(EN) RWBY OC: Team KNRD (Volume 6)

Chapter 9: Welcome to Argus!

(Later, Narrator's POV)

Everyone fled and headed for Argus. Night and Yang were riding their motorcycles. They all had to recover from what they had just seen in this abandoned house, which is now just a pile of ruins.

"Holy shit... Emerald, what were those things?" Yang asked her.

"The Apathy." Maria answered in Emerald's stead. "They're not strong, or ferocious. They drain your will to go one. Bartleby's estate was hemorrhaging money towards the end. He wanted to cut costs on Huntsman protection. But in order to do that, he needed everyone calm... Always." She added before Oscar began to read the contents of the book.

"Managed to get two of them away from their pack. Hike back was miserable, but got the bastards in the cellar. Wife thinks I was out sealing the waterway entrance. I'll do it tomorrow and tell her the truth, once these things take the edge off of everyone. I'm tired."

"The next page proves that he did, but not before the rest of the pack followed their missing pair all the way home. My guess is they made their way beneath the estate through the water tunnels. That Bartleby sealed up the next morning. Bartleby's plan worked." Maria told them before taking the book from Oscar's hands.

"No one was angry or sad or scared. No one was anything. And the no one was left." She said before closing the book and throwing it away. A silence intervened before Weiss spoke:

"I'm sorry for what I said. About giving up." She said. Yang and Night stopped their bikes.

"Me too. We can't quit until the lamp is safe. It's like not wanting to save a village because there would still be casualties, even if you wanted to save everyone" The blonde said as she looked at Night.

"It's not your fault. It was those things." Blake replied.

"I should have known. The signs were all there. But I'd never seen an entire settlement withered away like that. I suppose my mind just isn't what it used to be." Maria lamented.

"You don't have to blame yourself..." Emerald told her before Ruby spoke up.

"Miss Calavera? How do you know so much about the Grimm? And in the tunnels, you knew exactly what to say to make me... To make my eyes do that. How?" She asked. Maria laughed.

"Well, isn't it obvious, girl? I had silver eyes." She answered her. General silence.

"You?" Night asked in surprise.

"Indeed." She replied before Yang and Night restarted their bikes. "I did a remarkable job. I became a legend, and stories were written about me." She said. Emerald's eyes widened. Weiss spoke up:

"Wait... You mean you're...-"

"The Grimm Reaper!? The real one!?" Emerald exclaimed, excited as a child. This made Maria laugh.

"Indeed." She replied.

"If I had one of your books with me, I would have asked you for an autograph!" Emerald told her.

"But what happened to you? Why did you disappear?" Blake asked her. Maria's good mood faded as she began to sigh deeply.

"My last mission didn't go as planned." She told them.

"Can you... tell us about it?" Emerald asks her.

"It happened 53 years ago. I had just turned 27 when I received this mission. I was given the task of eliminating a Great Nevermore that was threatening the area. And as you might expect, I accomplished my mission, and with flying colors." Maria related.