Yang
"Welcome to Dragonspire Keep, the last refuge of the Shadow Knights." Kragen announces when he pushes the huge wooden doors open. The creak and groan when the old joints and bolts squeaks it open. The heavy doors reveal the interior home of the keep that they have been teleported to. And to their amazement, there are Silver Eyed Warriors here, not many but there are others. One of them panics, his eyes glowing brightly with white light leaking from them as he prepares to attack. Kragen steps in front of them with his hands held up to protect them all. "Whoa, whoa! They're not our enemies!" He defends, which also makes them realise that he is not here to betray them since he willingly put himself in harm's way.
The Warrior stands down, the light leaving his silver eyes and he sits back down. "Oh, I'm sorry." He apologises. He is quite young, as are most of the men and women here, all with Silver Eyes, both Human and Faunus. Strange to see a robot amongst these warriors, the Architect walks alongside them all with his poncho still wrapped around his chassis.
"Don't mind them; some of the people here have been rescued recently. Unless you have not noticed, the Silver Eyed Warriors are being hunted like dogs." Kragen says to Yang over his shoulder.
"Yeah...you could say that." Yang agrees, looking around. The Architecture in here is beautifully ancient with towering walls that look like giants could fit in here. There are some engraved markings on the wall as well, Arkhoni markings. This Keep must have been from that era.
"Where are we going?" Ren asks him, walking with Nora and Jaune behind Yang, Blake and Weiss.
"We are going to my office, where we can talk in private." Kragen answers. They follow him through the halls; there are huge windows with multi-coloured panels all over the place, making the area feel that more beautiful and unique. They pass by a corner to see some even younger children sat down in a room with a woman tending to them all. Salem has been sending them to kill children, this place is truly showing how much of a threat they are becoming, hunting down anyone. No matter their age, sex or race. They will die if their eyes are silver. Qrow looks around, in awe to see that these people are actually real. He heard the stories that Ozpin told him but he never truly believed until Ruby did what she did on Beacon tower. Never believed that the power of one's eyes could be so important.
They walk outside and Jaune is looking around with them. They are outside in some sort of desert, it must have been nearby to where they were before, unless if they are in Vacuo or in the deserts of Menagerie. It is hard to tell when they are surrounded by mountainous dunes of sand; clouds are extinct in the skies, only an ocean of blue. Sun walks over to Jaune and he bumps his arm into his shoulder to get his attention. "Did the Architect ever bring you here?" Sun whispers.
"No. I have never been here." Jaune answers. "He only kept me in that village."
"So we're all in the dark here?" Sun asks.
"Pretty much, yeah." Jaune answers. "No different than normal, right?"
Blake looks across the path from her and there is a training ground, a young boy is fighting aggressively against Atlesian Knights that have been reprogrammed. The Knights however are damaged and rusted away; they must have been acquired from the remains of Beacon itself. Nobody came to repair Beacon or collect the machines, so perhaps the Silver Eyed Warriors were left no other option. But when they look around, there are actually very few people fighting. Some are but most are just sat around doing nothing, looking hopeless. Some are crying their eyes out, which must have meant that they have lost their families due to Salem's Wrath. And with the Knights of Grimm going around, destroying everything one village at time. That must leave a lot of angry orphans looking for answers. Perhaps this is what the world of Remnant is about to become.
A world where people are forced into hiding to escape the wrath of the Knights of Grimm. But eventually they will find even this place.
Yang looks at the fortress and it is enormous, massive thick walls with massive guard towers. Old cannons left in the walls and there are barns where horses, cows and sheep are being tended to. A Silver Eyed Warrior rides past them on a horse and she stops in front of Kragen and he slows down. "Sir, we have brought a few children back from Higanbana." The woman tells him. She has a long blonde ponytail and huge silver eyes, a pretty girl and she looks like she is younger than Yang but not younger than Ruby.
"Any other survivors?" Kragen asks, but she just shakes her head.
"The Knights wiped the village out." She reports and he growls in anger.
"Damn abominations. Okay, take them to the doctor so then he can make sure that they are okay both mentally and physically." Kragen tells her. She nods and the horse takes off, braying as it passes them. Jaune, Ren and Nora look at each other, as they remember that place. Qrow stops as well, he remembers the place as well. Raven doesn't stop but she also remembers it from the conversation that she has with her brother. Jaune puts his hand on Ren's shoulder who has stopped to grieve the people there.
Winter stops and looks at them. "Hold up." Winter tells them. Kragen stops and looks back at the tormented Ren.
"Are you alright, Ren?" Weiss asks him as she walks over to the saddened boy.
