Strength of an Honest Soul

by Chaos Productions

A war halted, a pact reforged, a people restored, and a Council overthrown. After a tumultuous premature Apocalypse, the Balance has finally been restored, and Creation once more knows relative peace. But darkness looms ever-threatening once again, and now the fate of Creation lies not in the hands of Angel or Demon or Horseman - but on the shoulders of an innocent little girl.

1. Chapter 1

Pre-Chapter A/N: Not much to say here other than a great amount of thanks to Unseen Lurker, whose story "Of Red Petals and Black Feathers" quite literally inspired the hell out of this one. This story is posted with his consent - and I cannot express my thanks enough.

So. My first foray into the RWBY fandom. Let's see how this goes, eh?

Strength of an Honest Soul
Chapter 1
Curse… or Blessing?

Upon a canvas of pure white snow slowly drowning in a rising tide of writhing darkness and grim violence, a little red Rose ran for her life.

Tiny legs carried the girl as fast as they could through the bare forests of Patch, as silver eyes darted side to side, scanning the ominous claw-like branches around her. Her breath escaped her in soft and panicked gasps as she kept one foot before the other, traversing the small island's forests with practiced ease born from countless back-and-forth trips. One tiny, clammy hand gripped the shaft of a mish-mash of tools and bits and pieces resembling a scythe, dragging the weapon she'd cobbled together in her father's tool shed behind her and leaving clefts and trenches in the snow as a crimson cape much, much too large for such a small girl fluttered behind her – one of the few splotches of colour on the stark monochromatic landscape.

Even from here, she could hear the klaxons and alarms wailing, sending signals of threat and ominous news as far as even the small island's coast.

A litany of growls accompanied the distant mechanical howls, and the sound served only to spur the little red-clad girl onward ever faster.

With a soft hup the little girl vaulted over a fallen trunk, keeping her eyes forward as the ever-sinister snarls and rasps and howls and growls danced amidst the blackened bark of the trees behind her. She'd been at her mother's tombstone when the first alerts had sounded in the distance, a klaxon she'd rarely heard signalling an influx of monsters terrifying and fearsome. With a final goodbye – at least for one meeting – she'd sped into the forest at a breakneck pace, leaving only tracks in the snow and rose petals in the wind as evidence she'd even been there in the first place. And yet, her path through the forest, one she'd travelled so many times before, had disappeared under a veritable ocean of jet-black fur and bony white masks.

She had never seen so many Grimm in her short life…

A reckless part of her at first wished to fight, to do as the heroes in the stories had done and vanquish the black beasts where they stood. Upon seeing more gaping maws than she could count and more glaring eyes than she could hope to hide from, however, she wisely decided to bolt; she hadn't even started at Signal Academy yet – even if she did have a somewhat passable weapon on hand. She couldn't fight against those numbers; not yet, she told herself stubbornly.

So there she was, a tiny girl with a weapon much too cumbersome to wield, wearing a cloak too big to be reasonable while running from the largest influx of Grimm that the denizens of Patch had ever seen.

The small, small of part of her that hadn't been stricken by fear wondered just where they had all come from.

No sooner had she allowed this thought to come to pass when a thunderous, almost deafening crack sundered the muted, distant ambience around her. The sudden staccato boom elicited a yelp from the red-clad girl, and the briefest, briefest lapse in focus lead to her stumbling to her knees under the sudden sonic assault. The shoddy scythe flew forwards, embedding itself in the ground.

Panic-stricken silver eyes scanned the snowy carpet, and widened when the slightest shade of red bled into the harsh whiteness around her. Pale moonlight gave way to intense copper bloom as the once pure snow turned sickly under alien light, and only then did the little girl notice the rumbling growing ever louder.

Then came the howls, and the growls, and the barks and the snarls and the beastly chorus of a horde of Grimm, and before panicked silver eyes could blink the sea of black surrounded the little red girl completely. Jet-dark fur and bony scowls stretched as far as her tiny eyes could see, and for but a moment fear had sunk its venomous fangs right into her heart, paralysing her completely. A soft whimper attempted to voice hope, attempted to scream for help and pray her uncle would come cleaving through the horde to save her again.

But he did not come.

And the Grimm, amazingly, did not attack.

Huddled on the ground with her cloak drawn tight around her, the little red Rose dared to glance up at her assailants. Not one of the terrible, bony sneers was directed at her. Not one of those open, serrated maws was moving forward to chomp down on her. No, the deep, murderous gazes of the beasts of Grimm were all directed upwards, at the fractured, shattered moon above – and only then did the little girl in red realise that the copper taint blooming on the snow was growing ever deeper, ever brighter.

Fearful silver eyes glanced up, at the same anomalies that seemed to enrapture the soulless Grimm…

…and those same eyes widened to their limits when they beheld the great clusters of fire descending to the earth.

Roiling clouds of hellish orange inferno barrelled towards the rising, writhing sea of Grimm, trailing ominous red smoke and bits and pieces of charred debris in their wake. The closer the great fists of fire came, the more agitated the creatures of Grimm grew. Lupine snouts bore fierce snarls and ursine bellows rang above the cacophony of wolfish songs, and all the while the flames drew ever closer.

Curling up where she sat, and drawing her cloak ever closer, the little girl in red squinted at the growing bullets of flame, hoping the creatures around her didn't divert their attention from it.

And then, just as the flames shone at their brightest, silver eyes beheld monstrous scowls, serrated fangs and armour twisted and sinister enough to make her quiver even more.

And finally, little Ruby Rose shrieked as the bombs of fire slammed into the shifting masses of Grimm…

…and Hell itself unleashed its chaos onto the forest around her.

---

In essence, they were a force of ruin – Destruction incarnate, some would say. The soulless beasts of Grimm, bearing the colour of oblivion itself and masks ever so similar to one of Creation's most feared executioners. They were beings of darkness drawn to all that is wrong and unholy, monsters utterly void of empathy or morality, that lived for nothing but the destruction of what precious few remained in the Third Kingdom. With fang and claw, they fought with every ounce of the ferocity that made them so feared in humanity's eyes.

Yet… despite it all, despite their numbers measuring an unfathomable amount and their ferocity striking fear into the hearts of even the bravest of Man's children…

…they were still horribly, horribly outmatched.

For even the oldest of the beasts of Grimm were but pups in the eyes of the Second Kingdom.

Fang and claw was met with fire and steel, courtesy of beings wielding such power the very beasts of extinction were trampled underfoot. Demonkind matched the bloodthirsty roars of the Grimm in equal, almost greater volume, and their own smouldering glares and bared fangs caused even the soulless monsters of darkness to falter. Wielding magic and skill honed by millennia of fighting the First Kingdom's finest, and weapons that had not dulled a bit during the ceasefire between kingdoms, they advanced on their ambushers not with fear or trepidation, but with wrath, rage and scorn.

And thus, the hounds of war were loosed.

On one side were the beasts of Grimm – soulless and ferocious and unrelenting in their destructive existence.

On the other were the warriors of Hell itself – ancient, dark and bloodthirsty as ever portrayed by history, and furious and overwhelming in their strength.

And caught between the two warring sides, none the wiser, was a young, innocent little girl in red – woefully unaware of the fate awaiting her.

---

It's okay to be afraid, she told herself as she darted from thicket to thicket, from upraised knoll of roots to upraised knoll of roots in her mad dash to escape the deafening chaos around her. It's okay to be afraid, it's okay to be afraid. Uncle Qrow said so – it's okay to be afraid.

Despite being so young, she had been afraid many, many times before. She had been afraid when her mother had disappeared, after embarking on a mission fit only for super-cool super-awesome Huntresses, only to never come back. She had been afraid whenever her father would usher them inside as distant alarms signalled an influx of Grimm on Patch, cutting into her playtime with Yang and Zwei. She had been afraid – especially afraid – when one of Yang's friends had accidentally cut off a lock of her blonde hair (their house still creaked in some places).

And yet, she couldn't quite recall a time where she was as panicked and fearful as she was now.

At least a part of that fear, she reckoned, was because of the new monsters in the forest – the ones who were butchering the Grimm as though they were nothing.

Ruby didn't rightly remember where they came from. She remembered an explosion, and she remembered screaming as the explosion went off, as the painful scratch in her throat now reminded her. She remembered falling flat on her face –

Then everything went crazy, she thought with a grimace. Trees whizzed by as she ran, dragging her weapon behind her. Snowy hills rose and fell, but the Grimm – and their attackers – seemed to be everywhere.

Every now and then, her eyes would fall on one such an attacker, one versus many as the Grimm tried to overwhelm and trample. She beheld monstrous visages; giants standing more than double her own height, wearing spiky armour and wielding massive weapons – massive enough to put even Uncle Qrow's scythe to shame. Lipless mouths bared ugly yellow fangs, and their eyes blazed hatred at whatever Grimm was mad enough to attack them.

They were strong, Ruby realised with an audible gulp; strong enough to beat the odds – and the Grimm – through nothing but brute force.

A tree before her splintered under the assault of a giant, saw-toothed axe, and Ruby yelped, hopping back as half a Beowolf flew over her head. The monster before her, blue-skinned and bare-chested, roared with a fury that matched the half-a-dozen Beowolves attacking it, and the swings of its axe caused gusts of wind to kick up small puffs of snow as it went.

Not that way, not that way, Ruby thought quickly, springing to her feet and sprinting in another direction, leaving another flurry of petals in her wake. She zipped through trees again, ignoring the roars and death rattles around her as she tried her best to escape the never-ending sea of war. A Beowolf yelped to her left, and her peripheral just barely caught sight of a flying carcass, and to her left she heard one of the armoured monsters growl as claws scraped against armour.

A hill of snow before her exploded as an abnormally large Beowolf managed to tackle one of the evil-looking fighters through a tree, and with a loud 'eep!' and a quick roll to the side Ruby just barely managed to avoid getting flattened. More Beowolves followed the scuffle, emerging from the trench in the snow, fangs glistening and eyes gleaming.

