The groaning of a man could be heard throughout these black, desolate plains.
A man lay on the ground, tattered coat, covered in blood and as pale as Salem. He struggled to sit up considering his right arm was covered in cuts, bruises and his elbow was sticking out.
Oddly enough, this didn't bother the man. He sat up with his left arm and grabbed his right arm, a sickening crunch rang out but he didn't flinch from the resetting of his arm.
His injuries were healing, although at a snails pace.
'this place... its nothing like the forest and to my knowledge, there's no area like this near the forest. So how did I end up here?' Hans started to walk but stumbled immediately.
'seems my leg is also injured.' The captain now began to wander aimlessly.
This place was strange to say the least. Any fauna or vegetation looked like it had died over a millenia ago, the clouds were a thick black that blotted out the sky.
Last but not least, the stench of death and decay hung heavy in the air.
The amount of grimm that hans had seen in the distance was absurd. There were at least a hundred, however, the most disturbing part is that they were the only ones he could see.
He was positive there were more.
The white haired man glanced at his shadow.
"Tier..." The shadow elongated and widened before the wyvern known as Tier arose. The little colour that had returned to his face had disappeared and it had only been a few seconds.
He climbed atop the beast and sat down on its back, the creature flapped its wings as hans held tight before it took to the sky.
The view from above showed that there was no life here for miles. But in the distance, a castle could be seen.
'...thats one ominous looking castle.' He looked down to the 15ft tall beast, all he did was point.
Then, it flew right for the castle.
His tattered and beaten coat billowed in the wind, his chest exposed revealing a large bruise spanning across his chest.
With each flap of tier's wings, he felt his consciousness slipping. But he didn't have time for that.
He had to move forward. It wasn't a choice.
His eyes grew heavy but he pushed on, the castle grew close. His body started to feel heavier and his arm felt as though it wasn't healing.
'whatever that... thing did. Its not healing easily.' The wyvern slowed its descent and landed at the front door.
He slid off his mount and landed with little grace. A stream of ice shot forward from his feet and covered the door in ice.
"ram..." His mount followed the order and slammed right into the door. Shattering it. His nose was immediately bombarded with the stench of blood but most importantly...
He smelt Ruby.
Or, at least someone who smelled like her.
The injured soldier thought back to something Ruby said.
'her mother... she looked so sad at the mere mention of her.' His wyvern retreated back into his shadow allowing him a brief respite.
Limping through the corridor, he made his way toward the scent. The smell of blood only got stronger as he grew closer.
At last, he arrived at a door. It was a bit taller than him so he pushed it open with his left arm. What he saw didn't phase him.
A woman similar in appearance to Ruby sat tied to a wooden chair by her legs and arms. Next to her was a table of torture equipment.
'these tools... they had no intent to gain information. They just wanted to cause as much pain as possible.'
The woman was blindfolded, dried blood ran down her forehead and over her eye. Her body was adorned with various cuts.
'her heartbeat is so weak... with the amount of blood she's lost there's no way she'll make it.' An image of his mother flashed through his mind. 'I can't let her die. Ruby deserves her mother.'
Hans approached the woman and untied the blindfold with great difficulty. He then used his teeth to take his left glove off, the captain turned her hand over so that her palm faced the ceiling.
'I'm sorry miss Rose... for condemning you to this fate.' His hands turned to claws and he made a single cut horizontally across her right hand.
She twitched and the cut slowly healed, he watched the wounds across her body slowly heal in sorrow.
The bindings came loose easily and hans lifted her with one hand onto his shoulder.
"who... are you?" He stayed silent as he smelt someone approaching. Glancing around the room, he had little options but he noticed a window.
Limping over, he viewed some black pools of liquid.
"how dare you! The audacity to break into our goddesses Castle!" Hans was aware he didn't have much of a choice anymore and threw his entire body through it and off the cliff.
"Tier..." The creature emerged underneath him and the man with two hearts grunted as he landed.
Tier understood his Kings desire to escape this place and started to fly towards beacon.
"who are you?" Hans placed the woman down but stumbled backwards as his mouth leaked blood.
"a friend... of... your daughter..." hans covered his mouth as he buckled over.
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Ozpin observed the night sky, the broken moon, the wonderful glistening stars.
Even the bird that just slammed into his window.
"wait! Qrow!" He swiftly grabbed his cane and smashed the window. The bird hit the floor with a thud before transforming back into the suprisingly sober branwen.
"Oz! That humanoid grimm! He's gone! In a single swing! That damn thing let me get away!"
"calm down qrow! I need the full story!" The branwen reached for his flask but it was nowhere to be found.
