A/N: THE LAST FRONT HAS BEEN CANCELED
Raven Branwen sat in her tent, peacefully sipping from her cup of tea. She then set the teacup down on the table in front of her as she drifted into her thoughts. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out an old picture of her former team, Team STRQ (Stark). She stared at the picture for a moment, thinking about her teammates, Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao Long, thinking of them made her deep down regret leaving her former lover.
Then her eyes set on her twin brother, Qrow. She grits her teeth as she looked at him. He abandoned his family, his tribe, and his own sister to an immortal reincarnate that watched over the teachings of the future Huntsmen and Huntresses in-training in Beacon Academy, Headmaster Ozpin.
After the man told her team and herself about the real threat of Remnant, Salem, and gifting her brother and herself the ability to shapeshift into birds (of their respective names), she soon saw the true horrors of the world and developed a mentality of, "the weak die, the strong live." and she lived true to those words when she abandoned her lover and newborn child, Yang.
Her eyes then wandered to Taiyang once again, thinking of her daughter. It has been weeks since she had checked up on them, she thought to herself that it was about time that she did. She put away the photo, picked up her Nevermore mask from the table, and grabbed her nodachi and Dust blade revolver sheath.
Raven wore a shallow cut black and red dress with black shorts underneath. She wore a series of beaded necklaces around her neck and a belt that wraps around her waist that carries her weapon's sheath. Attached to it is a long cloth ornated with a bokay of black feathers with a red and white bandana material like hanging from behind her. Her forearms bear red armored gauntlets that protrude outwards and black fingerless gloves. She wore black mid-thigh high leggings with red splatter patterns and black heels. Lastly, she had long black hair and bright red eyes
She fixes her Nevermore mask over her face, concealing her identity from the prying eyes of the outside world. With one swift motion, she pulled her nodachi from its sheath revealing a blood red Dust blade that is longer than its sheath's size. As she removed the blade from its sheath, she swung the nodachi up vertically, ripping a portal in the fabric of space and time, leading to her former lover and daughter, Taiyang Xiao Long and Yang Xiao Long. She entered the red swirling portal casually leaving the tribe to its own devices while she was gone.
The Island of Patch …
As she emerged from the other side of the portal she was welcomed by the lush wilderness of the Island of Patch. An island just outside the kingdom of Vale, teaming with the beautiful wildlife of Remnant, and the not so beautiful wildlife. Other than the usual deer and rabbit people see, the woods of Patch is filled with the dark creatures of Grimm. The Grimm are a race of creatures made of pure darkness with no souls that strive for nothing but the extinction of every living thing on Remanent. These creatures are made by the dark witch named Salem, an immortal being that once used to be one of the first humans created by the twin brother gods. Though after a devastating incident, she was transformed into a dark entity when she cast herself into the pools of Grimm. At first, her original plan when she cast herself into the dark pool was to kill herself, ending her immortal life to once again be with her lover, Ozma, who present day named Ozpin.
She looked left and right seeing if there was anyone around to see her. She was happy to see that there was no one around to see her appear from the portal. She sheathed her nodachi and spread her arms out and propelled herself forward. As she reached an altitude of one inch off of the ground she was engulfed in a storm of black feathers. When the storm subsided, Raven Branwen was replaced by a black raven with red eyes (kinda ironic that she turned into a raven when her name is Raven). She soared above the lush forest flying north of Patch to a log cabin in the middle of the woods.
Soon as the cabin came into view, Raven dived down into a tree that was outside of a window on the left side of the cabin.
The cabin was more of a house you could say. The house is a two-story log cabin with what appears to be a sheet metal roof in dull red with astonishing additions to the exterior. She peered into the window to see Taiyang bouncing a two-year-old Yang on his lap.
