Happy new year everyone! And Merry Christmas to those I did not wish it for just yet as well. Took some time to planning the next few chapters. I've noticed that these last few chapters have been a lot of fighting, fighting, and more fighting, with some decent amount of words sprinkled about all over the place. It happens, unfortunately, and a lot of these arc do require a lot of fighting. So, this is a take a breather chapter. But of course you guys know me, this is a very lore heavy story and pretty much every character is capable of being given a spin-off story for. Doesn't mean that I'm going to write a spin-off story for every one of them, keep that in mind.

Beta: CrowSkull

The Blind Huntsman Volume 2, Episode 9

Chapter 66- What It Means

He felt a soft weight against his side as he felt his body awaken once more. This time he was able to move his body, albeit incredible excruciating as the sore pain was in all of his moving muscles. Kai's eyes blinked tiredly, moaning softly as the pain reached his eye and head, returning to him the headache that was the thing that made him pass out in the first place. He nearly jumped when he felt that soft weight against him shift, leaning closer as a soft cheek rested on one side of his chest. It was his sister Malienna, Kai quickly told himself as he smelled her unmistakable scent. His sister was in his bed with him, a hospital bed he quickly found out as the smell of an infirmary invaded his nostrils.

His blind eyes darted around the room as his dulled senses tried to tell him where he was and who was around him. The drugs that he must have gotten were impeding but unbearably so. He was still able to move and sense what was around him. His teammates, Ruby, Blake, and Orchid were to his left against the wall, sitting on the floor all sleeping in one group. He felt a small smile grow on his face at the knowledge, and to his right, he heard his mother snoring lightly as her face dug into his hospital bed. His tail being held in one of her hands as she did so. He was so warm now, the coldness that he felt just mere hours ago was finally fading away. There was a weird unexplainable yet not painful feeling in his eyes still, but he could easily ignore it.

Qrow was there as well, his senses told him. The smell of the alcohol in the flask on the inside pocket of his thin coat was like a Beacon for the man. He drank some, but thankfully after getting with Marron, his bad habits have been slowly dying off. It didn't mean that he would stop drinking forever and at all, however. Kai was slightly happy to see the old man as well, their relationship has grown very complicated over the months and recent weeks. But no matter what words they may have spat at each other, or the blackmail that was being forced onto the both of them Qrow was still a trusted ally.

His voice tried to escape from his throat and mouth, but being three-quarters asleep still, his voice came out slurred and quiet. Indecipherable as well. Kai gave up quickly and simply let his heavy headrest on the pillow behind his head. The fighting was done, he was safe, his friends were safe. What he did save them and himself… though for the life of him, he couldn't remember exactly what it was he'd done. It was just… a cold feeling, as far as his memory told him. He wanted to think about it more, but his body wouldn't let him. The drugs that were making him rest continued to work and made him make the decision to let his eyes close and for sleep to take him once again in a matter of moments.

Even asleep, his body moved and hugged his sister back as she was snuggled against him. The young girl hummed pleasantly as she felt her brothers affection. Their sibling love was unbreakable, and Malienna would not leave her brother's side until he awakened. Just like their mother, and all of the fun friends her big brother had. Hearing the news was hard for the young girl, but after seeing Kai in one piece and thankfully not bleeding anywhere, she promptly glued himself to his side to uncompromisingly that Marron had to hand feed her in order for her to get her nightly sustenance.

From the corner of the room, Qrow's red eyes stared at the adorable scene before him. He was a light sleeper, and his senses told him to wake up. Kai was awake, but he was clearing lethargic and the drugs that he asked Ozpin to tell the doctors to give him was working. It wasn't an invasive drug whatsoever, but one to help the kid rest. God knows that he would need it. He could tell that it started kicking in again once Kai's blind eyes shut and forced the boy to go back to sleep.