Not that way either! Ruby thought erratically, darting to the side to avoid the confrontation.

Trailing petals wherever she ran, Ruby zigzagged through the warzone, never once losing her cool despite her youth and inexperience – and despite the loud yelps and wails she'd often let out after barely avoiding stumbling into a full-on battle to the death between the two sides. Occasionally the little Rose would have to hide in a stray pile of fallen leaves or in a hollow beneath one of the blackened trees as the fighting seemed to converge on one spot before moving on.

The Grimm had become absolutely mindless – sometimes they even attacked each other.

There was something seriously wrong about that.

Gotta get back, she thought as she zipped between battles. Gotta get back, gotta get back. All she had to do was get away from all the fighting and somehow make it back home. Then everything would be alright – Dad and Uncle Qrow would come and get rid of the Grimm and all these other uglies, and she'd be safe and sound, playing with Zwei and eating cookies and strawberries and maybe even working on her weapon, despite her lack of understanding so far.

The thought almost – almost – made her smile despite the situation.

She dug in her heels, suddenly, skidding to a halt just as one of the uglies hurled a Beowolf away with one hand. The lupine monster flew by her so closely she could almost feel its fur tickle her nose. With a frustrated groan, Ruby altered her course again just before another small pack of Beowolves leapt through the trees, and sped around the sudden battle, keeping her head down and her sprint steady.

There's so many of them… Again, she altered her course as the forces of Grimm converged on another group of uglies in front of her. Despite the Beowolves' numbers, the uglies seemed to fight better as a group – already, the corpses were piling up around the four warriors, forming a morbid wall that was used to funnel the remaining Grimm. Gross… Ruby shuddered as she sped past, propping her weapon up on her shoulder to allow herself easier movement.

She heard a loud yelp, suddenly, to her right – and against her better judgement, turned her head to look at the scuffle. With a loud splat she nearly tripped over her own feet as a large glob of Grimm ichor splattered all over her face. Ew! Gross, gross, gross, gross… She pawed at her face as she ran, just barely seeing enough to dodge the trees in her path as she scrambled to get the icky gunk off her face. She blew her nose quickly to get that part of her face clear, only for the inky substance to slip into her mou-It's in my mouth, it's in my mouth, ew, ew, eeewww! She started sputtering and spitting as she tried to purge the foul stuff from her mouth.

In her panic, sadly, she forgot to pay attention to where she was going.

Her forehead collided with steel with a resounding thud, and with a mixture of a pained groan and a pitiful whimper Ruby spun in place once before falling flat on her back, kicking up snow as she landed. Her dazed state all but evaporated, however, when a dark steel boot slammed down in front of her. She had mere moments to realise she had sprinted headlong into one of the uglies before an axe almost as silver as her eyes glinted ominously as it was raised high into the moonlight. Piercing, sickly yellow eyes locked with her own, and she yelped as the monstrous warrior before her roared, baring fangs and sending reverberations through her ears. With a hateful gaze it readied to strike –

…and then, it paused, its roar dying down and leaving only Ruby's low wail of fear to echo through the trees.

"…I-I-I-I'm sorry?" Ruby ventured, eyes wide, her hands still raised before her in a placating – and somewhat surrendering – manner.

With a snort, the ugly warrior sneered at her as it lowered its axe, its lipless fangs still set into a sinister sneer. Scaly gray features and a face that almost, almost seemed pig-like looked down at her, seeming almost contemplative if it weren't for the fact that the beastly being looked just about ready to smear her across the snow.

Ruby flinched as the warrior spoke, its voice deep, raw and bloodthirsty and its language sounded like someone actually took violence and formed it into words. Its language was completely alien to her, sounding aggressive and scary and every single word he said just made her want to sink deeper into the snow and why isn't he stopping?!

"I-I don't understand!" She said weakly, trying her best to look pleading and confused instead of terrified.

The pig-person opened its mouth again, but anything it might have wanted to say died out as a loud howl shattered the relative silence around them. A blur of black shot past it, claws raking across scaly flesh and dented steel, but this just seemed to make the pig-person angrier; it caught the offending clawed limb in its free hand, and used it to hold the Beowolf in place as that ominous silver axe cleaved through it. Another Beowolf leapt at the pig-person, only for an outstretched hand to catch it right around its throat. The Grimm was gracelessly slammed down into the snow, before a downright monstrous punch made the wolf-thing almost fold in on itself with a sickening crunch of bone.

The pig-person looked to Ruby again, eyes narrowed, and spoke once more, in that same raw, violence-hungry tone.

"Flee, human."

That, she understood.

Without a peep, Ruby nodded meekly, before disappearing in a puff of rose petals.

This is so weird! Ruby thought despairingly as she darted from fight to fight, easily skirting around the brawls by way of her recently-discovered Semblance. Between the uglies suddenly appearing and killing Grimm by the dozens, and the Grimm themselves going so crazy that they'd actually start attacking each other, Ruby's mind was a mess. After evading the fourth major brawl, where some Beowolves actually ignored the uglies in favour of attacking any other Grimm they came across, Ruby wearily decided to give up on figuring stuff out.

I just want to go home…

Her legs were even starting to ache.

Another harsh bark of violent language met her ears, and she skidded to a halt behind one of the bare trees so she could see whether or not she'd have to change course.

A group of six uglies stood before her, not too far away – close enough for her to see the various wounds covering them, and the various corpses of both Grimm and ugly warriors around them. They were surrounded by a fresh pack of Beowolves, each snarling and flexing their claws as though eager to tear the monster-men apart. With baited breath Ruby waited, for the battle to start – when the two sides were focused on each other, she could easily slip by unnoticed.

And just before the Beowolves could commence their attack, a low, distant, yet intense sizzling sound interrupted the tense stand-off.

That sound was all warning the unknowing Grimm received.

Hellish red-and-black fire blazed into the left-most Beowolves – it was a torrent of roiling tongues of flame that drowned out the very yelps of the beasts it reduced to ash in a blink. The sheer intensity of it stung at Ruby's eyes as she watched, and her vision was suddenly blurred by tears brought on from the brightness. She could only just make out a colossal black figure leaping from the trees and hurling itself into the fray with a roar that made the snow around her quiver and the ground beneath her feet tremble. A large, square object Ruby immediately recognised as a shield slammed flush into a group of three Beowolves, and the force behind it hurled the monsters clean out of the clearing, and from behind the shield, a fiendish spear struck home, piercing the hearts and throats of any Grimm foolish enough to stand in its path.

Not waiting a moment longer, Ruby started to circle the battle, dabbing at her eyes with the edge of her cloak. The clarity of vision she had regained allowed her a better look at the latest warrior to join the fray. Obviously the leader, Ruby thought as she kept her gaze on the battle while she scurried from cover to cover. The Leader was monstrous – standing almost Ruby's height above its already giant peers, and almost four times the girl's own width, the severe-looking plate armour and hellish-looking spikes only served to make the beast-man look that much more menacing. From beneath a bark-like mask, two violet eyes were narrowed with rage, and the behemoth's head was covered by a helm topped by two enormous curved horns.

Ruby gulped. That wish to just disappear into the snow until the fight was over was coming back.

Yet even this did not deter the little girl. As the uglies fought on, their vigour and drive renewed by their Leader's appearance, Ruby kept creeping from blackened tree to blackened tree, careful to move really slowly and really carefully, so as not to draw the frenzied Grimm's attention as they tried to dogpile the alien warriors. The Leader, she noticed, stood head and shoulders above its peers – each bash from its shield shattered the bones of numerous Grimm, and each crescent sweep of its spear batted the soulless monsters aside.

It would have been, in her mind, an absolutely amazing sight, had circumstances not rendered her fear-stricken.

She was almost halfway to the next tree, though, when her silver eyes witnessed a peculiar sight.

In the midst of the battle before her, a curious light caught her eye. It was a completely random sight, seeing a dull golden light radiating from a small(ish) pouch on the Leader Ugly's belt. Even if there wasn't a battle raging, it would be just barely noticeable. So why, then, did it catch her eye?

And why, why couldn't she look away?

Pretty, she thought in a trance as she gazed as the dull light. It seemed to glow brighter the longer she looked at it – warmer, too. It was as though she could feel the warmth of the dim light splaying across her face. It felt so… comfortable. Like all her worries were just… disappearing, as she gazed at it. Fear became contentedness, panic became peace and a dopey smile formed on Ruby's lips as she felt the light tugging at her, dragging her into the clearing. It called to her, welcomed her with its warming rays, and idly Ruby felt her arm move as she stretched a hand out before her, wanting just to graze the calming light –

She jerked suddenly, and shook her head, breaking the sudden stupor that had overcome her, and immediately the sounds of battle returned.

A Beowolf corpse flew over her, and a scuffle to the left pelted her with snow. She counted less than ten feet between herself and the Leader Ugly, and panic wrapped its cold fingers around her tiny heart.

She had wandered right into the fray – and now she was surrounded on all sides, her hand still outstretched towards the glowing light before her.

She let out a low whine of panic when the colossal black figure before her spun around, and the whine itself died out the moment furious violet eyes locked with her own silver ones. The Leader Ugly's glare made a ball of cold form in the pit of her stomach, and even though the bark-covered mask obscured it, Ruby could almost sense the sneer on the creature's face. "I… I wasn't going to – I didn't mean…" She fumbled with her words as the Leader's presence grew that much more imposing – the warrior rose to its full height, towering over every other living thing. Its shoulders were squared and its fierce gaze was set, and despite the lull in combat, that door-sized shield remained at the ready.

Then, with a brutal swing of its arm, said shield was hurled in her direction.

Ruby dove forward with a short shriek, her scythe dropping into the snow once again as the giant chunk of steel soared over her. Though her eyes had been screwed shut in fright, she could hear the shield slamming into two Grimm behind her – the snapping of bone almost made her feel nauseous. The shield fell to the ground behind her with an audible thud, and the pitiful whine that followed signalled a third Grimm wounded in the attack.