"We've been to Higanbana. There were a lot of good people there; they gave us shelter when we needed it." Jaune tells the Schnee girl. Blake looks down at the floor; this kind of news has almost become something she hears all the time. More and more towns and places filled with people getting wiped out by four knights. That's all it takes, four of them. It is understandable why some people are starting to lose faith.
"How do you stop something that comes right back after you destroy it?" Ren stammers, his hands clenched into fists. Nora slides her fingers through his, holding his hand and smiling affectionately to him. Kragen approaches them, his impressive brown coat blowing in the wind. His duster is old, covered in sand and has holes in it over the years. Underneath the duster's robes they can actually see a pair of Revolvers holstered around his belt.
"That is the other reason why I have brought you here." He tells them all, and a ray of hope shines upon them all as they look at him with a gasp of shock. "I know a way to beat them." He tells them all.
They all follow him into the Office Building; it is separate to the main Keep itself, near the edge of the walls. He opens the doors and holds it open for everyone to enter. Everyone walks inside and they look around. There is a large map of Remnant engraved on the stone wall that shows all the different locations. The map was made in a time long before the Kingdoms. Vale, Mistral, Atlas and Vacuo are not on the map, just different names of old locations. But one place stands out the most.
Arkhonex.
A location beneath the black dragon shaped mass in the upper left hand corner of the map. Whatever that place is, it must have been the first ever Kingdom of some kind. The Architect closes the doors behind them all. There is a table there and Kragen approaches the chair and the end. "Please, take a seat. You will have to take in quite a bit of information today." He says, pulling a chair out to sit down. Everyone obliges, sitting down except for the Architect. The Architect just stands in the corner, crossing his metal arms as he stands there, looking over at them. "These are troubled times." He begins as he sits down. "A world without leaders, it is causing chaos to reign everywhere. And it just makes it easier for the world to become more and more vulnerable for what was always destined to return." He says.
He presses a button on the table and the map behind him flips round and behind the panel is a beautiful painting of a religious looking image. It shows four Archangels upon a burning Remnant. One on fire with Wyvern wings that is slaughtering innocents, another that is shrieking at them and causing millions to wail in terror, and a widowing woman that brings other millions to tears. And above them all is the Archangel of Shadows with his Nevermore Wings stretched out. His massive armoured hands held out with the four relics orbiting his form. A blast of fire is erupting from his form and it is killing everything.
Humans.
Faunus.
Wildlife.
Grimm.
Everything dies from his power.
Everyone gasps in disbelief at that image, of Death destroying absolutely everything on Remnant. Kragen stands beside it, looking at them all. "We are all that stand in their way. Worn down Silver Eyed Warriors, some teenagers and some Huntsmen and Huntresses." Kragen says, and by saying it that way, it makes it sound like they don't even stand a chance against them.
"He would destroy the Grimm as well?" Raven questions in disbelief.
"Death does not discriminate; all life no matter the womb would die out in his eyes." Kragen tells them all, which sends shivers down their spines.
Now they need to know how to beat these monsters.
"You said you know how to beat them? How?" Jaune desperately asks.
"I have beaten one in the past. There was a fifth Knight, called Vengeance." Kragen begins, and they all gasp. Kassius looks confused, since the story he heard there were only four Knights.
Death
Fear
Loss
And Fury.
"But I thought that there were only four." Kassius presumes.
"That's what the old fairy tale said, but stories change over time. People tend to create fiction from the facts to make the truth more hidden behind the lies." Kragen explains. He clasps his hands together when he looks at them all.
They all listen intently. "You want to know, don't you?" Kragen asks them. "How they really came about?" He asks them.
They all simultaneously nod. "Well...the story was close to the truth. It started off as a legend, one of the greatest of all. The Five Knights of Grimm, the ones that brought the Arkhoni Empire to its knees. There were four living knights that existed out there and they became the four Knights of Grimm. However, what the story did not cover was that they did not meet. They did not work together. And the order is not entirely accurate." He begins.
"What do you mean?" Yang asks him, sat next to Kassius at the table.
"Well, the first Knight to actually have been forged was not actually Death. He was actually the last one to be formed. Fury was the first one." He says to them all, and they gasp in disbelief.
"Fury? I always felt like he was the youngest, with him being less intelligent and all." Neptune says, presuming things about the Knight.
"He is far from unintelligent, the Knight is a genius, but his anger essentially controls him. And he was not always like that, a long time ago, when the Arkhoni were still alive and growing strong, his name was Axzura Vex. He was a Claimer, or a Pirate." He explains to them all. "A notorious one at that, he was the first one for the Brother of Darkness to weed out from the darkness." Kragen explains. "He would lead his men and his hunger for riches and greed was his sole purpose. He claimed many Merchant Ships and the dust crystals that they carried. But he also found something else on his journeys." Kragen explains as he walks around like a lecturer.