When he saw Malienna, his potential future step-daughter, show such love to her brother… They were inseparable, he already knew that, but it became all the more prevalent after that moment. No matter their differences, he and Kai both wanted to protect what they loved the most. It still doesn't change the fact that what Kai has been doing is wrong, and that he went back on his promise to not kill anyone that night. The only reason that he couldn't find any reason to actually be mad at the kid was because if he didn't do that, then they may have all been killed that night. Adam was going to win that prolonged battle, Pyrrha was getting manhandled, and everyone else was in trouble. So he would give him a pass just this once and not make too much of a fuss about it.

His eyes shut once more and he once again saw that darkness that engulfed the inside of that building. The obvious question was; What was that? After bringing it up to Ozpin, he promised to look into it as soon as possible. But informed him that Kai unlocked something very dangerous.

No shit he unlocked something dangerous. It wiped out a whole damn warehouse of White Fang.

"Just what is going through that head o' yours, kid," Qrow whispered as he opted to wait out the rest of the night. Now that he was awake and had all these things to think about, he wasn't going to be able to fall asleep again anytime soon.

When Kai woke up this time, the drug that was within his body wore off. He took a deep breath and began to move once again. Forgetting that the weight against his body was in fact still there.

Malienna beamed at her big brother as she pulled him up to a sitting position the rest of the way. "Kai is awake!" She announced to everyone else in the room.

Ruby, Blake, and Orchid all looked up from their three-player scroll game and leaped up to their feet the moment they saw Kai's blind silver-eyed facing them. His senses telling him exactly where they were. Ruby, being the fastest and youngest save for Malienna, was the first to wrap her arms around her leader and best friend, Orchid was next, and Blake waited patiently last so that she didn't get trapped in Orchid's grip again like she did when they saw each other again when they got back to Beacon. It was to no avail since Orchid just pulled her into the group hug anyway.

"Hey," Kai greeted weirdly as a few laughs escaped from his mouth. "How are you guys doing?"

"How are we doing?" Even Ruby winced at the tone of Marron's voice, and she wasn't even her mom. Kai turned his head to face his mother as she shooed the other girls away and placed her hands on his shoulders. "How are you doing, you were unconscious for nearly three days! Aren't you supposed to be strong? How is it that you are the one I have to worry about over all of the ones that I adopted?"

"I'm okay, mom." Kai's tired voice told her, his smile was something that Marron couldn't be mad at forever. Becoming emotional, Marron caved first and dropped herself lower so that she could pull Kai in against her chest in a tight hug. For once, her son allowed it and didn't complain about her being too affectionate. He just breathed into her chest and practically went limp. Somehow, he was able to make her heart feel lifted and broken.

"Kaizy!" Orchid patted him on the back, her wide excited smile electrifying those around her. "It was you who saved everyone, right? Man, even while passed out you pull off some miracles. I got some catching up to do, even if I was the only one besides you who actually won a fight…"

"You weren't against a man built like a hulking mountain," Blake complained.

"I got an insane scorpion faunus who's much older than all of us," Ruby added with a pout. "You got lucky with the weakest of them."

"Still won." Orchid shrugged her shoulders condescendingly and put on quite the shit-eating grin. "I must be superior."

"Sure, you can go with that logic." Blake allowed just so she didn't have to argue with the girl with more than twenty personalities. A few of them even being smarter than her. "I'm glad that you're okay, Kai." She added. She was never one for being incredibly expressive of her emotions, and everyone understood that about her. Not everyone was like Ruby who would run and jump and hug everyone she deemed a friend of hers, no matter how adorable it may be. She was just different.

"Thanks," Kai replied. Nowadays, he was similar to her in that regard. That may have been part of the reason why the two of them were able to grow closer with each other more than Blake as with pretty much every other person.

"Mm!" Malienna sat in her brother's lap and played with his hair that has been growing longer and longer over the recent months, it was now nearly down to his chin. It was such a wild haircut since Kai didn't care much for what he looked like, and luckily for him he wasn't ugly or else it might have been a little harder for his mother to accept his choices to not care about his hair or getup. Somehow though, it just added to his look. Though part of his mother was worried that if his friends asked to dye it for him, he'd go for it because he wouldn't care about it anyway. The thought of her son having neon pink hair while hilarious, she would not like to have to cut it off for him. Then there was a thought of her son being bald and… no, she wouldn't allow him to do anything to his hair without her permission. "I'm glad you're awake, big brother." the little girl said as she rubbed her cheek further into his chest.