The ground under her shook then, and footsteps thundered towards her – steel hissed through the air, and the sound of a weapon piercing flesh sent another Grimm to the grave, its corpse slamming down right next to her.

Fearfully, she looked up, her lower lip quivering – whether from the cold or something else, she didn't know. Those violent violet eyes still glared at her, disdainful, judging and callous.

And yet… the giant's spear was embedded firmly into the chest of the Grimm beside her.

What was believed to be an attack on her had instead saved her.

"…I just wanna go home…" She said, her voice escaping her in a weak moan as she remained on her knees, staring at the abyssal monster before her.

The Leader's eyes seemed to narrow as it gazed at her. Just a hint of calculating contemplation flitted between the rays of hatred and condescension – before they finally blinked. The armoured warrior loosed a monstrous sigh, and with a quick yet mighty jerk of his arm, it ripped the spear from the Grimm's corpse, and turned.

"Leave then, human," it spoke, its voice deep and rumbling. "Leave and do not look back. Speak of this with no one."

"…O-Okay…" She mumbled, clumsily patting at the snow in search of her scythe as she tried to stand again. Her legs wobbled under the attempt, and biting cold finally registered in all her limbs, but that didn't stop her – it wouldn't stop her. Not now. Not when she was so close to home…

An image flickered in her mind's eye – an image of Yang, and Dad, and Zwei, and suddenly it was as though she could feel home's warmth.

That alone spurred her on.

Howls from the darkened forest accompanied a harsh bark of orders from the Leader Ugly, and the lesser warriors quickly formed a half-hearted barricade around Ruby's path. Their weapons were raised and their fangs were bared – for some reason, these evil-looking things were helping her escape.

The Beowolves stormed through the trees and snowy undergrowth the moment Ruby took her first step – their numbers had increased, and they seemed even more frantic.

Ruby wasted no time in reaching the edge of the clearing, even when the collision of forces almost deafened her. Claws and fangs scraped against armour and shields, and axes and swords hacked into flesh and bone – and yet, not once did the warriors allow even a single Grimm to lay its eyes on her.

She broke out of the clearing and into the undergrowth with an almost relieved huff. Her legs ached as she walked and her lungs burned with every breath, and still, Ruby managed to force herself onwards. A part of her felt a surge of childlike glee upon realising all those painful exercises with Yang were paying off.

Suddenly she felt grateful her sister had included her in 'getting ready for Signal' – even if Ruby couldn't properly use a scythe yet. Baby steps, Dad always says.

The conflict behind her rose in volume, and she found herself looking back while struggling to free her foot from a very, very stubborn tree root. She gasped slightly when saw no less than nine Beowolves attempting to gang up on the Leader Ugly – hideous scrapes covered once smooth, black armour, and one of the colossal horns atop the helmet was even chipped slightly.

And yet, despite the odds, the monstrous warrior kept slaying Grimm by the handful at a time.

Then Ruby saw it – a lone Beowolf, larger and bonier than the rest, hanging back, slinking in the trees and hiding in the formation's blind spot. It kept its form tensed and readied, waiting for the ideal moment to strike – and before Ruby could even yell out a warning, the Alpha darted forward, flexing its claws as it went right for the Leader's unguarded back.

Her breath caught in her throat as the Leader noticed the attack, and managed to evade just as the claws would have slashed at the clasps of its dark armour – but the Beowolf's attack lashed at the Leader's hip nonetheless, and its claws raked at that ever-glowing little pouch dangling from the belt.

Ruby's eyes unwillingly followed the small linen bundle as it soared through the air, ripped from the Leader's belt by a relentless swipe and propelled forward by the Grimm beast's considerable strength. A part of her willed herself to look away, knowing exactly what happened last time she looked – but before she could screw her eyes shut and willingly jerk her head away, the torn linen slipped off the object, fluttering into the breeze.

Once more, light captivated Ruby – only this time, it was much, much brighter.

With a loud thunk the orb landed a few feet ahead of her, rolling forward and bathing the blackened trees in a dazzling lightshow before coming to a stop against a steep hill of snow. The ethereal glow from the bronze sphere painted the white canvas beneath it pure gold, and once more Ruby found herself walking towards it, enraptured by its dazzling display.

She really should have been heading home by now, she thought drowsily as she stumbled towards the orb. But the lights looked so pretty… and it was warm, warmer than even her cloak could be at times. She fell to her knees mere feet from the orb, and felt the warmth envelop her. The light seemingly whispered in her ears, wordless sounds of soothing calm, and Ruby felt her eyelids grow heavy as she reached out to grab hold of the orb.

The Leader Ugly dropped it, after all, she thought drowsily – wouldn't it be rude not to give it back?

She heard the warriors roaring behind her – both in a language she didn't understand and one she did. They sounded so very, very distant – had she been any sleepier, she thought, she wouldn't hear them at all.

And just as a fearful cry of "Do not touch that!" exploded from behind her, her fingers grazed the warm bronze.

Her drowsiness was blown away in an instant. Pain – cruel, merciless, icy cold pain – shot through her entire body, running right up her spine and blasting clean into her skull. With a wordless cry of agony Ruby dropped flat on her face, hand still grasping the bronze orb, as her sight tore itself apart. Through jolts of numbing pain and twisting agony her vision flashed, what was once a spectrum of colour becoming an amber hue as splotches of colour blurred on the golden canvas.

She saw a verdant forest, an almost overwhelming scene of green, being swallowed by shadow – one wave coming from below, and another descending from above, drowning the eight figures haplessly caught in-between.

She saw crashing waves and bright moonlight, as beams of white from a fractured moon danced across jewels and crystals of all sorts and sizes, just before a deafening explosion pierced the centre of the dazzling array, sending blotches and blurs of red, white, black and yellow scattering.

She saw silhouettes of people walking hand-in-hand, dancing and laughing and giggling and twirling as candlelight burned around them, casting shadows across the figures wearing sinister smirks and malicious, slanted eyes.

And finally she saw a glow – a wicked, sizzling flare of light from two sinister eyes, perched atop a flowing red dress pulsing with amber-hued power.

With a violent jerk of her head and a pained yelp, Ruby pulled her hand away from the glowing orb of bronze, taking ragged breaths as she willed the pain assailing her head to dissipate. Both hands clutched at her temples as agony pulsed through her head, and only through gritting her teeth did she manage to keep from whining from the hurt. The pain quickly turned into numbness, and soon Ruby found herself breathing normally. She opened her eyes, and turned to look at the orb again – only to stop herself this time, before another series of pains attacked her. What… What was that…? She thought in a daze as she stumbled around, trying to get back on her feet. What did I just see…?

That orb was dangerous… It had the power to ensnare whatever being chose to look at it, and could hurt them greatly with as little as a glancing touch.

No wonder the Leader Ugly was the one to carry it… It must have been an object of great importance.

She turned back, looking at the battle raging in the distance. The brawl had reached its climax, it seemed – what remained of the small pack of Beowolves that had ambushed them assaulted the Uglies with abandon. Several of the armoured warriors had fallen in the fight, leaving only two to fight beside the black-clad leader. Although the howls and growls and roars in the distance meant the war between sides was still raging, it was obvious this battle was coming to a close – and with the Leader still seeming hale and hearty, the predicted victor was obvious.

She had to stop herself from looking right at the orb again, keeping a hand raised to block it out of her vision just in case she slipped. She could always leave it there, she thought. It's not like the thing was bothering anyone, after all. But if it could call out to people like that…

What if it went missing, and someone else – someone from Patch, even – found it?

What would happen?

Her bottom lip quivered as she felt renewed conflict within her.

Any other person would have left the orb there, to be lost in the snowy undergrowth, and forget it about – it wasn't their problem after all, was it? But Ruby Rose wasn't any other person – she wanted to be a Huntress.

She wanted to help people.

And while she was almost sure those ugly, armoured warriors didn't count as 'normal' people – how could they, looking and speaking like that? – they had showed her kindness, however violent they sounded while doing so. Ruby wasn't a fool, despite being so young – she could barely swing a scythe, so she knew she couldn't help them fight. With the large number of Grimm about, she wasn't sure she wanted to, either… But if she could help the Leader, just by returning the orb to it, wouldn't that be enough?

After all, the Leader – ugly as it was – had saved her life.

Surely that warranted a kindness in turn…

She whined as the pondered what to do, alternating her glances between the fighting warriors and the bronze orb – or at least, the general area where the orb lay, still hidden by her upraised hand. A part of her really, really, really wanted to run off, go home and just forget about everything that happened. Maybe she could even convince herself she was dreaming. But on the other hand… There was that nagging voice in the back of her head, reminding her: she had been helped.

Dad always said it was 'the right thing to do', helping people who helped you.

With a tired, almost frustrated groan, Ruby reached her decision – she pulled off her cloak and, mumbling a barely audible apology to the weathered garb, tossed it in the direction of the orb. It landed the way she had wanted it to, completely covering the bronze sphere. To her immense relief, she saw her cloak was much less transparent than the old linen pouch; barely a hint of the golden light escaped through the red fabric. Taking a deep breath, Ruby strode over and scooped the orb up, cloak and all. The crimson garb pooled in her hands, spilling through her tiny fingers, and it was so bunched up Ruby would have been uncertain she was even holding it had it not been for that solid weight hidden within the cloak's folds.

She gave the bundle an experimental squeeze – and noticed no jolts of pain or lances of agony.

She released a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

Whew. Well, that's one part done.

Now she just had to –

A tree crashed down to her left, the sudden thundering boom making the girl jump a good few feet in fright. Wide, quivering eyes beheld the fallen trunk, and suddenly Ruby was made painfully aware of the monstrous shadow looming over her. Gulping – loudly – she turned, already preparing to face the Leader Ugly. She was so close. Just give the orb back and run. Simple. Just give the –

She flinched when she finally saw the warrior's form. Its dark armour was littered with scrapes and dents, one horn atop its helm had been broken clean off and some parts around the bark mask's one eyehole had chipped away, revealing inky blue skin beneath the purple glowing eye. She gulped, seeing the same look of violence and rage shining in those eyes despite the injuries, and unconsciously she took a step back. "I… I wanted to give it back…" She said, somewhat lamely.

