Ortega
The Admiral of his ship walks through the halls of the vessel, the night has fallen across the skies of Atlas.
He opens the door to the medical bay and he walks up to Captain Ridley who is on a medical bed. They have given him a cybernetic arm, unlike the arm that belongs to Yang, this one is more skeletal than hers, and everyone can see the internal components working away as he uses it. Each piston moving individually with every motion his fingers make as he flexes them. He looks straight at the arm with mad eyes, clenching it into a fist. Ortega stands before him, crossing his arms. "Report." He demands. Ridley is quiet at first, not uttering a word, he just lowers his arm. "Captain!" The General barks to get his attention, and Ridley just casually looks at his superior who looks pretty serious right now. "What happened down there?" He questions.
"He was there. Target Alpha." Ridley answers.
"He cut his arm off, sir." One of the soldiers says that was there, survived the battle that took place. He still wears the Seeker armour that they are given, the backpack glowing brightly.
"Those kids from Beacon were there as well. They were looking for that Bot, the Architect." He explains to Ortega and that causes the General to take a few steps around the room. Ridley remains still, waiting for his next set of orders from his superior. Ortega grabs his chin, scratching the hairs there. He sighs, turning to face him.
"Ready for combat?" He questions.
Ridley smirks, nodding. "Oh I'm ready...ready for round two." He says with certainty in his voice, clenching his hand into a fist.
"Good, I want you to start hunting them down. Track down their locations, kill them all. No survivors." He orders.
"With pleasure." Ridley responds, hopping off from his gurney and picking up his rifle, walking with his Seeker Comrade away from Ortega. Ortega remains still and then walks back to the elevator. He steps inside and places his finger against the button that sends him straight to the observation deck. The elevator rises up the column inside the huge ship until it reaches the dome at the top. He has a fairly shaken breath, closing his eyes, and then he musters his bravery, stepping into the Bio-Dome. He walks inside and he sees the entire city around him. But when he admires the city of Atlas, he shudders when he sees the darkness rising before him, swirling into an event horizon before him. He looks at the opening, being ready for who emerges. The dark armoured form steps out from the darkness, his glowing red eyes meeting his brown eyes. Death drops down from the sky, landing before him with a metallic thump, walking towards him.
"I warn you, General Ortega...our alliance is nothing more than a contract. And contracts...like all life...expires." Death threatens, his cold threatening voice echoing around him. Ortega looks up at the Knight that stands before him.
"You know, us Acolytes of Lien have a saying: the enemy of our enemy is our friend." He speaks to the ancient Knight. Death scoffs, rolling his hidden red eyes.
"Oh, Ortega...you simply fail to notice, don't you?" Death questions. "We are allies, yes...but we are far from friends, you are still my enemy for all life is." Death explains, making Ortega feel small. Ortega scoffs.
"So why do you use us then? If you are so powerful then why bother with letting us join you?" Ortega questions.
"Honesty." Death states. "I was coldly honest to you, for you are being honest with your questions and work." Death explains to him.
"Then what about what happened back at Mistral? You had them at your claws but you didn't kill them. Why?" He asks.
"Two confirmed dead from their side, one crippled and another missing. I would have finished them, but my superiors have other plans. We could have finished them in that desert but the incompetence of mortal intelligence lead you to fail, once again." Death clarifies with deep, snarling antagonisation in his voice. Ortega listens as he is being completely ruined by the words of the Knight of Death. "You promised us combat effectiveness with your mercenaries...or is there such a thing?" He judges. Ortega stares at the Knight.
"You know, you've still never told me...why are you doing this? What have you got against life?" Ortega questions.
"Every generation I have witnessed and claimed...every single one of you...are the same." Death says to him. "You all think - you're - the final evolution of life..." Death chuckles as he shakes his head, looking up at the Fractured Moon in the sky. "You have no idea of what's coming..." He assures, turning and walking away from him.
He never fully answered Ortega's question.