Kai chuckled at his little sister's obvious jealousy which she tried and failed to hide. Blake rolled her eyes at the display, though not offended whatsoever. He accepted his sister's hug and returned it, though there was one person who didn't get a chance to say something to him yet.

Next, he reached a hand toward the second youngest girl in the room, his fellow silver-eyed warrior. Ruby was quick to take it, and the cold surprise of metal fingers shocked him into a gasp.

"It was a gift from Atlas," Ruby told him with a chuckle. "Since it was just two fingers, it was easy to install. So now no harm was done!" She exclaimed happily. Kai ran his own fingers against her new bionic ones, he couldn't see it let alone understand what it meant, but they were both colored black and red and looked just like real fingers, though the were of course made of metal and many other properties that helped the finger understand what Ruby's body was telling them to do. It was a tenth of a second slower than her other fingers, but the girl quickly grew used to the metal appendages. If anything, it did nothing but return her to her former power and gave her a stronger punch assuming that she struck them with the two metal knuckles on her right hand.

"I see," Kai's smile was genuine and made Ruby's heart sore. "That's great… I'm happy for you."

"Awe, I gotta take a picture of this," Orchid said as she took a picture with her scroll, as in right as she said that sentence. Ruby pouted at her partner and crossed her arms with a huff while Kai and Blake just laughed it off. It was good to be able to relax like this with his team, there was nothing really else to worry about at the moment. Well, after one more thing then there wouldn't be much to worry about.

"What about you, Qrow?" Kai asked. He knew that Qrow was there the whole time, and the older man must have known that. The red-eyed man stepped forward with crossed arms, though there was not a hostile vibe coming from him. He just sensed… neutrality. "Do you have anything to ask me?"

"Not anything that would be okay to bring up when you only just woke up," Qrow said with a sigh through his nose. "But I am glad that you're okay," He admitted freely. "Gave us a bit of a scare for a sec there kid, being out for two and a half days would do that."

"I woke up earlier," Kai told him. "But I couldn't move or speak much, what did the doctors give me?"

"It was a kind of aura booster than made your body rest," Marron explained for him. "Since you're the kind of kid that would walk right out of the hospital the day you woke up, I signed a form to let them use it on you. You need your rest Kai, don't think I didn't notice all of your injuries when they took off your shirt."

His injuries? Ah… Kai realized that she meant his scars and bruises from his constant training and nights out with Qrow and Vernal. She was right to assume it was because of over-training, which he would admit to doing because of everything that has been going on as of late. He did train with Raven or Vernal and Ozpin nearly every day and night now. It really was a wonder he didn't pass out sooner, but despite all of the pain that his body always felt, it was worth it if it meant it would be able to handle what his life was going to throw at him. It helped him fight against Neo and Tyrian for a decent amount of time, if it wasn't for that then he and Ruby would have been killed.

Yet still it wasn't enough, Ruby still got hurt because of him. If only he was just a little stronger… faster… then she wouldn't need the bionic fingers that she's got now.

Suddenly he remembered what happened, the forced usage of his silver-eyed. His mind instantly latched onto it and tried to understand what it was. There was no Grimm around, and he didn't even know he could force his eyes to work if he wanted to.

"What happened to the others?" He found himself asking out loud.

"Jaune and his team are all okay, Ren's is too, but Rick and Brick are a little hurt and are on the floor beneath yours," Blake explained. "Other than that, everyone is okay. A little tired and exhausted, but okay. You should have been awake so you could witness Nora taking Jaune out for the entire weekend to 'train' him." She held up quote signs with her fingers and stifled a chuckle. "I wonder what that may have entailed."

"That's good to hear," Kai said, smiling once again. Though the smile quickly died down as he remembered that night, however long ago it was, he still felt the aftermath effects on his eyes. It was pulling at him, almost yearning for him to use it again. He was more than strong enough to resist that urging, but it was there. It made him curious, and questions upon questions were asked in his own head. "What did I do to save everyone?" He suddenly asked.