The Leader's eyes narrowed, scrutinising her in a way that made her want to sink into the snow once again. "You touched the orb," it spoke, clearly, in a way she more than understood. There was a very, very strict undercurrent to the monster's rumbling voice, one that made Ruby take yet another step back. "What did you see, human?"

"N-Nothing!" Ruby answered honestly. "A forest, I think? Y-Yes - a forest, and shiny rocks and people dancing. I… I didn't understand, I still don't understand…" She said, taking another step back as she saw the monster's eyes narrow even more. Its cheek moved, in a way suggesting it was frowning. "…Please don't hurt me…"

The monster's stare persisted for but a moment longer – before its violet eyes fluttered closed and it loosed a tired sigh. "Even if you do not understand," it spoke slowly, "you must know that nobody may know of what happened here. Do you understand that, human?" Ruby, to her credit, managed to nod without squeaking. The Leader held out its gauntleted hand, with the fabric of the lost linen pouch lain over it – it had apparently retrieved the little bag already. "Give it here, then."

Gulping once, Ruby quickly scanned the giant warrior's posture. For what, she didn't know – wariness merely told her to. It didn't look like it was going to attack her. Sure, it still had that giant spear in hand, but it was pointing to the sky. It was all but planted in the snow. Nodding meekly, she took one step forward, then another, slowly extending her arms as she walked.

And just before she came close enough to drop the artefact into the Leader's hand…

…her finger grazed an exposed part of the orb.

It was minor this time – a quick jolt of pain followed by the shortest flash of premonition. On an amber background she saw a detailed silhouette of the Leader's form; it reached out and took the orb from her, its giant hand wrapping the opened linen pouch around it –

And its other hand surged forward, driving the tip of that horrid spear right into Ruby's –

With a yelp she hopped backwards, one arm pressing the red bundle to her chest as the other hand grasped at her throat, a panicked, almost instinctive attempt to grab at a wound that wasn't even there. Her yell had put the warrior on edge – it had taken a step back, and had a look of alarm on its face – but Ruby didn't care.

Her hand still clutched at her throat, her breathing crazed and laboured.

Tears stung at her eyes, and she tried blinking them back.

This thing… This thing was going to kill her.

"What?" The warrior's tone was cautious, alarmed, even. "What did you-"

"You liar!" Ruby shrieked, ducking her head down and shooting forwards in a burst of rose petals. She bolted through the opening between the giant's legs, adrenaline fuelling her surge forward as she ran, ignoring the Leader's alarmed cry. Her sudden disappearance should buy her enough time to shake the thing off completely. She could get home, then, and hide the orb – maybe bury it in the backyard or something, she didn't know.

She snaked in-between the blackened tree trunks, yelping when she heard the deadened oaks and firs behind her shattering under the Leader's pursuit – an enraged pursuit at that, going by the roars he was uttering. She didn't dare look back, or to her sides. She focused solely on escaping the forest and the war within it, and finding help – Dad and Yang and Uncle Qrow could protect her from the ugly fighters, right?

She heard howls around her, and the sounds of fighting. She altered her course slightly, hoping to evade the battle she might be approaching, and kept skirting around the larger trees she came across.

Then, be it through fear-fuelled mania or teary eyes, she misjudged how high one of the exposed tree roots had reached.

Her foot snagged on the offending root, and Ruby yelped as she was sent tumbling forwards. The snow cushioning her fall broke away, and the young girl started sliding down a snowy hill, uttering a series of yips and short screeches as she almost cartwheeled towards the bottom. Her arms clutched the red bundle to her chest in a vice grip, making sure the orb itself was pinned sturdily enough to prevent it from flying out of her grasp, until she smashed down on the snow of an exposed clearing with a loud 'oof!'. The fall took most of the wind out of her sails, and she thought there might be a bruise on her chest where she fell on the stupid, stupid ball, but not even that could keep her down.

Ruby was back on her feet within moments.

And yet, just before she could rocket off in a burst of her Semblance, one of the trees surrounding the small clearing crashed inwards, and that giant, familiar figure landed in the centre once more, kicking up snow as it landed.

Ruby took several steps back as she locked eyes with those violent purple orbs again. She tried to frown in defiance despite the tear tracks running down her cheeks, and tried to puff out her cheeks too. The Leader Ugly gazed at her with a mix of anger and confusion, but didn't say a word. Instead, it merely steadied its spear once again, and grabbed hold of its linen pouch with its other hand.

"I do not know what madness overtook you," it spoke, its tone venomous and stern. "Nor do I care. I… I will not hurt you, child. I cannot hurt you." It took a step forward, and Ruby responded by taking a three steps back. It frowned at this. "You do not know what danger rests in your cloak," it said darkly, taking another step forward, and again, Ruby responded by taking three steps back. Her back bumped against the cold, dead bark of a tree, and despite her most valiant efforts her glare faltered, turning into a hopeless look of despair. "No tragedy needs to come from this, human," the Leader said warily, stopping in its tracks. The arm that held the spear suddenly extended to the side, and with a clink of an armoured hand, the weapon was released, and it fell to the snow with an audible thud. "Just give me the orb," it spoke, holding out its hand, "and we can forget this ever happened." It paused, looking at her. "Do you not yearn for home? For your family? You are closer to them than you think – just give me the orb, and I swear to you, on the Council's name, I will let you leave."

Ruby had no idea what council the Ugly was referring to – Dad had talked about one sometimes… Uncle Qrow had, as well. If… If this monster knew them, then… then maybe it wasn't going to try and kill her after all? She made a pained face as she weighed her options. The vision of the attack was still fresh in her mind, as was the ghostly sting in her throat.

An outright brutal explosion in the distance cut off her train of thought, and both she and the Leader whipped their heads in the direction of the disturbance. No fire, no smoke – but the crimson light blazing through the trees and obscuring everything near its source was almost blinding to the two. Another explosion followed, and the bright crimson light was matched and almost snuffed by rays of silvery-black that seemed to glow, swallowing light instead of emitting it.

Then came the cries, and the screams, and the wails.

Ruby gulped as she listened.

What had once been a war had turned into a slaughter.

And throughout the cacophony, throughout the sounds of massacre, throughout the sounds of rending flesh and snapping bone, of shattering bark and groaning wood, of steel on steel and sizzling fire – the loud, threatening neighing of two warhorses rose above it all; an animalistic chorus to drown out the din of the dying.

"Two…" the Leader mumbled. The word made Ruby turn her attention back to him, and her heart dropped right to her stomach when she saw all the rage and hatred and fatigue in those once sharp purple eyes had turned into nothing but pure, primal fear.

"W-What's happening?" Ruby asked worriedly, looking from the Leader to the slaughter in the distance, and back again. "Wh-What is that?!"

"Nothing that will aid us," the Leader replied sombrely. His head whipped back to her, eyes manic with terror. "Please, little one… Our time runs short. Give me the orb!"

Ruby regarded him warily, eyes quivering from fear and exhaustion. "Y-You… You promise you won't hurt me?" She asked meekly, keeping the crimson bundle containing the orb pressed to her chest.

"The future is not set in stone," the Leader replied, taking another step forward. "You saw a possibility, little one – a possibility I would die to avert!" His voice rose by several octaves as he spoke. "Hurry… If those steeds reach us, then… There will be blood."

That was enough to spur Ruby into moving, despite her fear and trepidation. Slowly, she moved forward, step by trembling step, keeping the bundle pinned to her chest. The Leader saw this, and readied the small linen pouch – it was held open in such a way that Ruby needed only to drop the small bronze thing into it. Halfway there Ruby extended her arms, wincing slightly – Yup. Definitely a bruise… - but kept a firm grip on the bundle nonetheless. She counted the steps as she went – twelve steps to go, twelve steps before she could turn her back on this and just forget.

Eleven steps.

Ten steps.

Nine steps.

Eight steps…

And just before she could take the seventh step, the shadows themselves came alive.

With bloodthirsty howls, the creatures of Grimm flooded into the clearing. Spittle oozed from their gaping maws and their red eyes stretched so wide they looked downright insane. Any semblance of a pack formation had been thrown right to the wind. The Beowolves wanted blood…

…and this time, Ruby realised with a loud wail, they wanted hers.

The Leader before her roared and sprang to action, closing the distance between them with three swift, lumbering steps. Its armoured arm shot outwards just as three Beowolves leapt at Ruby, and as a result their claws met dark steel instead of tender human flesh. With a loud bellow, the Leader used its arm to hurl the Beowolves out of the clearing, catching another by the leg with its free hand and using it as a club to bludgeon the other Grimm away.

Ruby panicked at the sight of the Grimm – she had hoped they wouldn't notice her, but it seemed her luck had finally come to an end. Pinning the bundle to her chest with her right hand, she moved her left to seize her scythe, so she could at least try to fight back, however poor she was at the time. Her hand, however, grasped nothing but air, and with a whine of horror Ruby realised she had left her scythe at the spot she'd recovered the orb.

Another mighty swing of the Leader's fist sent another Beowolf crashing into the woods, and its free hand had scooped up its spear. Several crescent swipes cut down the Grimm by scores, and a few more well-aimed thrusts dropped those Beowolves clever enough to know how to evade.

Despite all this, however, the Leader was quickly being overwhelmed.

With panicked breaths, Ruby scurried about, trying to evade the few Beowolves that prioritised her over the armoured warrior. She'd duck into the hollow crevices beneath the trees, scampering out the other side just as Grimm claws raked at the ground behind her, and she kept her body tensed and ready to drop to the ground at a moment's notice, evading any who took the chance to lunge at her.

But already, the adrenaline started to leave her – at the worst possible moment – and once again, fatigue and numbness set in.