Yang
Yang is sat down on the floor, hardly even moving, still horrified from the video that she was just shown of Tyrian torturing her little sister like that. She fiddles with her blonde hair, her lilac eyes looking back at the footage. They have it looped on when he was laughing maniacally, the sound turned off so then they can try and track him down. But they have had little to no luck with that tactic. The location is too unknown for them to get any possible hints. They need someone from the inside if they can have any hope of finding her. She turns when she sees Kassius sitting down beside her with a smile, patting her knee with his metal hand, smiling to try and brighten her day up. But as he predicted, it had no effect. He sighs. "Guess I should have expected that..." He huffs, looking down at the floor. Yang says nothing, just playing through her own ideas of how to kill Tyrian in the most painful ways to make it worth her pain.
Burn him alive?
Blow him up?
Feed him to Beowulves?
But before she can continue with this almost psychotic brainstorming, Kassius snaps his fingers in front of her eyes to snap her out of it, and she escapes the trance, looking at him. "Still with me?" He asks her.
"Ye-Yeah...sorry...I just can't stop thinking about Ruby." Yang stammers, and Kassius puts his arm around her shoulders. he pulls her closer to his side, smiling to her cheek as she leans her head into his shoulder.
"We will find her, I promise." He says to her, touching her chin with his thumb and lifting her head up so he can see her eyes.
"How do you know?" Yang asks him.
"I've got a good feeling." Kassius promises.
"What about Mistral? Our luck hasn't been the best." Yang says.
"Well..." He says, clearly referencing her uncle, and she immediately notices that.
"Oh, come on." She says with disgust, standing up.
"No, I didn't mean..." He groans, standing up to follow her.
"Yeah, his semblance is that he is literally a bad luck charm - but that doesn't mean that he did this." She argues.
"I know, I'm just saying that there is a coincidence. You heard what he said, there's a reason for a why he stays away from friends and family because he does not want to get them hurt because of his semblance." He explains to her, and for a second he looks away. "I know how that feels." He sighs. Yang closes her eyes and she leans against a door, looking over at Blake, Sun and Neptune making some plans to figure out where in the world they could find him. Remnant's a big place, time to start making it smaller. But she notices that she cannot see Qrow anywhere, and yet she still has no idea that he is her dad, she still knows that he must be hurting.
"I'm gonna go get some fresh air." Yang says to Kassius. He turns and grabs the bridge of his nose, feeling like he shouldn't have said that. Yang walks away from him and towards the balcony of the building that has an opening from the cave. And before she steps out, she finds her quarry. Already there is Qrow, holding his canteen filled with Whiskey in his hand. He just stares out into the landscape emotionlessly. Thinking and plotting...wanting to find his daughter. She shyly walks over to his side, leaning across the concrete railing that looks out across the other side of the mountain. A beautiful lake lays there, light reflecting off the surface of it. They both look out, and Yang feels like she needs to be the one to start a conversation with him here. "Uncle Qrow? How are you holding up?" Yang asks. A drunk chuckle emerges from Qrow and he simply holds his canteen up as a symbol of how he is feeling, jiggling it around.
"Other than...learning that someone you love dearly is in the hands of a lunatic? Yeah, I'm peachy." Qrow chuckles, taking another swig. Yang reaches for the canteen to take it from his hand, but Qrow yanks his arm up and pushes her away. "No!" He shouts.
"Getting drunk isn't gonna help her? Isn't gonna help anyone!" Yang argues.
"Do you seriously not get it, Yang?" Qrow slurs, holding his arms out. Despite that he is drunk, he is being quite serious with her here. Winter walks through and she touches her hand against the architecture, listening to Qrow. There is a bond between these two, something that they both hold very close. And Yang starts listening. "I made a promise to her mother...it's my fault that Summer died...my goddamn semblance got her killed! I promised her that I would keep her baby safe, and that I would keep you safe." Qrow explains to her, nearly mentioning the fact that he is the real father of her sister, and that they are actually cousins. But Yang does not interrupt him, she just keeps on listening. "And look where that's gotten us!" He laughs in his drunken state. "She's in the hands of a monster and there's nothing I can do about it! You've lost your arm and nearly your life..." He says, his anger descending into a quiet whisper.