Qrow, Ruby, and Blake all avoided his blind gaze, Orchid was just as confused as Malienna was. Neither of them saw what actually happened, and not even the aftermath either. One point they were losing or at a stalemate, and the next they were on the Bullhead retreating in victory.

"What do you mean, Kai?" Malienna asked innocently.

Qrow gave Marron a look, a look that told her that he was about to talk about something that she shouldn't have to hear. Maroon nodded back and she scooped her daughter up in her arms. "C'mon honey, let's give your brother some more time to rest."

"But he just woke up!"

"I know honey, but you don't want to hurt him by accident, do you?"

Maliennas face went white, she shook her head.

"Good girl," Marron said as she stood up with her daughter in her arms after kissing her son on the head. Next, she moved to collect Blake and Orchid.

"No," Kai surprisingly stopped her. "Leave them, they have to know about this. I'm done hiding things from them."

"Kai," Qrow hissed. But it was already too late.

"What do you mean?" Blake and Orchid asked almost at the same time. "What are you hiding from us?"

The only one who wasn't that surprised by his words was Ruby, who looked away and shrunk down a little on herself. Blake and Orchid looked to Kai and Qrow, who looked completely serious. Marron realized that it was time for her and Malienna to go, and left the room after letting her daughter wave goodbye to everyone. Once they were gone, there was no one left to stop the revelation from happening.

"Oz is not going to like this, kid," Qrow warned him.

"He'll live with it," Kai said before turning in his bed. He gestured for Ruby to sit next to him, and she did. Crossing her legs as she took the spot. "Do you two know what color my eyes are?"

"Silver," Blake answered right away, the answer was obvious given that Kai still had his eyes revealed at that very moment. She expected him to continue, but instead of speaking her partner simply nudged his head in Ruby's direction. Following his instruction, it was made clear that Ruby's eyes were silver as well. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"They're supposed to be special for some reason, right?" Orchid asked, surprisingly spot on. When asked how she was quick to explain. "I sorta figured once I saw you and Ruby training one time. You two kept talking about your eyes for some reason, and then I knew something was up when you went from training normally to training at insane speeds. Also, my mom told me every tale she could find when I was a kid." She snickered. "After dad left she was left to raise me on her own, and apparently one of her priorities was bedtime stories."

"That... makes a surprising amount of sense," Blake admitted.

"I'd rather you girls not be told about this so soon," Qrow piped in before Kai could continue. "But since you're all on a team together, and after what happened last night. I guess it is good that you know. Orchid, since you know the tale already, why don't you just retell it for Blake to hear."

"I never actually listened to that tale either," Ruby spoke up for the first time since sitting next to Kai. "So I'd like to hear it too."

Neither Kai nor Blake voiced out any protests, so Orchid shrugged her shoulders and crossed her arms. After a tremble, she entered a personality that was dubbed by the other personalities as the 'Storyteller'. When she opened her eyes again, she leaned forward with her elbows on her knees and an old smile on her face.

"As my mom once told me. Once upon a time, just two hundred years ago, legendary warriors with eyes the color of white-silver were the great defenders of humanity before the huntsman came and before the Kingdoms grew as vast as they are today. No Grimm could challenge them, for a simple look for just one of these warriors could kill dozens if not hundreds. For that, even they became fearful of these warriors. They continued to defend humanity until the began to fade away into history so suddenly that they became more fairy tale than legend in a mere decade. Some say that the race of the silver eyes are still alive today, while others think them extinct. I for one, however, believe that they will never truly be extinct, for a world without silver-eyed will spell the end of humanity. And well, humanity has not ended just yet." Orchid's smile grew wider as she looked toward Kai and Ruby. "Once you showed me your eyes that night a few years ago, I knew that you were something special, Kaizy, and Ruby too. I'm glad I remembered that tale."

"You never told me you knew," Kai pointed out. His partner from Signal, from the old Team KO, that headmaster Albedo assigned them as knew more than she let on. Though the reason that she chose not to reveal this was a mystery. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because what would it change?" Orchid countered. "I had only a fairy tale to go off of, I didn't actually think it was true until I saw you and Ruby training intensely that one time. But now that I think about it, that white light at the stadium all the way back then, that was you?"