Ruby's movements started getting sloppy. She'd knock her head and scrape her back whenever she dove into those nooks beneath the tree roots, and it would take her precious seconds longer to rise to her feet whenever she would evade the Grimm by dropping down. They started circling her, as though they smelled her weariness, and her tired silver eyes conveyed naught but panic as they corralled her to the centre of the clearing.

After a particularly tumultuous struggle returning to her feet, Ruby blinked tiredly – and noticed she was surrounded.

Seven Beowolves circled her, cutting off all avenues of escape, growling and snarling as they moved. She could hear the Leader behind her – if she wasn't hearing things it sounded like he had even more to deal with. Despite it all, though – despite the growing fear and fatigue, and despite feeling like she could fall over at any given moment – she still clutched the red bundle to her chest.

Her legs gave in, suddenly – her knees shook and wobbled and collapsed under her miniscule frame, and Ruby found herself kneeling almost waist deep in snow. Yet another Beowolf's disintegrating carcass flew over her as the Leader Ugly tried to fend off the insurmountable odds, but those surrounding Ruby barely paid it any mind. They kept circling her, tongues lolling about as they loosed ragged, bloodthirsty breaths.

She fumbled with the red bundle in her hands, dropping it to the ground as she worked towards re-doing her cloak. Despite the cold numbing her fingers and the panic tugging at her tiny heart, she worked deftly – or as deftly as a seven-year old could – to turn her trusty red cape and the orb held within it into something she could use, if only just to keep the Beowolves away until the Leader won his fights.

So frantic and panicked was she that she completely missed the fact she'd stopped referring to the demonic warrior as it.

A Beowolf reared back then, ready to lunge, and Ruby finished not a moment too soon – just as it surged forward, Ruby poured as much strength as her tiny self could muster into her arm, and swung the cape-and-ball combo as though it were a flail of sorts. It managed to strike the lupine beast clean on the snout, and against all odds and logic, the beast yelped and hopped back. The end of her makeshift flail thumped down into the snow, and with almost herculean effort Ruby managed to pull it back and ready for another strike.

She swung again as another Beowolf made the mistake of coming too close – what had once been whimpers and groans of terror had turned into grunts of exertions and small, adorable noises of determination, and once again those silver eyes had settled into the tiniest of frowns. A third swing dissuaded another Beowolf from coming too close, but Ruby now realised the lupine monsters were getting tired of playing games. This was made more than evident when she swung her flail for the fourth time – a Beowolf that had grown quite agitated from the cat-and-mouse tempo slashed at the hastily created weapon, and its claws raked giant openings across the red fabric.

Ruby couldn't precisely place the sound she made when she saw her beloved cloak torn apart, nor could she place the noise she made when she saw that ever-alluring bronze orb tumble to the snow.

What she did realise, without a doubt and despite the orb's hypnotic glow already taking her, was that she had been all but forgotten by the Grimm – their manic red eyes left her and locked onto the glowing sphere the moment it had left her cape's crimson constraints, and their mania seemed to increase tenfold at the sight of it. All seven of the maddened beasts leapt at once, fangs bared and claws arced, intend on reducing that bronze sphere to nothing but tiny little shards.

Several paws struck in unison…

… And with a loud tink, a single claw pierced the flimsy bronze metal – and what was once golden light shone the colour of blood.

For a fraction of a second, the orb glowed red in defiance of the attack; the sudden crimson light illuminated a sneering face engraved into the steel, a four-eyed monstrosity baring three rows of fangs at whatever being was foolish enough to strike it – and as the orb seemed to howl with rage, the light burst outwards with enough force to make a sound akin to a thunderclap.

Ruby went from smiling dreamily to screaming in surprise as a shockwave the likes of which she had only read about in tales of the Huntsmen of old erupted from the now-red sphere before her. The orb's hypnotic spell vanished as a wall of snow rose around the whirlwind of force enveloping her, and the Grimm that had once surrounded her were outright cut apart by the force before being hurled into the forest around them. The force from the sudden shockwave made Ruby's eyes water, and it was only through sheer force of will, through that adrenaline rush accompanying the realisation of renewed, perilous threat that she managed to keep her eyes open.

The crimson light intensified yet again, and to Ruby's horror she realised that the orb was slowly flaking, and cracking apart in the forest's snowy embrace. The engravings and etchings lining the bronze surface shifted and danced and moved like water – before reforming into a frowning, four-eyed face, menacingly smirking right at her.

Then she heard a laugh from the orb, and that smirk seemed to grow that much wider for it –

And there where it lay, half-buried in the snow in the eye of a phantasmal storm, the orb exploded.

Ruby's head whipped back with such force she felt the muscles in her neck getting sprained. The crimson light surged into her eyes, stinging and burning as it started blotting out her vision. Her mouth was open, she realised, but she didn't know if she was screaming – she knew only the violent pain in her eyes that cut right into her mind.

The last sight she saw before the crimson light completely swallowed her surroundings was Remnant's shattered moon hanging above her, almost sombrely.

And as Ruby Rose's mind lost itself, however briefly, to the Past, the Present and the Future…

…Creation itself bared its secrets to her.

---

It started simply, upon that familiar amber void – a single world, hovering in the nothingness, a black splotch on a blank slate. Before confused silver eyes, it drifted alone, a sumptuous place of ever-green pastures, bright blue skies, valiant mountains and the purest of cool springs.

More followed then, appearing all over Creation's canvas. She saw worlds of teeming, verdant forests and worlds of dry, unforgiving deserts. Colossal figures with hands large enough to envelop a person whole sang their ancient songs as they laid the foundations of existence itself. Under their touch, entire worlds were hewn from lifeless stone, and bleak horizons and endless stretches of nothing became beautiful under their ever-dedicated task of creating.

She saw a wondrous citadel of gold, a city so pristine, so breathtakingly beautiful its light seemed to drown out the very blackness of the ink outlining it. Towers of ivory and purest white marble rose high into the glowing clouds, and waters bright enough to appear amber in the golden light flowed through the aqueducts, its purity breathing life into greens so vibrant they complimented the golds, whites and yellows perfectly.

She saw a terrifying keep of darkest black, a stronghold adorned with spikes and chains, resembling a fortress more than anything. It seemed to intensify the shadowy ink illustrating it, swallowing anything close to light – even that stemming from the roiling fires rising from the charred and blackened world's molten blood. The sky itself was the colour of blood, red tainted by splotches of black smoke and sulphur rising from the streams of magma flowing through the dark spires.

And then she saw these two worlds clash.

All of Creation trembled as righteous light met sinister darkness in head-on combat. The reverberations of millions of weapons clashing, gold and white and blue against bone and orange and jet, shook entire realms to their cores, and the horror of this forever war was defined not by how many people suffered from it, but from how many worlds returned to the ash and nothingness they were under the endless battle swallowing every inch of creation.

Then, from amidst the ashes in the forever war's wake, life emerged from the remnants of senseless destruction and death. They were a tiny people, she saw; small and frail and afraid and confused… but their presence in Creation, despite their minute size and strength, brought about the greatest change in millennia.

She saw the armies of light and darkness desist, and the great battles of the Forever War ended upon this tiny, furtive people's birth. Swords of gold and axes of steel were implanted into the earth of the first world swallowed by the destruction of the White Towers and the Black Spires, and while there was no peace between factions, the truce ensured no wars would persist.

She saw monsters and beautiful winged beings both kneel, as the thundering of hooves echoed across the visages sketched by the shadowy ink. She saw four riders, four great warriors upon menacing steeds, charging through the warring sides with weapons bared…

…and finally she saw seven great mountains overseeing it all, each with a charred face inscribed into it. Burning fires illuminated the tunnels comprising their mouths and eyes, features set into a permanent sneer as they used the four riders to enforce the truce set in motion.

And while she was hovering in that dreamlike state, untouched by all things physical…

…Ruby Rose could have sworn she saw those seven sneering faces looking right at her.

---

With an outraged growl, the last of the Soulless in the clearing fell, and were it not for his desperation to try and salvage what little could be salvaged, the demonic General would have fallen to his knees then and there. The bark-like faceplate of his own helm was missing its left side, and both his horns had been lost in the fray – painful experiences well-suited as reminders of his own failures. With a grunt he wrenched his spear free of the last Soulless that had made the mistake of attacking him, and strode to where that terrifying storm had erupted.

Upon seeing what had caused that great storm of gale winds, his will and hope both shattered into small shards, not at all unlike the small flecks of bronze laying on the snow.

He dropped to his knees then, tossing his spear aside as he futilely grabbed handfuls of snow, hoping to gather up enough of the all-seeing artefact to at least try to put it back together – but he knew, he was merely trying to alleviate his own despair.

He had failed both his mission and his Master…

…and the punishment of cruel, inglorious death was all too certain.

A soft squeak, sounding almost pained, drew his attention from the shattered artefact, and he saw that same red-clad little human squirming off to the side. Her tiny body jerked and twitched erratically as her head lolled from side to side, and a thin line of drool leaked from the side of her mouth as her eyes rolled around in their sockets.

Her eyes…

They shone with that same golden glow the orb had shone with, the glow that could enrapture even the most tenacious of minds with envenomed promises of the secrets of time and creation itself, past, present and future. Instead of that terrible, terrible power being locked away in an artefact, a bronze prison ensuring it could harm no-one…

Now it would assail and curse the mind of a young human child.

His shoulders slumped as the last of his hope shrivelled up and died.

His negligence had created a curse – an affliction on a denizen of the Third Kingdom and an absolute violation of the Balance.

If his Master did not kill him… then the New Council would surely have him put to death.

The distant sounds of slaughter after the two Riders' arrival had died down. Even now he heard the last few desperate battles around him – undoubtedly what remained of his men had taken up arms against the Enforcers. That meant what remained of his men would soon perish – and if there were two of the Enforcers here… diplomacy was not an option.

Three possibilities could occur – and all three ended in his death.

He cursed all of creation under his breath.