Taiyang was a blonde messy haired man in his early twenties with tanned skin, with a soul patch under his lip and stubble around his jawline. He wore a pair of brown shorts, black shoes, and a tan dress shirt beneath a leather vest. A red bandana adorned his left arm with a single shoulder pad, leather vambrace and a fingerless glove on his right, said arm also has a tattoo of a heart.
Yang was a two-year-old girl with long frilly blonde hair that was tied into two long pigtails, bright lilac eyes, and a cherry expression always present on her face. she wore a beige T-shirt with puffy sleeves and brown cuffs, an orange belt fastened around her waist
She could hear him making very poor imitations of a horse as he bounced his leg up and down with Yang laughing at his horse sounds and being bounced. Seeing this made Raven crack a smile which was very rare for the former Huntress (well as much as a Raven can smile … can ravens even smile?)
"Neaghh! Phew, okay, Yang … daddy is pooped, why don't you go see your mother, I think she's done baking the cookies," said Taiyang
"YAY! COOKIES!" yelled Yang as she crawled off of Tai's lap and ran to the kitchen.
"What? Mother? What are you talking about Tai? I don't even live here anymore, and I can't even bake a single thing without setting the house on fire. Much-less bake cookies-" Raven thought to herself before she caught the scent of chocolate chip cookies, the smell was heavenly and familiar. She hasn't smelled that kind of smell of chocolate chip cookies since Beacon.
"Wait! Since Beacon, could he?" she thought
She flew over to the window outside of the kitchen and peered inside with anxious eyes, hoping to confirm that her suspicions were wrong. She was heartbroken when her suspicions were confirmed. In the kitchen was a woman with black hair with crimson red dyed ends in her early twenties with pale skin. She wore a black tee-shirt with a red scattering rose emblem printed in the center, a white kitchen apron, a skirt, black jeans, and black leather combat boots with red laces. The most noticeable feature about her was her silver eyes. This was Summer Rose, the former leader of team STRQ and now the wife of Taiyang Xiao Long and stepmother of Yang Xiao Long.
She opened the window and set the pan of fresh chocolate chip cookies. The steam rising from them filling the air with their sweet scent bound to attract the noses of wild animals hoping to have a sweet treat, and possibly Grimm. In the event that this does happen, Summer has her various knives tucked away in varying places on her if any creatures dare to steal her baked goods.
"Mommy!" said Yang as she ran into the room.
"Yang," said Summer as she turned to face her step-daughter.
Raven's eyes widened to see what has become of Summer. She couldn't see it at first due to the light bouncing off of the white apron in into her eyes, concealing her lower appearance. Her stomach was swollen to the size of a grapefruit, signifying that she was pregnant.
Raven has been gone for two years and Tai has remarried and is expecting another child, and worst of all, the person that carried his unborn child was his team leader and her friend. This made Raven's blood boil, her beak clinched at this site as a small fire as ablaze in her eyes.
"Taiyang Xiao Long, you soft-hearted son of a bitch, I leave you with our daughter and you remarry to Summer and got her pregnant! I have ought to bust your balls and torture you in front of Summer to teach you a lesson for remarrying to your team leader!" Raven mentally screamed at Tai as he hugged Summer and kissed her making Raven mentally rage even more.
In the back of Raven's mind, her conscience was telling her that she has no one else to blame for Tai remarrying Summer but herself. She left for a reason, even if it wasn't a justifiable reason. She just upped and left right after Yang was born.
Her rage was skyrocketing through the roof now, she needed to remove herself from the area before she does something that she would regret. She flew off from the tree and made her way back to Anima.
Given to her semblance to open portals to people that she has made a bond with it would have been easier to just open one back to the tribe. But she hasn't made any sort of bond with anyone there yet, the only people that she had made a bond with was Tai, Summer, Qrow, and Yang.
As she flew further away from the house, she began to cry.