"It was," Blake answered for her partner. Her voice was silent, but her words had an impact. Everyone stopped to listen to her. "When I deserted and defended him from Cinder, he rose up and used his eye power. I never knew what it was and I never tried to figure it out. But it saved my life. But it was always in my memory." Blake looked at her partner. "That fairy tale isn't just a fairy tale, it's factual history. If I didn't see it for myself I may not have believed you, but I did, and I believe you."

"That makes this much easier than," Visibly, almost invisibly, Kai sagged in relief as Ruby spoke those words. "I didn't want you guys to think that we were some kinds of Gods or something…"

"Hah!" Orchid laughed. "Don't be ridiculous."

"Yeah…" Qrow uttered. "Ridiculous."

"So what happened the other night," Blake continued. "That was you?"

"It was," Kai nodded his head. "Though I don't know how exactly I managed it. What did I look like?"

"I don't know, I didn't see you."

"I did," Ruby professed. All attention turned to her. "I was right next to you when you used your eyes. It was black, not white this time. I don't know what it meant but it froze a lot of people, turned the stone." She swallowed nervously. "I-I didn't know if you were controlling it or not, but the look on your face… I had to help you somehow. I used my own eye powers and I was able to stop you from going overboard, though the damage was already done and the fighting stopped right after you passed out."

"How?" Qrow asked. "You can only use your eyes if you are around Grimm, so how did either of you even manage to activate them?"

"I…" Kai balled his hands into fists as the memory of what Tyrian revealed to him flooded his mind. "I think I might have an idea… Tyrian, he was there when we were ambushed." Qrow widened his eyes and clenched his fists tightly, he was clearly surprised. It made sense, he never say Tyrian nor Hazel during the battle a few nights ago. "After he attacked Blake and I, he constantly kept trying to make me angry, trying to bait me into doing something I didn't want to do. I didn't fall for it, but then he started talking about my father…" His head fell. "About my family's past too, said that the Matusoka's are destined to all be traitors."

"That's impossible," Ruby grabbed his forearm. "You would never betray us, and Malikai wouldn't either, you're both practically part of my family now."

"Is it so impossible?"

"W-what?"

"Is it so impossible," Kai repeated himself. "Think about it, all of you. Silver eyed warriors are real, I am blind yet I am one of the strongest in this school. Cinder and her fire powers… can't be natural." He stopped himself from revealing Salem, and the Gods, and everything that Ozpin told him when he accepted his offer to start training early in the mornings and sometimes in between classes. They couldn't know yet, not even Ruby. She knew too much as it is for her own safety anyways. "We weren't there either, the history that's in the past is impossible to know unless you were really there. I don't want to believe it, but what reason would Tyrian have to lie to me?"

"Kid, he's insane." Qrow pointed out.

"Aren't we all?" Kai chuckled bitterly. Qrow shut his mouth, Tyrian was insane because he was a serial killer, and according to law since Kai wasn't a fully trained huntsman yet, so was he. "My father hid things… lots of things. He wasn't going to tell me about my eyes and only did because he thought he was going to die. I'm wondering what else he didn't tell me, or anyone else." Remembering what he was told about Malikai betraying Ruby's mother, he turned his head to her subtly. He thought about telling her and the rest of their team about that, but it would be something that would tear apart their relationship. Despite not being his father, he was still his son. Yang was already mad about him training with Raven if he told her that his father was apparently the reason her mother was dead?

He didn't think there would be coming back from that.

"That's how he managed to piss me off," Kai continued. "My eyes wouldn't activate on their own, not even to just increase my base strength. But with how angry I was, and how badly I wanted to hurt Tyrian, I made them work."

"You don't just make the power work," Qrow said. "That's not how it works. You need to let it work for you, and only when you need it."

"How did I not need it at that moment?" Kai countered. "If I didn't force it, then we'd all be dead. You were going to lose to Adam."

Qrow winced. "How do you know about that?"

