Ruby sat there for a few seconds before running away and heading back to her dorm. Yang followed Ruby and found her lying in her bed, crying her eyes out.

"What is it, Rubes? If Y/n did something I swear to god I'll find him and shove my fist right up his a-"

"No Yang, it's not... well it kinda is but-"

"I knew it, where is the fucker? I'll punch him so hard-"

"Yang, just sit with me," Ruby said in an almost pleading voice as Yang was calmed down by the sadness in Ruby's tone.

"I'm here for you Ruby. Anything you need."

Ruby could barely speak through the tears as she was still grasping to understand what had happened.

"It's Y/n... He's our adopted brother. He's alive."

Yang was almost as shocked as Ruby. She knew that Y/n didn't die but she never expected him to attend Beacon. She had figured he had become a farmhand on some far side of Remnant.

"Ruby... There's something I need to tell you."

Ruby looked at Yang with sorrowful and tearful eyes.

Yang almost couldn't bring herself to do it. But she had to.

"We... well we lied to you. We knew Y/n was alive but didn't tell you since we thought you'd chase after him."

Ruby stopped crying and just looked at Yang, her face blank.

"Get out."

"Ruby wai-"

"DID I FUCKING STUTTER? GET THE HELL OUT!"

Yang quickly rushed to the door as Rubys face turned red from anger. Yang had never seen Ruby this angry before. She was scared.

Yang left and walked back to dinner. Everyone asked what had happened and why they heard yelling. Yang chalked it up to a young lover's quarrel. The table simply nodded in understanding.

Ruby was all alone in her room, either consumed by her sadness for Y/n or for her anger at Yang.

She wondered what Y/n was doing and where he was.

"Another round," He told the old bartender.

"Young man, I think you've had enough for one night."

"I'm paying, aren't I?"

The bartender just shrugged his shoulders in defeat and slid the man another shot of whiskey.

Y/n quickly drained it and requested a beer. As the bartender went to get a beer, Y/n turned his stool around to inspect the bar's occupants. He didn't know any of them. Good. Just as Y/n received his beer he heard the bell connected to the door chime, He turned around to see a very attractive woman walk towards the stool next to him and sit down.

"Hey, hot stuff, whats someone as beautiful as you doing in a place like this?"

The girl just looked at Y/n and smiled. She hailed the bartender and asked him to give Y/n another shot.

"Oh, what's the occasion?"

The girl leaned over and placed her face centimetres in front of Y/n's. Y/n knew he was good looking but this was a whole nother level. She leaned forward and started making out with him. While she was doing this, her arm was outstretched and putting a white pill into the drink she had recently ordered Y/n. As soon as the pill started dissolving, Cinder removed herself from the kiss.

Y/n simply raised his drank at the woman. It looked like tonight would be a fun night. Besides, he needed a distraction considering what had occurred earlier in the evening with Ruby. Y/n tapped his drink on the wood table in front of him and drained it in one fell swoop. Y/n turned back to face the woman.

"So, do you want to go back to your plac-"

Y/n couldn't finish his sentence as a sudden spell of dizziness settled over him.

"Oh shit."

Y/n laid his head on the table, seconds from falling asleep, he looked up at the woman. She smiled down at him.

"Fuck yo-"

Y/n fell unconscious. His limp body was picked up by Cinder who left the bartender a very generous tip and put a finger to her lips as he gave her a questioning look. He wasn't paid to ask questions.

The man formerly known as Tai xiao long, now Tai Rose after marrying Summer, stepped off the airship and took in the sight of Beacon academy, his old stomping grounds.

Ruby was waiting in the courtyard outside the school to meet him. Tai had decided to visit his kids in there first year at the school. He prepared to greet Ruby with hugs and smiles but saw her just standing there with a blank look on her face, he knew something was wrong. Tai rushed over and kneeled next to Ruby.

"Honey, what's wrong?"

She just broke down crying and Tai embraced her in a hug.

"Shh. I'm here for you."

"Then why did you lie to me?"

Tai was confused for a second. He pushed Ruby out of the hug and looked at her face. She wasn't crying anymore. She looked angry.

"What are you talking honey?"

"Y/n. You said he died."

Tai just knelt there for a second thinking of the possible repercussions of his actions years earlier.

"Have you seen him, have you seen Y/n?"

"He's a student here now. Not like you would care."

Tai thought about how he could handle this situation. He chose to be discreet.

"We only lied to you to save you from the pain of knowing he left."

Ruby just sighed, not in frustration, but in tiredness.

"Yang told me the exact same thing. How many other lies have you told me to spare me the pain? How many!"

Tai looked down at his feet, defeated.

"Where is Y/n?"

"Nobody's heard from him since last night. When I figured out who he was."

"Have you gone looking?"

"No. He'll come back if he wants to. Or not."

"We can't just let him leave again"

"Do you know why he left in the first place? Because of you, Yang and fucking Raven. You all treated him like shit. He left and didn't even leave a note. Because. Of. You."

Tai felt every word Ruby had said like a sledgehammer to the heart. Because she was right.

"If you want him to stay then go find him yourself. He can fend for himself now. I want him to stay but he's independent now."

Tai didn't have the time or the resources to find Y/n. They both secretly hoped that Y/n would return in the next couple days. If not, Ruby would be heartbroken.

Again.

"Where the fuck am I and who the fuck are you?"

Y/n said in a slurred voice. He was still drunk after all.

"My name dosen't matter. Her name on the other hand..."

The black-haired lady gestured at the white-skinned and black veined woman sitting at the head of the extremely long table.

The woman had an aura of dominance and supremacy surrounding her. Y/n was almost scared. Almost.

"Well then, What's your name?"

"I am Salem, and you shall learn to fear me."

"Big talk coming from a pale and elderly woman"

Cinder slapped Y/n for speaking so disrespectfully toward her master.

Y/n was still drunk and hadn't realised the severity of the situation.

The woman, Salem, stood up and walked over to Y/n at the opposite end of the table.

Y/n gave her a look of defiance, of resistance.

"You poor, foolish boy."

She summoned Grimm tentacles that erupted from the floor. They slowly slithered around Y/n before the ends of the tentacles turned into spikes and the rest of the appendages became littered with serrated spikes.

"Fuck"

The tentacles started slowly and methodically cutting Y/n in the most painful places a human can experience. Salem did know a thing or two about anatomy. Y/n started screaming as his skin and muscles were cut in a thousand different places. Each strike more painful than the last.

Salem and Cinder walked away from Y/n as the tentacles changed their rhythm and started breaking bones. Slowly of course. Cinder closed the door behind her to cut off Y/n's screams of unimaginable agony.

Salem took Cinder down to the pools of Grimm and had her dip her hand in them. Cinder felt her already Grimm arm changing. She removed it from the pool of darkness and tested it for new abilities. A worm slid out of her palm and landed on the ground.

"What is this Grimm, my master?"

Salem picked up the worm and rolled it between her fingers.

"It's a Grimm worm. It serves a very specific purpose. It can infect people and turn them into Grimm. It could prove particularly useful against Ozpins huntsmen."

Cinder followed Salems trail of thinking. She could use the worm to turn the huntsman against each other. Maybe even control them.

"Your first target will be Beacon Academy. Infect the students first then the teachers should follow."

"It is a brilliant plan master."

"Indeed it is"

Salem crushed the worm between her hands and looked back at her castle.

She heard a scream faintly on the wind.