He yells in anger, throwing his canteen onto the floor with force, causing it to bounce into the air and then land on the ground, sliding across the floor. He grabs the bridge of his nose, sighing through his mouth as he leans against the wall. "I promised I would keep Ruby safe and I let that psychopath capture her and throw her straight into Salem's arms." Qrow snarls in anger at himself.
"So did I..." Yang sighs.
"No." Qrow immediately denies.
"So you feel you are the only one responsible?" Yang scoffs.
"My semblance caused it!" He argues.
"Oh, that's a load of crap, Uncle Qrow." Yang sighs, pacing around the balcony. "You didn't get her killed."
"If I wasn't there, she would be alive right now." He states.
"It's your fault, it's nobody's fault? Who cares? All we need to worry about right now is the plan of how to get her back." Yang explains.
"I know, and I'm thinking." Qrow sighs.
"I knew that there would be consequences for getting on their radar the way we have...but this is different...Tyrian has made it personal." Yang explains, crossing her arms as she looks at the looping footage of Tyrian on the screen where everyone is working out how to find him. Qrow looks at her, like he has immediately managed to shake off his drunken side.
"Well we didn't really help ourselves, did we? We kept on challenging them, from Torchwick to Cinder and now Salem, we have made ourselves become enemies of those who are much stronger and we have been showing that we are a threat to be reckoned with. And in that fear, they have gone and turned to a man that they don't even understand." Qrow explains to her, looking at Tyrian, the footage has now changed to when he was making his demands, and they have slowed it down to analyse the background.
Yang shakes her head. "No, murderers like him aren't complicated, Qrow. We just need to find out what he wants, why he wants to hurt her." Yang explains, walking around the area. Qrow starts to snap out of this state that he has been in and he looks at her.
"Perhaps, firecracker, this is a man that you don't fully understand." Qrow begins. "You haven't been out there like Ruby, you only met him recently." He begins, walking towards her. "The only types of people you have met are the ones that want something in return, but not everyone is like that in the world." Qrow explains.
Yang stops, leaning against the wall, Winter stood behind her on the other side of the wall, listening to Qrow's abrasive voice as he speaks. "Back when Team S.T.R.Q where starting out, old Oz had set us a mission where we had to shadow a Huntsman to investigate a group of murders that took place in Vale, messy business. Some nasty bodies were discovered." Qrow begins to explain, walking up to Yang. "Each one had the same marks, same stab wounds as each other, so Tai decided that it was our best possible lead, we took the names of the victims and we started to search the area for possible clues. We searched the whole town and in three weeks, we never found anyone who knew the people who were murdered. No clues, nothing." Qrow explains.
Yang crosses her arms as her Uncle approaches her. "Until one day, I saw a little girl with the same complexions of a woman we found in her house, murdered by our suspect. She looked at us and she screamed, running away from us. We all thought that she was scared of us...until the Huntsman faced us and he said: I guess I missed one." Qrow explains to her, causing Yang's eyes to widen. "The murderer, was the Huntsman all along." Qrow reveals. "He fought us and won, and he escaped." Qrow concludes. Utterly bewildered, Yang needs to ask one simple question.
"Why did he do it?" Yang asks.
"Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men, aren't looking for anything logical like money, fame or even vengeance. They can't be bought, reasoned or negotiated with." Qrow explains, and Yang stares straight at the screen with Tyrian's face on it, speaking straight at the camera frame by frame. "Some men...just want to watch the world burn." Qrow tells her. Yang listens to his advice and she immediately knows that that is the type of person that they are dealing with. A monster. She looks at him, now he is laughing at the camera maniacally, a sight that would haunt most individuals.
No matter how much combat you've seen.