"I sensed it." Kai lied. In truth, he didn't know how he knew that it just came to him. But it made sense, there weren't a lot of people strong enough to face Qrow on an even playing field, let alone win. Adam was one of those people who could take him. "If I didn't force it, I would have lost to Tyrian and Neo, Ruby would have been killed, Blake, Jaune, and Nora would have been killed by Hazel and Roman. Then slowly everyone else would die. I couldn't let that happen, so I forced-"

"Kai, stop," Qrow warned him. Kai did stop, wondering what the problem was. From the other perspective, his face contorted into a form of hatred that they've never seen before and it was honestly making them uncomfortable. He calmed down and took a deep breath, it wasn't his intention to bring his friend's discomfort.

"Sorry." He apologized hesitantly.

"Don't sweat it. Do you remember what happened when you… forced the activation?" Qrow asked next, thankfully changing the topic for the better.

"Not much," Kai admitted. "Like I said before, I just felt some kind of cool sensation. I don't know what happened after that, only that before I was fighting Neo and the White Fang, and then once Tyrian caught Ruby… I snapped."

Ruby fidgeted with her newly installed robot fingers and Orchid placed a hand on her knee for comfort. She irrationally blamed herself for losing when it couldn't be her fault. She was just a fifteen-year-old girl, and Tyrian was a monster of a being capable of killing pretty much anything out there.

"Do you remember what the result of this… activation was?" Blake then asked slowly.

Kai tilted his head with thought. "I know I had to have gotten us all out of there somehow. Remember I couldn't actually see what happened, the next thing I knew I was in here."

"You…" Blake hesitated, she looked to Ruby and Orchid as if to ask their permission or thoughts on if she should tell Kai about what happened, neither of them looked back at her, but they didn't protest or try and stop her. "You petrified them, turned almost all of the members of the White Fang there to stone. Hazel and everyone else was forced to take cover, and after that, the fighting stopped for the most part. There was just no one left to stand up to us and we just ran after you and Ruby and carried you out of there."

"Oh…" Kai thought about those lives that must have been ended as a result. He could admit that there was some guilt, most of those people were just thinking about joining and not really the same killers that he's been going after as Stone Face. But as he expected, he didn't feel too bad for them, and only because he justified himself as just fighting another battle. Every battle has its casualties, and the White Fang lost that one.

Ruby made the mistake thinking it was his first time, or if it was not on purpose. She clung to his side and comforted him, and it did help, but it just wasn't needed. This wasn't the first time he'd killed, just the first time he'd killed so many at the same time.

"You turned people to stone?" Qrow asked with shock. He already saw the damage itself, but he couldn't believe it at the time. "How… the silver eyes are meant to protect people not harm them, so how could he… No." He shook his head. "Kai, talk to Ozpin about that when you can. This is something only he would know about."

"Will do," Kai nodded his head, completely agreeing with the older man.

"We should go too," Ruby proclaimed. "Kai is the leader of our team, so we should be there for him through anything, right guys?"

"Yeah!" Orchid exclaimed while Blake nodded her head with determination.

"I'm fine with it," Kai said, smiling slightly.

"No," Qrow shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you make that decision. You know Kai, one thing leads to another, and they already know too much."

"Then let Ruby come. That'd be enough."

"That isn't the-" Qrow stopped himself from shouting. "That isn't the point. Listen, I'll talk to Oz about it first, and if he says its okay then fine. You can all come. If not, then there's no arguing, deal?"

"Deal." Orchid shook the mans hand without a second thought. "I like the way you do things, saves us a lot of drama and unnecessary conflict."

"That's how I do," Qrow said with a snicker.

"What should we do in the meantime then?" Blake asked.

"I'd like to rest some more," Kai said with a heave. "I feel like I'm melting and can't move much. I'm barely sitting up as it is."

"Let's give you some time to rest then," Qrow said as he moved over to the bed and gently pulled Ruby out from beside him. It was almost funny to watch as Kai let himself fall to the side and planted his head right back in those pillows. He let out a satisfied huff, and he got the idea. "Let's all give him some time to rest. He just woke up, and we all just been through hell and back. Don't worry about classes, the teachers won't punish you for resting after a mission."