Only then did he hear the snow shuffling underfoot, and only then did he see the looming shadow flowing into the moonlit clearing from the deadened trees around them. He turned to cast a baleful glare at the Enforcer sent to punish him. Black and gold clothing contrasted pale, exposed flesh, a sight almost tantalising had it not belonged to a harbinger of the End War. The woman's deep purple hair cascaded down past her shoulders, and a few stray strands hung down across her forehead and into a scowl that could put even the Mad Queen, Lilith, to shame. Full, dark lips contorted into an expression of distaste, and those eyes – they conveyed the woman's task quite clearly.

"Fury…" He muttered, exhaling. So the Rider of the Black Horse had come to slay him. Dying to something as foppish as a magical whip… What an undignified end.

"Know that I am in no mood for banter, demon," the Black Rider said, her voice fierce and venomous, and just a slight bit fatigued. "Where is the orb?"

The General snorted. After all his efforts and struggles, fleeing from the Horsemen across six realms and using tactical genius to delay them long enough to come this far… and all he warranted was a condescending tone and a sharp demand of answers. "It is lost… to both of us," he said morosely, seizing his spear and rising to his feet. He swayed a bit as he stood, but kept his posture as rigid as he could. "I hear the dying wails of my warriors and the Soulless both… What fate befalls them?"

"War deals with your men as we speak," Fury said hotly, as the clawed tips of her gauntlets swished in the cold air, and she turned her stern gaze to the small girl twitching behind the General. "The orb is 'gone' and a human girl lays spasming behind you. Explain yourself, demon – and do not dally in doing so. You have wasted enough of my time, making me pursue you this far."

The General frowned at her, but acquiesced regardless. "We were making for a world long taken by the Abyss when we fell into the Remnant of the Third Kingdom," he said honestly, forgoing the need for fabrication and deceit – they would be of little aid now. "The Soulless were drawn to the orb, and to us. They attacked the moment we landed. The girl… I know not where she came from. She was here when we arrived – an unfortunate victim of circums-"

"You are digressing, demon," Fury cut him off with a vicious tone. "Every human who gets involved with one of your kind is a victim of circumstance. Get to the point."

The General bristled, gripping his weapon ever tighter at the Rider's insulting attitude towards him. Nonetheless… he stayed his hand. Fury was the hardest of the Four to anger, but when her rage was sufficiently stoked… He knew better than to draw that power out. "One of the Soulless knocked the orb from my person," he said slowly. "The girl… She saw the orb, and laid a hand on it. Entranced, no doubt."

"The girl saw the future," Fury summarised, casting a concerned glance to the human's fallen form. Her gaze softened the slightest bit, and the gesture served only to make the General's blood boil. She spoke to him as though he was trash, but she would look at a human with such a sympathetic expression?!

"She saw a future!" The General barked, taking an aggressive step forward and bringing his weapon to bear. This display, unfortunately, barely made the Horseman look at him. It was as though he were as insignificant as a grunt… which he might as well be, before one of the Four. "You know better than anyone that 'Fate' is not absolute, Rider!" He bellowed. "'Fate' decreed that one of your brothers rotted in the Abyss and died for his crimes, while another would perish at the Well of Souls! Yet both of them live… This is no diff-"

"What did she see?" Fury cut him off again, finally turning to face him. Her scowl had returned the moment she laid eyes on him. "I found a scythe not too far from here, human-made apparently. She ran, didn't she?" the Black Rider asked. "What did she see?" She repeated.

"A possibility! One of many paths the future could have taken!" The General roared, before calming down, sighing dejectedly and covering his face with his hand. "She saw a future where I struck her down after obtaining the orb from her…" he said softly. "I would have done no such thing… But madness and terror had gripped her already. She fled, and lost the orb… One of the Soulless shattered it, and… Now she is blighted by the same curse that artefact contained… Cursed, by my own negligence."

That served to draw a response from the Rider. Her scowl all but disappeared as a look of shock and muted horror crossed her features, and her lips parted as her jaw slackened ever so slightly. The ever curt, ever dutiful Fury, rendered speechless by something the General himself had done… Truly, his failure must have been catastrophic. "I hope for your sake," she spoke, her expression suddenly becoming very, very deadly, "that this is a joke, demon…"

"It is no jest," the General spoke. The mere fact that the current circumstances could serve to draw such a seething reaction from one of the Horsemen spoke volumes of the severity of the current situation. He shivered slightly – had it been the Rider of the White Horse standing there, he would have been dead already, ingloriously executed at gunpoint. "I know not the severity of the curse that will afflict her…" he said. "But I am certain she will see visions showing her things a child of the Third Kingdom should not know."

Fury's violent expression persisted for all of a handful of seconds before she inhaled deeply, calming herself and setting her expression into its default frown. "This… is beyond my judgement now," she said softly, her normally fierce voice now restrained and tempered. "Your actions directly affect Man's Kingdom, and its denizens. You are aware of what happens now, I assume."

The General frowned at her again. He knew all too well – now, he would be brought before the New Council, shackled and weakened, where he would offer his own testimony before his inevitable execution was ordered. The New Council was a great deal more lenient than the Old, but in the same vein they were a great deal more extreme – especially regarding offenses to the Remnant of the Third Kingdom. "I know I will die like a hound, no matter what path I choose," he spoke, raged bleeding through the low octaves his voice had dropped to. "I, a General of the Second Kingdom, am to be shackled and killed like trash? No…" With a violent jerk he readied his spear, pointing its barbed tip right at the Black Rider's throat. The gesture seemed only to make her frown deepen. The barest hints of smoky black flickered across her eyes, and the claws adorning her gauntlet glinted ominously. "I will not die… like human scum!" He roared. "If I am to die… I will die a warrior's death – and you, Horseman, will be the one to grant it!"

Fury's frown evolved into a baleful sneer, and with an elegant swish of her free arm, the ever ominous pink flames of her whip sizzled to life as she kept the weapon coiled in her hand, ready to strike in any direction at less than even a fraction of a moment's notice. "So be it, demon."

That one phrase was all it took.

With a wrathful roar, the General leapt at the Rider of the Black Horse, spear poised to rip right into her heart.

---

After what seemed like an endless loop of confusing imagery and inky pictures, the tumultuous assault on her mind subsided long enough for Ruby to open her eyes again. The tears that had accumulated from the otherworldly strain blurred everything she saw, to such an extent that even the broken moon above seemed like nothing but a white splotch on black nothing. Every now and then amber would flash before her eyes as she tried to blink some form of clarity into existence, and her head throbbed agonisingly with every heartbeat.

With a pained whimper she tried to move. The snow around her had numbed her body and chilled her clothing, and the lances of pain that shot through her skull served only to make her quiver that much more. She was exhausted, laying there – even moving her fingers took effort. Gritting her teeth and paying no mind to the low moan of agony she uttered, she rolled onto her stomach and tried getting up on her knees. While her lower body responded, her upper body didn't – and she found herself with her face pressed flush into the snow despite kneeling.

That dirty blank slate that seemed like old storybook paper swallowed up the darkness her closed eyes caused, and once more the shadowy ink formed an image – a scythe, so much like Uncle Qrow's, resting in tiny pale hands as a red cloak fluttered in a non-existent breeze.

The pain ricocheted through her skull again, and with a loud yelp Ruby propped herself up on all fours, shaking her head as she tried to dispel the ache. A battle raged in the distance, and every roar and clash of steel seemed to reverberate into the very core of her mind, making her flinch as she tried to clamber up to her feet. Her vision was still blurred, seeming to make the already bright canvas of snow seem that much brighter – bright enough to make the back of her eyes ache.

Another amber flash – she saw great, multi-storeyed buildings of glass and concrete crumble and fall to the earth, and tiny, frail silhouettes ran for cover in mass panic whilst winged warriors battled horned monsters in the skies and on the ground.

She saw a courtyard in a cathedral, a perverted mockery of a holy place in a land of continuous downpour as giant bats soared overhead. A titanic bat-like creature roared in rage as a lone warrior drew a colossal blade, adorned with the sneering faces of its victims.

Another flash cleared the slate, and the ink went to work again – she saw more small silhouettes battling inside and around a colossal fortress, some seeming normal, some abnormal, sporting ears and tusks and claws and tails, and yet… their humanoid appearance was undoubted.

She saw a giant, crystalline palace in a land of eternal winter, surrounded by snowy gales and ever-persistent crows as mad mutters and insane ramblings echoed across the snowy plains, carried by the harshest, coldest winds.

Her vision cleared again, more blurred than before, and again that jolt of pain spawned in Ruby's forehead and travelled all the way down her spine – it was a wave of agony that nearly made her collapse all over again, and despite herself she failed to bite back the tortured sob that poured from her mouth. She remained there, on all fours, rolling her shoulders left and right, before bringing her one leg up and planting a foot firmly on the ground with a low, agonised growl. Her breathing was ragged, and her tiny frame shook like a leaf caught in a gale, and yet, the little girl persisted.

With a cross between a determined little bark and a yelp of pain, Ruby poured all her strength into that firmly-planted leg and propelled herself to her feet. She sudden upwards movement caused white spots to appear in her vision, and she swayed dangerously where she stood. Her eyelids felt as though they weighed a ton, and every now and then her vision would turn black, and she would come impossibly close to falling flat on her face again.

Again, the colour in her vision faded away, obscured by blank, dirty parchment and splotches of shadowy ink.

She saw a beautiful open clearing of lush greens and grey crags, trampled underfoot by a colossal warrior of stone wielding a hammer larger than she could even imagine one being.

She saw a silhouette of steel, creaking and grinding as its outstretched hand grazed ever so slightly against an inky person of flesh, a gesture which was received and returned in kind – and the steely figure seemed to glow because of it.

The canvas cleaned itself once more – she saw a crumbling ivory tower in the middle of a golden valley, its white walls tainted by fleshly blackness, as a sinister pair of scythes cut away at tumorous darkness wielding a staff so bright it nearly blinded her.