Weiss
Weiss looks at them as they are trying to point out possible locations of which Tyrian could be holding Ruby and Oscar. She then turns when she sees Jaune cleaning the blood from the blade of Crocea Mors and she walks towards him, holding her arm gently as she walks up to him. Despite everything that happened, she has not really had much time to speak to Jaune since Beacon. Everything has been causing things to be nearly impossible for socialisation. "Hey, Jaune." She gently greets, and he looks up at her.
"Hey." He replies, putting the cloth down on the table, sitting down on it. Weiss sits down on the chair and she sighs. "How are you doing? The last I saw of you...Death stabbed you." Jaune explains to her, stammering as he remembers.
"It was close...I don't remember all of it." Weiss explains with a nervous tone in her voice. Jaune looks at her as she sits in front of him and he puts the sword down on the table next to him, running his fingers along the blade of his weapon. Weiss stammers as she sits there. She has something on her mind, something that has been eating away at her since the Fall of Beacon. And Jaune picks up on that pretty quickly. "I'm...so sorry, Jaune." She apologises, and Jaune looks at her with a quizzical expression.
"Sorry?" Jaune asks with a chuckle, crouching down beside her. Weiss wipes a tear from her eye and she looks at him.
"We didn't get to her in time..." Weiss says, and Jaune immediately realises that it is about Pyrrha. Ruby and Weiss both went to the Tower to try and help her but they were both too late, and she has been feeling partially responsible for their failure to save her because of what happened, because she feels she could have gotten Ruby up to the top of the tower earlier. Jaune shakes his head and he sits down next to her, crossing one leg over the other.
"Nope, I don't believe that." Jaune says, leaning backwards into his chair. Weiss looks at him with a confused countenance.
"Huh?" Weiss quietly questions as she looks at him.
"I don't believe that." He says. "You tried your best, it was better than nothing. And there was nothing we could have done, we all saw how powerful Cinder became. I just wish she would have told me why she did it...instead of making me feel like the cat in the tree that always needs help with getting back down." He sighs, pressing his hand to his head. Weiss looks at him, and she will never be able to look at him the same way again after the way she treated him back at Beacon. Yeah he was being stupid with how blind he was around Pyrrha, but she was extra cold to him, treated him like he wasn't actually her friend at all, which can really sting to some people.
"I wish I wasn't so much of a brat." She huffs and Jaune looks at her with an amazed expression.
"Wow...Weiss Schnee admitting that she is the brat?" Jaune chuckles with a smirk.
"Oh, you know what I mean." She brushes off with a smile. Jaune laughs a little with her, but then she looks over at him. "If I could go back in time and change one thing about myself...I honestly would just say: just give him a chance!" Weiss giggles, waving her hand metaphorically as if she is speaking to someone in front of her. Jaune's eyes look over to her and he scoffs.
"So you finally admit you were attracted to me?" Jaune teases.
"Hey! Don't put words in my mouth!" Weiss squeaks. Weiss sits there and she looks at Myrtenaster on the floor, she has been carrying that sword around with her everywhere she goes, just in case. She closes her ice blue eyes as she thinks in her head. "Jaune..." She begins.
"Hmm?" He responds.
"What happened to her?" Weiss asks him, speaking about Ruby. Since he was the only one who actually saw what happened to her. Jaune looks down at the floor, and her bringing up how she wished she was less mean is obviously also being targeted towards how she treated Ruby at times. She always meant well but it never came across that way. Jaune looks back through his memories to the moment when he lost her.
"She was right in front of me when he did it. She was shell-shocked and I tried to get her out of there." Jaune explains to her. "But when I tried to hurry her along, I saw the arrow go right past my face, I could see my own reflection in it...and she darted off into petals but the arrow had blood on it. It grazed her but it was enough to do serious damage." Jaune explains, and Weiss covers her gasping lips with grief. "I tried to get her and myself out but the Knights sent a horde of Grimm after us. I hid her and I lured them off. It worked and I thought I was gonna die...I lost the sash I made to remember Pyrrha by and Fury was gonna kill me..." He explains. "That's when he saved me, the Architect. He was there and he used some sort of pulse that created a field around us, and he teleported us to safety." Jaune explains.
