The 'Lone' Hero of Vale (RWBY & Link)

A Hazy Past, Part 3: The Little Village

"You see this? This was-!" Link stops himself and looks at the gemstone, admiring the stone attached to the string. "This was just like the situation with Amber, when you said I made her up."

"Link, I apologized for that." Weiss' frown falls completely

"Yes, I know. I am only saying that none of this is made up... In fact, I wish it was all made up and nothing but lies, at least that way nobody would have gotten hurt." Link hesitantly and painfully extends his arm to Weiss. "Do you want to hold it?"

"I probably shouldn't..." Weiss shakes her head initially but when the blonde boy does not pull his arm back, she changes her mind, gently grabs it and inspects it diligently. "It's beautiful. This isn't fake jewelry or plastic either, this is real. It looks so beautiful and mystical, where did Link get something like this?"

"There are so many questions to ask." Pyrrha thinks. "Why do you think Atlas did such a thing? And why a small village?"

"My group and I were framed, big time. Failing that mission had more consequences than I thought." Link reaches into the pouch again and like the gemstone, he reaches towards the very bottom until he pulls out a patch, it has the design of a black hawk with red eyes in a striking position. "This is the reason. The Black Hawks were no more but for some reason the name was still prominent. And a few of 'their' mercenaries came after me."

"I thought you were their leader?" Pyrrha gasps. "Why would they attack you?"

"Take a guess Pyrrha." Link chuckles. "Why would they not recognize me and attack me without asking any questions?"

"My best guess is that they were not the original members of your group?" Pyrrha raises an eyebrow. "Is that right?"

"You are correct." Link nods, "The original Black Hawk members... I don't know what happened to any of them, to be completely honest with you. But I'm here so not all of the originals are dead. Regardless, enough about the new and old Black Hawks." He turns to Weiss. "May I have that back please?"

"These are important details we need to know about, you can't just cut the conversation off." Weiss shoots daggers at Link but carefully hands him back the pink gemstone-pendant.

"I'm not cutting the conversation off but more like pausing it for now, we will get back to it later as it's all going to come back to my group being framed. After all..." Link shrugs and shakes his head, then hands the Black Hawks patch to Ruby while hesitantly letting Velvet grab the gemstone. "I need to tell all of you about the village incident so that you, Weiss, will believe me."

"Wow. It really means that much to him if he wants me to believe him." Weiss does not respond to the blonde boy sitting next to her, but does nod at him

"Link." Velvet's eyes widen in amazement, "It's so beautiful." She carefully raises it in the air, allowing the bright sun to hit the piece of jewelry

"Thank you." Link weakly smiles. "I'm sure Ray would've appreciated that."

"Ray? Would have? " Velvet's beaming expression quickly drops when she understands his wording. "O-Oh..."

"The girl who gave me the pendant, Ray. She would have appreciated those sweet words." Link nods and glances around the courtyard, noticing Atlas ships landing at the landing docks, (Just great, perfect timing. My emotions are already on the brink) He glares at the ships as they land and thinks of violent actions

"L-link, what are you planning?" Velvet leans forward and touches his knee. "Are you okay?"

"N-Nothing..." Link sighs and looks away from the ships. "Sorry."