Kragen picks up a scrap piece of paper and he sets it down in the middle of the table for them all to look at. It is a faint drawing of some kind of rock that glows, looks extremely volcanic with shadows leaking off it. "He found the Ancient Relic of Destruction." Kragen reveals. "He used that to destroy countless vessels for his glory, and that made a name for himself. Now most records are lost, I only know this information from past experience and the Visionary Books left behind by the Arkhoni." He explains.
"Visionary Books?" Winter questions with confusion.
"The Arkhoni, the ancient people that came before, they accomplished wonders with those Relics, including the one he stole from a Political Ship. One of the things we learned to do is the ability to transfer entire sections of our memories into these books. Anyone could place their hand upon a page in the book and they would witness the chapter of events that happened in their lives that have been recorded in the books." He explains.
"There are others out there?" Qrow asks.
"Yes there are, in the Arkhoni Ruins across Remnant." He answers. "From the ones I remember, the Arkhoni Government decided that they needed to send a ship of sailors out there to locate the Claimer and kill him, reclaim the stolen goods and return them. However...things clearly did not go according to plan. Somehow the God of Darkness found them and turned five people into the Knights he needed to destroy our society. Death, Vengeance, Fear, Loss and Fury." Kragen explains.
"You keep on saying...our civilisation." Blake points out, noticing that small detail and he nods.
"The traits of the Silver Eyes are different for many people. Some are extremely powerful; others are given the gift to live for thousands of years. Not everyone remains youthful like yourselves, but we some survive for thousands of years. I am the only one of the Seven that remain." He says as he walks around.
So many facts are being thrown at their faces as he walks around the room, the ramblings of an old man. But luckily, Sun decides to keep him on the subject. "How did you kill Vengeance?" Sun asks him.
"Well, that is a good question. As you may have noticed: the Knights have infinite forms, they cannot be killed in your average ways. They can be destroyed but not ended. But there is a way, and it is difficult and it takes a long time to figure it all out." He explains to them. "And it all relies around the Visionary Books, we must challenge what they are, to make them believe in something that is not what they are. For example, the way we defeated Vengeance. We searched the landscape for the Book that would tell us about who he was, his name was Phalaxan Sylus and he was a Captain of a Ship. The God of Darkness was drawn to him because he lost his wife to Axzura Vex on one of the Merchant Ships. He turned him into a Knight by lying, giving him the possibility of getting revenge. Something he could never get." Kragen explains.
"How did you do it?" Nora asks him.
"We found a message from his wife, one that would be able to remove all possible feelings of revenge. We gave him closure, and that closure helped him end. His body crumbled to dust and he was defeated. We learned the same principle is available to the Knights of Fury, Fear and Loss. They can be convinced into ending by offering them a way out, to make them believe in the opposite of what they are. We must make Loss smile again, make Fear no longer feel like people should be afraid of him, make him feel equal, and we need to find a way to calm Fury down. The only ways to do that is to find the Visionary Books and learn what we can about them." Kragen explains.
"What about Death?" Qrow questions, and that question actually flummoxes the Silver Eyed Warrior.
"We never found a way, he is not the same. He is not an emotion or a desire, he is a force. But we had a theory, one that we could never find a way to work." He says.
"What was it?" Yang asks.
"To enter his realm, to die and fight him there. His forms are shadows of his true self and we would have to tear him down from wherever he comes from. But simply dying did not work; there must be an easier way to go there without losing yourself in the process." Kragen explains, meaning that at the moment, they have no idea of how to beat the Knight of Death.
"Well, knowing how to beat three is better than none." Raven says as she fits her hands together on the table.
"So we need to go hunting for a bunch of books across the world?" Sun asks with a sarcastic tone.
"Not exactly, I have been searching the whole world and I have been able to cross off areas. But there is one place that I cannot find." He says.
"Where?" Weiss asks.
"Arkhonex." He answers.
"But weren't you from there?" She questions.
"I was, but when the civilisation collapsed, our minds were wiped in the process of all locations of the city to hide the secrets from the world. And the place is heavily infested with the Grimm. Because Salem's Sanctum is there." He says, pointing to the Dragon Shaped continent at the top of the map with his finger. "That is the last known position of the city and I have scoured it and I could never find it." He sighs.
"What has this to do with Ruby?" Yang asks him and he looks at her, he can understand her impatience, she may know that the Knights must be destroyed once and for all. But the life of her little sister, of Qrow's daughter, is on the line while they are talking.