"I get to take naps and not get yelled at for it?" Orchid asked with twinkling eyes. "Awesome! I'll go get Nora and we can make a day out of it."

"How is that-" Blake stopped herself from asking a doomed question. "I'll go to the library. I'll visit you later, Kai."

"Sure thing."

"Ruby, come on," Qrow called his niece. "There's some things I should talk to you about now that this has happened. And Kai," Kai perked up at being called. "Whatever Tyrian told you, don't take his word for it. His goal was to piss you off and it worked, don't let him do it again."

"..." Kai shut his eyes and exhaled deeply. "Okay."

Qrow took that for what it was and left the room along with the other girls. Kai finally let himself relax fully and grimaced as the pain he was hiding from them finally appeared on his face. He wouldn't have taken this time to rest if he didn't need it, just sitting up like he did made him hurt. He reached into his pants to find his scroll to see if he could call his mother and talk to Malienna again since he wanted her with him again and she very much wanted to be with her brother. He cursed as he realized he must have left it in his top, which does have pockets in it, but found something else instead.

He didn't know what it was, only that it felt cold to the touch, almost as if it appeared in his hand rather than being there the entire time. Wondering what it was, he pinched it between his fingers and pulled it out.

A small sheet of paper the size of a post-it note flapped out. His mind went cold as he wondered where it came from. He wasn't carrying around any notes, he was blind. So how did this get there?

Curiously, he drew the paper out in front of his face. If there were words on it, he wouldn't be able to see it. But he felt something on it. Something he could understand.

Braille.

It's been a while since he's done anything with Braille outside of Ooblecks class, the professor thought it necessary to teach himself how to read and write in Braille so that he'd be able to teach Kai. Outside, he now had his scroll and he could always just listen to whatever someone wanted to say unless it was absolutely necessary that he read Braille.

He almost didn't want to read it, but he knew the only one who could have planted this on him. Back in the White Fang raid, he was ambushed not once but twice. Once by Tyrian, who simple kept trying to bait and kill him, and the other Neo. Now that he thought about it, Neo didn't have the correct body build to punch anyone effectively. Yet she tried to with him when she punched him right in the side…

It had to come from her, it could come from nowhere else.

Slowly, he brought his free hand to touch the indented dots on the paper. He read out the words within his mind.

"I know, and I think we can come to an understanding. Next time we meet, let's have a chat. RT & N."

Torchwick and Neo...

"Mm," Malienna whined as she rubbed her eyes.

"What's wrong baby?" Marron asked, rubbing her daughters back.

"I dunno, but my eyes hurt…" The young girl said. "They've been hurting ever since that mean man attacked us. What does this mean?"

"I…" Marron swallowed nervously, she knew what it meant. "Ask your brother, he'll be able to explain it better than I would."

"M'kay, can we go see him now? I know he wants to see me."

"Of course honey," Marron chuckled warmly. "Qrow just told me that he's alone now and it's been a few hours-"

Marron stopped when she felt her scroll ring, seeing the caller ID she saw it to be from Beacon's infirmary. Suddenly worried, she answered the call. "Is my son okay?" She asked as soon as she accepted the call.

"Of course mam," The kind nurse, Angelica, replied. "Mister Matsuoka was just asking for his sister, and asked me to call you since you still have his clothes and scroll."

"Oh…" Marron sighed out of relief but looked at her daughter strangely. "What a coincidence, we were just on our way. I'll bring his clothes for him."

"Thank you mam, have a nice day."

"How did you know your brother wanted to see you?" Marron asked her three-year-old daughter once the call ended.

Malienna just shrugged her shoulders. "I just knew, he always wants to see me, I'm his favorite after all!"

"Heh," Marron laughed, thinking nothing of it. "You certainly are. Alright then, let's go."

All according to my master plan, yes. Originally I was going to do a different final scene, but as always my plans are constantly changing and shifting about. Make what you will about this one, but know that yes, something will come out of it. Happy new year everyone! Hopefully by the end of 2020 this Volume will be over Lol.

Please review and let me know what you think!

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