"He saved you?" Weiss asks with amazement.
"Yeah...I tried to ask him to save Ruby but by the time we got back she was already gone. I haven't met his master but he said that we needed to help that small colony. He is nearby in that desert, I think it is an old Schnee Dust Company location, one that your grandfather founded." He explains to her and Weiss tries to remember.
"You're right! There is one there, during the early days." She remembers.
"He told us to go there and make sure that the civilians were safe because he knew the Grimm and the Acolytes would show up. Maybe he knew you would find us there as well." Jaune chuckles.
"Maybe..." Weiss agrees as she sits beside him. Since she was hallucinating when Qrow was carrying her to safety, most of the end of that battle is forgotten, but it is probably best if she doesn't know all the details. Jaune looks at her and he pats her shoulder.
"We're gonna find her." He promises.
"I know we will." She agrees with a smile.
Blake
She draws a pencil across the map, circling different parts of the map of Remnant, so many different areas of which that could come in handy. Raven is stood there as well, crouching down to look over what they are doing. Her long black hair blows in the gentle draft that comes from the openings in the walls where air can get inside of this fortress. Whether or not it was built by them or the Arkhoni is unknown, and this discovery of an ancient people has already started to change everything that they believed in the first place. Wouldn't be the first time that would happen, first the Maidens, then the Brothers, then the Knights and now the Arkhoni. What's next? Powerful relics, oh wait that's also been uncovered.
Sun sighs, sitting down with Neptune beside him, despite losing two of their best friends, they are still willing to help. As Sun always said, always get friends involved. That's what they are for. Blake pauses in the middle of her examination and she sighs, her black hair falling down her cheeks and her cat ears saddening down. Sun notices, looking at her affectionately. "Blake?" He quietly whispers, touching her hand, and she looks at him. He thought that she was thinking about Ruby, and she always is. But there is something else on her mind, something that she has not been able to say.
"Sun...Neptune..." She stammers as she looks at them both. The blue haired boy looks at her and Sun listens. "I'm so sorry...for what happened with Scarlet and Sage...we should have never dragged you guys into this." She apologises, looking down at the floor. Sun gets up and sits down right next to her, putting his arm round her, letting her sink against his side, closing her eyes.
"They knew the risks...always have..." Sun assures.
"Yeah, and they have said that they would give their lives if it meant that it was worth something." Neptune explains. They are both clearly hurt from it, but they don't let it control them.
"I miss them...but they wouldn't want us to give up on their behalf. They'd want us to keep going." Sun explains to her, kissing her cheek and she smiles, hugging him gently. "And we're gonna find Ruby, I promise." He says to her, stroking his hand down her soft black hair. Neptune stares at the screen with Tyrian's mad laugh on it, his huge golden eyes glaring into the camera, staring through them almost. "But remember, we do this together." Sun says to her, caressing her cheek. She smiles and she presses her lips to his, wrapping her arms around him, and she holds him tight, never wanting their embrace to end. But sat there is Neptune who looks at them both. He clears his throat and they both yelp, breaking their kiss to look at him awkwardly.
"If you're gonna make out, get a room." Neptune requests.
"Sure, as long as you are the Ice Queen do." Sun challenges with a smirk on his face.
"I'm sure we will." Neptune promises, crossing his arms. He is still getting used to the new cybernetics in his legs to help him walk around, that is why he is sat down right now opposed to standing. Raven stands in the background, listening to how they make their plans. Blake is constantly looking at the uncharted zones of Remnant, the satellites have revealed them but there are no known records around the dark, dragon shaped, portion of the continent. She presses the graphite tip upon the paper, dragging it around into a full circle around the continent area.
"All that land with no mapped areas...a bit ironic?" Blake theorises.
"It is a good point." Neptune agrees. He leans over the map. "But where would we start, there is a lot of land around here, maybe we could try and figure out from the footage?" Neptune suggests.
