The Wolf said, spinning on one foot and facing the door. The sound of hammers behind pulled back and weapons shifting rippled through the room, but all motion ceased when The Wolf simply reached forward and slid the deadbolt into place.

"What-what are you doing?" Vermillion asked, his earlier confidence suddenly shaken.

"Well, I was going to just get in here, grab Tortuga and dip with as few casualties as possible." The Wolf explained, twisting his head from side to side as a series of cracks sounded out. "And I was planning on taking you down eventually anyway."

"But I was gonna do it slowly, one at a time, putting the fear of God into you, you know, the works." He gave a wave of his hand, as if it was no big deal. The words caused the various members of the guild to look to one another with concern.

"Was gonna go complete Batman on your ass. But, thanks to the bastard who cried wolf- oh that's who you are you motherfucker." The Wolf's hand suddenly clenched in anger, his gauntlet creaking with barely restrained fury.

"Ignoring the fact I might try and kill you first." "WHY?!" "You did save me the trouble of finding each member of your stupid crime family. Wrapped them all up for me in a nice neat bow." The Wolf flipped back his cloak, revealing a rather large handgun that he quickly removed from its holster.

Every single person there aimed their weapon at him, fingers on triggers, hands on hilts and what have you. But all The Wolf did was spin it round his index. "You can't seriously think you can defeat us all by yourself?"

The Wolf stared up at Vermillion, a single piercing blue eye staring at him through the slit in his helmet. "Of course I can." His words sent a wave of fear through everyone present. Palter was in the room, which meant one simple thing.

The Wolf was telling the truth.

"There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance." Vermillion exclaimed, trying to rally his men. "Let me guess, you think you can defeat us because 'you're not locked in here with us, we're locked in here with you.'?"

His words managed to rouse some of his men, who chuckled at the joke. "Oh, I said I could defeat you." The Wolf ignored Vermillion's words completely. "But I never said I was going to."

His words sowed confusion, and The Wolf took it as far as he could. "Cause you see, Millie, I am The Wolf. But that's not all I am." With one hand, The Wolf reached up to his helmet. In a short moment, the armour came off, and a pair of wolfish ears sprung upward, free of their confines.

"I am Crue Cullen." The helmet fell to the ground with a clatter. The sound echoed in the deathly silent room. They knew the name. Recognised it, from the Fall of Beacon. They knew Crue Cullen was dead. Yet here he stood before them.

Through the crowd, Crue managed to find Palter. His blue eye glinted dangerously as he stared at him. "I'm not from Remnant." The air remained still, as if everyone there was afraid to breathe. "And I killed the closest thing this world had to a God."

"You're next." His eye flicked from Palter to Vermillion, the steely blue staring through the man's mask and into his very soul. "Cause you were close, you were so very close." With his other hand, Crue pinched two of his fingers together mockingly.

"But, it's not me you're stuck in here with." With that, Crue raised his gun, and pressed it against his temple. The action caused everyone in the room to freeze. Was he planning on killing himself? To get out of having to fight them all.

"Cause if it was up to me, I would take you out slowly for hurting someone who was kind to me. But, I'm going to do you a kindness and make it quick." He pulled the hammer back, and a smile that was nothing but bared fangs spread across his face.

Then, his blue eye flicked to the window just above Vermillion's head. "Oh, would you look at that." Despite the situation, several heads turned to see what he was looking at. "Full moon." True to his word, Remnant's moon hung perfectly in the circular skylight, its broken side on display.

Crue smiled once more.

"Fitting."

With that, Crue pulled the trigger, and his Aura shattered.

"I lost him!" Sage suddenly exclaimed, freezing in his tracks. Scarlet and Neptune came to an immediate halt as well, turning to look at their teammate with wide eyes.

"What do you mean you lost him!?" Scarlet gripped one side of his head, pulling at his hair as his green eyes turned to pinpricks.

"I mean I lost him! I don't know what else to tell you!" Sage yelled, closing his eyes and concentrating as hard as he could.

"That, that doesn't mean he died, does it?" Neptune asked, horrified that they might have been too late. Scarlet's head snapped to him in fear.

"No." Sage shook his head. "No, even if he did die, I could at least know where his body is." Despite how morbid his words were, Sage knew he was right. "But, for his whole body to suddenly just disappear… I don't know what happened."

"Well we can't keep waiting." Scarlet looked around at the train tracks they were following. "Do you at least know where he last was?" Sage nodded. "Then let's go."

With that, the trio took off running at a desperate pace. They didn't know what happened to Crue, the fact he was alive in the first place was enough of a shock, but to suddenly lose his location like that?

It didn't bode well.


So, the reason I ended this one here is because I feel like what happens next deserves a whole chapter to it. As for everything else, a bit of catch up with some people we haven't seen in a while. I know some people want to see what RNJR is up to, but I meant this in the least... egotistical? way. Crue's presence has stopped influencing their story right now. If I did show what was going on with RNJR, it would probably be beat for beat what happens in the show, save for some thoughts of 'we're doing this for Crue' or something along those lines.

I don't want to completely rewrite Volume 4 word for word (I say, having the interaction between Salem and Cinder play out almost exactly like the show) so I'd rather just show the immediate differences, or things that will cause a major difference in the long run.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know if you, and as always...

Until Next Time

-Friday