And finally she saw a tunnel – a circular, one-way track left to ruin and disarray. A train barrelled down the ill-maintained line of tracks, a wave of darkness personified nipping at its heels as it rocketed right towards a dead end…

…and in the midst of those carriages, Ruby saw a woman, clad in red and black and adorning a mask resembling a Grimm she had never seen before. With a careful yet controlled movement, a dainty hand drew a magnificent red curved blade from its sheath…

…and just as the sword telescoped outwards with an audible click, the assault of images left Ruby again.

She blinked just as something pink flew by before her vision, an audible hiss reducing snow to water and splattering… something black across the white nothingness spanning the floors of Patch's forests. An outright agonised roar shook the clearing with enough force to make Ruby stumble sideways, clutching at her ears and nearly losing her footing.

There was still a battle going on. She had to leave – quickly.

Staggering drunkenly, Ruby moved forward. Even putting one foot before the other was an almost abyssal chore, and with every step she found her eyes fluttering closed for longer periods of time. Her head ached and her body trembled, and despite herself, despite not even registering the action, her fingers seemed to arch outwards, trying to grasp the familiar, warm folds of her red cloak.

Another sizzling sound reached her ears, and another roar echoed across the clearing, but… This one was different, she noticed in her dreamy haze. The last one was angry – very angry – but this one, it sounded more… frightened, honestly. Just as her eyes fluttered closed again, the roar cut out with a sickening, almost grotesque snap – the sound was horrifying enough to make Ruby's eyes snap open. She heard something sailing through the air, and with a soft thud, a singed, charred helmet landed before her, with half its bark-like faceplate missing. It oozed black ichor, and three clear-cut punctures lined the side of the headgear.

Oh, she thought, somewhat lamely, blinking tiredly.

That was the Leader Ugly's helmet.

But that… that meant…

She pitched forwards then, almost toppling over before regaining her balance with a muted groan. Her body tipped back, and despite her fatigue and haziness Ruby found herself backpedalling in tandem in a bid to try and maintain what little balance she had. The Leader Ugly had lost, so she was in danger… wasn't she?

She finally regained some of her balance, but unfortunately for her, her silver eyes were closed far more frequently than they were open by now. She looked down dumbly, eyeing the snow through burning eyes and blurry vision. Snow was soft, right? And it wasn't like could feel the cold anymore – she couldn't feel anything anymore, to be honest.

Surely it wouldn't hurt if just… took a short nap? Just long enough to get her strength back… Then she could go home…

Yes… That sounded ideal.

That was about as far as she got. Slowly, she started tipping forwards, gazing at the snow through half-lidded eyes. Already she uttered a single, soft snore despite her eyes not even being properly closed, and then…

A loud clink met her ears as a strong embrace caught her. With a dazed, confused mumble of mixed and imaginary words, exhausted silver eyes opened a mere hint wider, just in time to catch a glint of red from their peripherals as the familiar warmth of her cloak encompassed her again. My caaaaaape… She thought childishly as a dopey smile bloomed on her face. Whoever had caught her before she fell took that opportunity to lift her tiny self out of the ankle-deep snow, and a sense of warmth so mind-numbingly blissful spread through her like wildfire.

She giggled tiredly as she was carried away, and tried snuggling further into the comforting warmth. The embrace seemed to persist even after Ruby felt herself being laid down on a warm patch of something, a few meters from where she had been picked up. Oddly enough, though, she couldn't care – she merely gripped at her cloak, spinning it tighter around herself, and cracked a single eye open to gaze at whoever gave this lovely warm feeling.

She beheld a worried woman's pale face, with black markings across her forehead and cheekbones, and a mop of purple hair framing her concerned expression. Ruby giggled sleepily again, keeping one eye open as she looked at her saviour's face as all the energy left her, replaced by that comfortably warm, contented feeling. She's pretty… is she an angel? Ruby thought hazily, her lone open eye starting to flutter closed. Then… where are her wings?

Shouldn't she have wings…?

Ruby's eye closed entirely, and dream-inducing darkness took her almost immediately.

…is she an angel?

---

With a last, almost inaudible giggle, the young red-clad girl before her drifted off to sleep, surrounded by small wisps of her wrath's dark-flamed manifestation.

Fury made sure the small, tattered red cloak was firmly affixed as she knelt beside the slumbering human child, taking painstaking care in making sure the black flames of her power didn't stray close enough to set the crimson garb alight. With a slightly fatigued sigh, she reared back and rolled her shoulders, making a face as several loud pops came from her back. Her gaze, normally cast into a perpetual frown, had softened into a look of sympathy, and the barest, barest hint of regret.

She had spent the better part of almost four decades pursuing that demon, across six separate realms. She had encountered staggering resistance – the cur had amassed every single one of his fifteen thousand warriors to try and keep her at bay and escape with that dangerous artefact.

All that effort… and it ended up like this.

She sighed again as she saw the tremors rock the small human's body anew, and deftly, her hands conjured a sharp-looking crystal glowing a relaxing shade of green. The souls of her slain enemies… She had intended for them to heal her, should the need arise. But it did not – and now this young child could use it better than the Black Rider ever could. With a single twist, Fury shattered the green gem, and watched as the emerald souls within floated down to the child with an eerie, almost distant wail.

She barely paid any mind to the heavy footsteps that stomped into the clearing to accompany her – she kept her gaze on the young human as the souls of the fallen bolstered the healing process.

"So a human girl was caught in the fray…" Fury finally turned to face the speaker as the deep voice spilled across the clearing. Clad in his usual red garb and ornate armour, War kept his hooded gaze on the girl as well, his own frown never leaving his face. The Red Rider looked no worse for wear – even after facing both scores of demons and the Soulless. "Is that why the General lies slain?"

"He attacked," Fury muttered, turning her gaze back to the human. "Claimed he wished for a 'warrior's death'."

"And instead, he was granted a fool's demise," War responded, sparing a single, condescending glance towards the demon's decapitated corpse before turning back. "The cursed artefact is lost, I take it."

"Indeed it is," Fury said, still kneeling beside the child. "It was destroyed in the battle between the demons and the Soulless. It's curse… It now blights this child's existence. I saw her eyes flashing earlier, with that same damnable light that made the blasted thing so valuable to Hell's legions." She trailed off, keeping her gaze on the child's slumbering form, before her eyes fluttered shut and she loosed an exhausted sigh. "…The Old Council would have seen this as a failure."

"Fortunate, then," War spoke, "that the Old Council's memory now rots in oblivion." Fury did not miss the hint of bitterness in her younger sibling's voice as he strode over to the General's fallen form. The Old Council was a sore spot for War – and nobody could hold him accountable, after what they did to him. The Red Rider held his giant prosthetic arm above the slain General's corpse, and the sneering face etched into it seemed to smile as the demon's soul was pulled from its body and pooled between War's fingers. With a grunt, he strode back to Fury and the fallen child, and sat on his haunches besides them both.

"…The things she will see… We cannot keep Creation, and the laws of the Balance hidden from her. She will realise, sooner or later." Fury said, looking to her brother. "… What do we do now?"

"Now," War spoke, holding the demon's soul out for her to take. "Now you take this soul to Death. Give it to him, debrief him… and go rest, sister," he said, his voice becoming just a bare hint softer. "It would seem you need it."

"And what of the girl?" Fury snapped, frowning. "Do we just leave her here?"

"I will remain," War answered, turning his gaze to the child, "until the Council has reached a verdict regarding her. They know we are not murderers, sister – the chances of them putting this girl to death are very, very low."

"You know as well as I do how extreme the New Council can be regardless, War," Fury said, a look of distaste on her face. "Man is kept unaware of the Balance, and of Creation's worlds, for a reason. What this girl will see… It could greatly threaten the Balance. We are not murderers, brother… But we are Enforcers. And last time the Council voted on inaction in the face of someone threatening the Balance…" She trailed off, remembering War's imprisonment and exile to the Third Kingdom all too well. "Would murder truly be such an extreme, in the face of preventing such a calamity again?"

"Death knows how to work with the New Council, sister," War spoke, his eyes never leaving the human child's sleeping form. "He will find a way to reach the most reasonable outcome. He always has, ever since he was bound to the Council Stone…" He said. "He has yet to fail us once, sister. Have faith – if not in the New Council, then in our brother."

Fury seemed hesitant despite her brother's words, but nonetheless complied, however unwilling she may have been. With another sigh she rose to her feet, taking the writhing soul out of War's hand and silencing it with a quick clench of her fist. She did not want to do this – she could not tell herself that enough. But War's words had truth in them – Death was nothing if not proficient when it came to dealing with the New Council.

Black light simmered behind her as her great war steed burst into existence with a loud neigh. Vengeance's appearance mirrored his owner closely – its skin was dark as night, and its tail and mane burned bright purple. The spectral steed gave his owner a look that almost seemed concerned, before shaking itself and steadying, ready to carry her forth to the Council Stone.

With a final glance towards the sleeping human, Fury shook her head and quickly mounted Vengeance, one hand gripping the reins while the other called forth her enchanted whip. The steed whinnied under Fury's familiar weight, trotting from side to side before rearing back on his hind legs and neighing loudly. Fury looked back to War, who had risen to his full intimidating height, and saw her brother nod to her once. She nodded in kind, and with a single nudge from her heels to Vengeance's sides, the stallion charged off, melting snow under his unstoppable charge.

War stood silently, unmoving in his vigil as he heard his sister's steed disappear into the distance. He caught the shadows dancing and moving from his peripheral vision, teeth bared and red eyes hungry. Frowning, the Red Rider responded in kind – his normal arm reached up and backwards, seizing Chaoseater's hilt firmly in hand, and with a single, deft moving belying the gigantic blade's tremendous weight, he brought it to bear and planted its tip into the snow, a silent challenge and warning to the Soulless who would dare try to attack his charge.

The girl had suffered enough, he thought absently. She was destined for a difficult life now, with eyes that could see into Creation's past and future blighting her soul. The Soulless would be a constant danger – she would have to face them many, many times in her life…

…But not today.