"It has everything to do with her." He tells her.
"How?" She asks.
"Have you noticed that I have mentioned that I was part of a group?" He asks her.
"Yeah, the Seven?" She replies.
"Well, in the beginning there were Seven Silver Eyed Warriors. It was a time long before Huntsmen, and we were tasked with the protection of life against the Grimm. One of the individuals that was part of the seven was named Ruby Rose. She died when fighting Death on the final days of the war. Along with our leader, Cynthia Nikos." He explains. As soon as he mentions that last name...all of their eyes widen, but he continues and does not even notice their reactions at first. "The Silver Eyed Warriors were tasked with one rule: never harm any life that was not Grimm." He explains. "Until one member of our team defied this rule, and her name forevermore was: Salem." He coldly says.
"She despised both Humanity and the Faunus for whatever reason. She never told us, and she wanted to kill all life on Remnant by collecting the four Relics and using them all against us, changing the world to remove all life in one pulse." Kragen explains to them all. "When she wanted to use it, she learned to summon the Grimm to her side and a massive battle took place over the possession of the Relics themselves. She got close one day, becoming more and more powerful every single day. To the point where we could not stop her. So we were forced to steal the Relics and hide them from her." He explains. "I was there during the battle, and I made sure that I would teach any that would find me and offer the abilities I have learned. During my isolation, I met four young women who offered kindness to me. If you have heard the tales...I offered them extraordinary abilities to help others in need. They became the Four Seasonal Maidens." He explains as he stands there.
He was the old wizard that gave the Maidens their powers all those years ago. "I do not know exactly what happened to the rest of the Seven Warriors, but I have not seen anything of any of them for thousands of years. Salem is the only one that I know for certain is still alive. But since the Ruby Rose born today seems to share very similar abilities to the one I knew? I feel that perhaps my old friend has learned to accomplish more than any of us believed." He explains.
"You believe that she has been reincarnated into my sister?" Yang questions accusingly.
"I do. Her powers were very powerful and she also learned them from a young age, but at eighteen, not fifteen." He says to them all, walking around. "Wherever your sister is, she is in grave danger of becoming a weapon for Salem to use, and if she manages to manipulate Ruby into joining your cause, her combined with the Knights and the Relics...our beautiful world will be no more." He explains.
"Then how do we stop them?" Ren asks.
"Well, there is one theory that could have been of use. There was the idea once that only a Rose and a Nikos together could defeat Death." He says, moving back to the ideas of defeating the Knight of Death.
"Pyrrha Nikos?" Jaune asks.
Kragen's eyes widen in disbelief when he hears the name of a Nikos that they know. He turns sharply and presses his hand to the table as he leans across it to look him in the eyes. "So you've met a Nikos? Well you must have met a great descendant!" He chuckles with amazement, so much hope on his face. "Is she alive? Here? In this time now?" He asks.
"She sacrificed herself to save me." Jaune says with grief in his voice.
Kragen looks down with anguish, the excitement he once had now perished with the hopes of Pyrrha being there to help with this plan. "So she's dead..." He sighs. "Then we're back to square one, Nikos and Rose were always the strongest warriors." He says.
"But Pyrrha had green eyes, not silver." Ren points out.
"The strength the eyes gave would carry on, no matter the eye colour. They may not have the same abilities, but their power would join with them." The Architect chimes in from where he is stood.
"Her polarity..." Sun whispers as he remembers back when she was alive. "She was always the strongest fighter...maybe that's why." Sun realises.
Kragen walks away from the table, thinking of other methods to beat Death, for he is the one that they need to worry about the most. "So...hang on..." Jaune begins as a crazy thought enters his mind. "The same power that is in the Relic of Creation..." He continues. "...could that power somehow be used to bring Pyrrha back to life?" He asks him, and he stands there for a moment, thinking it over.
"It was never used in that way, but Creation has an energy like no other." Kragen tells him, walking around the room more.
"Then how do we get to Ruby and Oscar before Salem gets the rest of the Relics?" Jaune asks.
"Follow the clues! Find the Visionary Books, they are the clues. The Acolytes are burning the ruins down to hide any possible weakness for the Knights as they can. Find the Visionary Books to find Ruby for they will show you where to find Salem's Sanctum and how to get there without being torn apart." Kragen explains as he walks around more.
"Then we better get moving." Yang says as she stands back up. "Where can we find the first one of these books?" Yang asks.
He looks at the map which has returned and he points at it. "Right here." He tells them and their eyes widen of where it is.
"You've got to be kidding me." Jaune sighs.
The Emerald Forest.