"the bullhead got shot down. A wyvern grimm attacked and hans killed it. But then, this 20ft tall monster takes him out with a single mace swing! Then it spoke. Said that he'd let me warn you." The man grew silent in contemplation.
The elevator dinged and out came team RWBY.
"uncle qrow! Are you alright?" The girl had rushed over to him in a panic while yang casually strolled over. Blake looked confused as did weiss.
"wheres hans?" The two adults were completely silent and this worried the students.
"he got hit by a 20ft tall grimm wielding an 8ft long mace."
"WHAT?!" The group were all shocked, though two far more than the others.
"no... I... I didn't even get to tell him..." The heiresses eyes were frantic as she fell to her knees.
"you're lying right? Right?! Please... tell me you're lying..." Tears began to stream down Ruby's eyes.
Ozpin however had noticed something seemed to be blocking the shattered moon of remnant.
"what... is that?" The image began to clear and ozpin was shocked to see a purple and black wyvern with two people on it.
It landed on the helipad with a thud.
"I believe he is alive, children. After all, down there seems to be the wyvern grimm he killed." Though he was still puzzled about who the other person was.
Ruby wasted no time and used her semblance to speed down towards the helipad. They slid down the wyverns side and the difference between their heights was obvious.
The woman stood at about 5ft8. But that didn't matter to Ruby. Her heart dropped as she saw her face.
"mommy..." The young rose slammed right into her mother with a bone crushing hug.
"I'm home, my little cookie." Hans smiled under his coat at their interaction, happy to have reunited them.
A thud was heard beside the mother daughter duo and they saw hans face first on the ground.
"hans? Hans! Are you alright?!" She started to shake him in a panic but ozpin came and stopped her.
"calm yourself. We need to get him medical care."
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"...what. . . ?" Salems tone was filled with anger at what her subordinate had reported.
"summer rose... has escaped." Tyrian refused to look at her in shame of his failure to serve.
"who rescued her?" The witches tone was filled with authority. Her greatest creation in the works had just been stolen right from under her.
"the man who injured cinder, your grace." A wave of murderous intent flooded the room.
"so... the caster failed to kill him." Tyrian was struggling to breath but he didn't dare drop to his knees.
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Hans was now in the medical bay and completely unconscious while hooked up to various medical devices.
Team RWBY was here alongside summer rose and professor ozpin. Ruby clung to her mother like a koala while yang smiled softly. Weiss stared at hans' coat.
'it's so torn up... but the holes don't match his wounds. There are so many strange things about him...' blake tried to hide her disgust at the heavy scent of blood around hans but failed quite miserably.
"what's wrong blake?" Blake had been noticed and there was no getting around this.
"he stinks of blood. As you guys already know and discovered tonight, I am a faunus. And the amount of blood he smells off... its disgusting. I can smell the blood of so many different people around him." Ruby glanced to her mother for contemplation.
"Well Ruby, as harsh as it may seem, not all people deserve to live. Before you speak, I want you to think. Can a murderer change? You're probably thinking 'of course they can'... and you'd be right. But, its not about whether they can, it's whether they want to."
Her daughter was speechless. Weiss traced the scar on her stomach. Yang was left agape at her stepmothers harsh words reminiscent of her mothers. Blake just remained silent, well aware how cruel reality can be.
Summer however glanced at her right hand that had a very feint horizontal scar across it.
'what did you do to me, hans günsche?' The rose woman was obviously grateful to the man who reunited her with her little cookie but she was so confused.
Before passing out, summer knew that she wouldn't survive. With the amount of blood she had lost, it was a miracle the silver eyed warrior had stayed conscious that long.
But somehow, all her injuries were healed.
"team RWBY, could you please return to your rooms as to get sufficient sleep for yourselves." The team nodded but weiss grabbed his coat as she left. Ozpin noticed but didn't comment.
As soon as their footsteps could no longer be heard, summer punched ozpin right in the chin. The headmaster fell to the ground, as if he expected the punch he looked to her with a blank face.
"why didn't you tell me she was immortal?"
"would you still try to save the world from evil knowing that your opponent was immortal?" She scoffed at the question.
"of course I would. I have two daughters to protect." Ozpins eyes held a small glimmer of hope.
"but right now I'm questioning how I'm alive. I should be dead right now." This confused the old hero a great deal.
"what do you mean?" Ozpin climbed to his feet using his cane and looked her in the eyes.
"before hans found me, i was on the verge of death and my heart was incredibly weak. I had accepted I wouldn't see my daughter again, that I would die. But then I woke up on the shoulder of a man I didn't know. A man who had qrows flask on him. On top of all that, we seemed to be on some form of wyvern grimm."
Ozpin thought about it all and decided to explain what he knew.
"Well... here's what I know."
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