"No...we can't see anything outside, he was smart about that. We can't guess from the video and we have listened to every word. He hasn't given us any clues." Sun groans, scratching his hair, his monkey tail curling around his legs. Blake looks at the footage of the insane Scorpion Faunus and she can't help but shudder at the image of his laughing face. She picks up the remote controller, switching the television off.
"Let's get that off." She sighs, feeling a lot more at ease.
"He kept on mentioning Ozpin, do you really think he knows we don't know? I mean Oscar said that he can hear him, if that's the case then why isn't he interrogating him?" Sun wonders, laying on the cold floor.
"Oh I'm sure they are." Blake sighs, the situation has become a complete train-wreck.
"What if the Knights have somehow figured out where Ozpin is hiding and they are already headed there now?" Neptune suggests with nervousness.
"Unlikely." Raven chimes in. They all look at her. "Ozpin's smart, he wouldn't make a mistake like that." Raven explains.
"The Knights are unpredictable..." Sun groans.
"So is Ozpin." Rave points out. Blake rubs the side of her cheek, but when she looks over...her amber eyes widen and she gasps in shock. Sun looks at her and he follows her eyes, his expression mirrors the one on her face.
Yang
Yang walks back to Kassius who is working on his cybernetic arm. He has found a wrench and also has taken his Exo-Suit off, now he is just wearing some normal clothes. He wears a brown jacket and a black shirt underneath it. He twists the wrench around one of the joints in his elbow, tightening it so the arm doesn't fall off. Seems like his one requires a lot more maintenance than Yang's does. She sits down beside him, resting her arm on the table, looking at him. "Hey! How are you?" He asks her, straining as he twists the bolt round. She notices that he is working on his arm and she decides to query some questions, one Cyborg to another. She tilts her head.
"What happened? Did you damage it?" Yang asks him, touching the metal and checking it over.
"Oh, no, nothing like that. It got a ton of sand wedged in the joints, I had to get it all out of there." He says, pointing with the wrench into a bucket on the floor, some sand in the bottom of it. "Now - I just need to get - it - back - in - there!" He strains, and finally there is a click. He then starts moving his arm around flexibly again. He sighs with happiness to see the fingers moving easily. "I envy you, you know...that arm does not play up nearly as much as this one does." He says, lifting the metal arm up to her. Yang's eyes focus on something around his neck that makes her curious, something she has never noticed until now, somehow.
"What's that?" Yang asks him. Kassius looks at where she is pointing and he touches it, pulling it out. It's a necklace that has a small device, like a USB stick attached to. Not what she was expecting and she bends her head slightly.
"It's...a very long story. I can tell you some other time." He assures her, he holds quite a few things back from everyone. Including the girl that he loves. But before she can comment any further, a gasp escaped her lungs and her eyes dilate in fear from who she sees enter the room across the way, speaking to some Tribesmen. Kassius looks at her and follows her line of vision to look at who she is looking at.
His black trench coat is damaged and he holds Wilt and Blush in his hand, his glowing red hair still in one piece and the White Fang mask covering his eyes. It's Adam Taurus. Kassius looks at the sword and then at Yang. He does it a couple more times and then he pieces it together from her fearful reaction. He looks at her arm and then at Wilt and Blush. He slowly looks at Yang. "Yang...is he the one you were talking about?" He asks her. Yang just nods once, and that's it.
Kassius' cybernetic hand snarls, clenching into a tight fist and he scowls straight at Adam, beginning to shake with rage.
And then...
Red flushes into his eyes and his eyes glow bright red, unlike Yang when they just turn red. His eyes seem more and more unstable than Yang's flickering and crackling from how much anger is flowing through him, and his body has tensed up, fuelled with this anger. His glow and there is a red energy trailing from those enraged eyes, like they are on fire. The veins across his body start to glow fiery red as well, showing his rage and something else that lives within him. Then he speaks, and his voice has changed, his voice is partially heard but it is far more demonic than it was before.
He glares straight at Adam with fury in those eyes. "I'm gonna kill him." He growls menacingly.