Not while he was watching.

---

"I half expected you to punish my sister… Paranoia is a tenacious beast."

With a simple flick of his wrists, the writhing spectral form of the demonic general before him evaporated, returning to that misty, wailing skull it was when Fury had brought the pathetic being's soul to him. He held fast, gazing at the despairing face carved into the soul from beneath his own skull-shaped mask, red eyes merciless and uncaring, before stowing the damned spirit away, making a note have it sent to the Kingdom of the Dead for judgement… whenever he actually bothered remembering to do so. "Forgive me. I am still getting used to seeing a merciful Charred Council," Death said dryly, looking at the seven stone faces surrounding him.

"Fury was not at fault," one of the Councillors spoke, its raspy, serpentine voice booming across the dull, dark expanse of the Council Stone. "The guilty party has been identified, judged and put to death for his actions. Had the demon not fled like a coward we would not be dealing with this matter now."

"'This matter' being the human girl cursed by the artefact Fury was tasked to retrieve," Death spoke, folding his hands behind his back. "Fury fears you will have her put to death, and War maintains a stern vigil over her until you reach a verdict. I believe Fury's fears are irrational, though… Many angels and demons have plummeted through the walls separating the Third Kingdom from Creation before, and many humans were unfortunate enough to have to meet them. Yet most of those humans were spared," he summarised. "I dare not presume to question you, but I am interested in how you will deal with this matter, if not through summary execution."

"The girl was cursed due to circumstances beyond her control," another of the Councillors spoke, this one's voice smoother, deeper. "The circumstances were beyond anyone's control, in actuality. The armies of Heaven and the legions of Hell did not march through the Tree of Life when the premature apocalypse was triggered so many centuries ago. They broke clean through the walls of the Third Kingdom, intent on making it a battleground. It is only reasonable to assume those walls have suffered… irreparable damage, under the two Kingdoms' onslaught."

"It is because of that damage," another Councillor hissed, "that the guilty party even made it into the Third Kingdom. We, as one, understand that responding to each such event with lethal force and summary punishment is unreasonable, even for the Charred Council."

"So the girl will not be punished," Death pondered, tapping a finger against the chin of his mask. "That, at least, will relieve Fury. I am not so foolish, however, to believe that the girl will be cast aside and ignored. She will, after all, be seeing glimpses of Creation's past and future. There are very few secrets she will not know, given time and the patience to decipher them, Councillors, and as much as it irks me to admit it, human Seers have a tendency of going mad."

"Madness is the least of the threats the girl's existence poses, Pale Rider," another Councillor to the far right barked at him. "Have you forgotten what happened last time a being learned of the intricacies of the Balance, and the law that upholds it? Have you forgotten how the Remnant of the Third Kingdom came to be?" It asked the Horseman. "We assume much in thinking the girl could grow up to be a threat to the balance – but it is a possibility!"

"If it's such a terrifying possibility," Death spoke with a shrug, "then I see no reason for you not to work towards averting it at all costs. Fury's report states the girl is well-meaning enough – while I will not completely ignore the possibility of her endangering the Balance in the near future," he said with a slight frown, "I will not disregard the possibility of her aiding that Balance either. She has as much a chance of going mad from her visions as she has of mastering her curse and turning it into a boon for Man's Remnants."

"Precisely," the centre-most Councillor spoke up, its gravelly voice reverberating off the stone floor beneath Death's feet. "The newly-created Seer in the Third Kingdom is a matter that warrants our attention across quite a long term, Pale Rider. We see her even now, lying curled up in the snow… There is an innocence about her, a purity in her heart – one that can either trump the curse of past and future sight… or shrivel and turn dark beneath its relentless assault. We do not know what path the future will take, Horseman. We do not know whether she will be an enemy or an ally of the Balance, or whether she will even care about it, at that."

"I take it you have reached a verdict, then?" Death asked, gazing at the seven stone faces of the new Charred Council. Their eyes and mouths lit up in unison, and remained that way for several moments, burning intensely as the seven Old Ones convened their minds and made their decision as one. Finally, the fires died down, and the centremost Councillor spoke again.

"For now, we will leave the girl be," it spoke, sounding calm and collected. "We will not take action, and we will not directly influence her life – not unless she gives us reason to. We will, however, be watching her closely. Creation cannot afford a second coming of Abbadon's foolishness or Absalom's Corruption – nor anything even remotely resembling them. Can we trust the remaining Three not to meddle in the child's life, Pale Rider?"

"I will relay your verdict immediately," Death said with a nod, turning on his heel to leave for the lower levels of the Council Stone. "I will inform my siblings to remain aware of the child's location at all times, and to keep a fair distance from her – and to keep undesirable attention away from her as well." Without another word, and without even waiting for the Council's acknowledgement of his course of action, he descended the steps. The New Council had learned well from their predecessors' mistakes, and treated the Four as actual Enforcers – not slaves or hounds to be loosed on whoever irked them. There was a mutual, grudging respect between the Pale Rider and the Seven Faces – especially after they had cleared War of all the charges he had been accused of.

Nonetheless, Death couldn't help but feel a hint of bitterness. While the Council had refrained from punishing the human girl, it had been an unknown, bittersweet victory for the little girl. While she had been spared their wrath and ire, she had not been spared their scrutiny. Her every move would be monitored and picked apart by the New Council… and the girl would be none the wiser, unless she did something foolish enough to warrant intervention from one of Death's siblings.

He sighed, almost inaudibly. That little girl had absolutely no idea how complicated her life was going to become…

…and time alone would tell how she handled those complications.

---

The verdict had been passed. The girl would be spared punishment at the Council's orders, but she would remain under close observation – that was as good a result as any, as far as the Red Rider was concerned.

War had not budged from his spot. He still stood, upright and rigid, with Chaoseater drawn and planted into the earth beside him. The Soulless had long since desisted in their attempts to prowl around and stalk the sleeping girl he stood guard over, but War knew well enough that as much as his presence terrified them, it could not purge the small island of their reign of terror. No, there was no doubt the little girl would be beset upon by those hellish creatures the moment War walked away.

He had little interest in leaving children to such grim demises – so his watch persisted, until he was certain her safety was assured.

Then he heard the voices – the loud, desperate hollers and screams of the humans trudging between the dead trees, panic-stricken and terrified as they search for the little girl slumbering at his feet. He grunted, a single, amused little noise, when he finally deciphered what they screaming. He looked down at the dark-haired, red bundle before him.

So her name is Ruby… How fitting.

It seemed her safety had indeed been assured. The humans were… less than two-hundred meters east, he deduced, and his eyes easily saw the ringleader, darting through the trees, wielding a scythe not at all dissimilar to Death's weapon of choice.

That man would be here soon – and it was best if he were not seen.

With a simple huff, he jerked Chaoseater up and returned it to its place on his back, and the face etched into his giant gauntlet glowed as the white canvas around him tainted itself a sickly orange, and in a blink, his colossal form had been swallowed by the Realm of Shadows – a place where even the most trained of human senses could not notice him. He cast a final glance at the girl's – at Ruby's smiling face, before turning on his heel and trudging off.

The Council's verdict had been clear – until such a time that it was stated otherwise, the remaining Three would keep their distance from Ruby, and ensure others followed their example… either willingly, or by force.

Still, the Red Rider couldn't stop the distasteful frown that settled on his shadowed face.

To survive an encounter with both Demon-kind and the Soulless, at such a young age, no less… That girl, Ruby, seemed to have an exceptional strength of soul.

He could only hope that soul was strong enough, to survive the trials awaiting it.

---

From the shadows, a slumbering form stirred, and two sickly glowing eyes opened as knowing set in.

Upon his fiery throne in the darkness of Shadow's Edge, the Lord of the Black Stone woke from his slumber, and an unsettling grin spread across his demonic features. The molten fires in his throne room burned ever brighter under his awakening, and their sinister glow revealed curved, sloping horns and twisted wings, seemingly attached upside-down. Sinister claws raked at the armrests of the stone throne, cutting grooves into the already coarse surface, but despite this, the demon's grin persisted.

"A seer, in the Third Kingdom…" He mused, idly scratching at the scaly, pronounced edge of his chin. He chuckled. "How peculiar. How… delightful…"

And then, without warning, the Blood Prince threw his head back, and laughed, a raucous, roaring fit of humour that echoed off the stone walls of the Black Stone. Many other demons dotting the sinister fortress were caught off-guard by their lord's sudden fit of laughter, but joined him nonetheless. After all, anything so funny that one of Hell's most powerful laughed aloud at it warranted a mirthful response.

Finally, the Lord of the Black Stone fell silent, his red gaze seemingly glaring across time and space.

"Ruby Rose…" Samael spoke, rolling the name around in his mouth with a smirk. "I do so hope you are more entertaining than your predecessor…"

---

A/N: Aaaaand we're done.

So yes. This is a Seer!Ruby AU. Somewhat, at least - given that this is a crossover with Darksiders, after all, it's not necessarily going to be that simple.

So this chapter, I hope, has cleared up a few things - namely the 'new' Charred Council, the damage to the Third Kingdom and the walls cordoning it off from Creation, what the world of Remnant is a... well, a Remnant of, and other such nifty things.

Fun fact: This was originally supposed to be a simple 4000-word prologue. That plan went to hell the minute I actually started writing it.

Not much else to say, other than the fact that I hope this was an enjoyable read well worth sifting through almost 17 000 words to finish. Yeah, sorry about that... I've tried to write small chapters before. That was a spectacle to see.

Once more, a very hearty word of thanks to Unseen Lurker and his story that inspired this one - if you have yet to go read "Of Red Petals and Black Feathers" I humbly suggest you do it now. It is, in my opinion, one of the best RWBY crossovers on this site.

And on that same note, thank you, readers, for taking the time to read this chapter. I can only hope it was worth your time :)

So until Chapter 2, I guess!

Cheerio!
-Chaos