Four Days Later…
As Raven approached Anima, she touched down to the ground for a short break. While portals would make a week-long trip into a second long trip would be useful, the long trip also helped Raven gain better control over her bird form. She rested her back against a tree and took out a flask of water out of her outfit and downed the contents but it was not enough to quench her thirst. She looked around for a lake or a stream even to refill her flask. She wandered around the forest a bit to find a small stream. She scooped her flask through the water refilling it near the top. She screwed the lid back on when she heard a twig snap. Her head shot up and her hand went for her nodachi.
She scanned the area for the source of the sound. She could not find anything at first until her eyes caught a figure covered in grey tainted armor. She did not know what to think at first but she did not know what this thing could do. She changed into her corvid form and perched herself on a tree branch and watched the figure step out into the open.
When the figure fully emerged from the brush, she saw that it was a man. He was clad in grey tainted armor, the skull of an unknown creature strapped to his right shoulder, a camo green, and black tattered cloak and hood covered most of his head and eyes, a sickly pale green rose adorned on the neck of his cloak with thorns protruding from the cut stem, he wore a mask that covered the lower part of his face with an aging bandana that covered his mask, his eyes could be partially seen from under the veil of his cloak they were a sickly green color with a slight hue coming from them.
The man bent down to the river and cupped his right-hand gathering water in it and held it to his masked face. Raven could hear slurping from the man as he consumed the water through his mask.
"How can he do that?" Raven thought to herself.
The man looked up to her and chuckled in a dark tone that sent shivers down Raven's spine. The chuckle was filled with such darkness and emptiness, his voice felt cold as he spoke.
"Well, I see now that this new world truly does have eyes everywhere," said the hooded man. He looked up at Raven and tilted his head slightly like a curious puppy. "What do you seek … spy!" yelled the armored man as he pulled out a jagged pistol that was smoking a pale green mist from the barrel of the gun. He squeezed the trigger of the pistol and a barbed bullet spit out from the barrel of the gun, leaving a black and green trail behind it as the bullet cut through the air.
The knife/bullet grazed Raven's left wing as she tried to evade the cannon fire from the stranger. She fell to the ground and transformed back into a human. She looked at her left arm to see that the sleeve of her red dress to see that the material has been ripped, revealing a shallow gash in her arm.
"That attack ripped right through my aura! But how? Is his cannon that powerful?" she thought to herself.
The gash started to sprout black, vein-like lines crawling to the rest of her arm. A sudden bout of nausea overcame her as the arm that she was shot with began to convulse violently. She stumbled back, trying to distance herself from the armored stranger.
The stranger stood up revealing his height to Raven. He roughly stood at a height of six foot six with a muscular build to him. He approached Raven with a flabberghasted look in his eyes. "Well, I was not expecting this kind of ability from the wildlife of this world. Now tell me, creature … what are you?" asked the stranger in a dark tone.
Raven panicked, just looking into the stranger's eyes sent shivers down her spine. She could feel the dark power radiating off of him, burning the air. She made a swift motion to grab her Japanese nodachi and swung it at the stranger's throat.
The stranger saw the Japanese nodachi the moment he got close to Raven but he did not see how fast she grabbed it and pulled it from its sheath. He raised his bone armored arm to block the striking nodachi in the nick of time. The red blade buried itself into the bone of the thrall armor deep. Raven struggled to remove the blade from its victim, and the stranger took advantage of this predicament.
He swung his arm to the sky, uppercut Raven while snapping the red blade in half. She was sent six feet back before she hit the ground with a grunt. She looked at her now broken Fire Dust blade and growled at how this stranger broke it so easily. She ejected the broken blade and sheathed the hilt back into its scabbard. The revolver mechanism activated as the mouth of the blades' insertion entered the sheath. She pressed a purple button on the hilt's guard commanding the revolver tool in her sheath to insert a black Dust blade (Gravity). She whipped the newly inserted blade out of its sheath twirling it in a circular motion with expert movement.
She looked at the grass and saw a weed with white petals and detailed leaves. This plant/weed was called nymphs weed, a great counterbalance to any poison in existence while not entirely curing the symptoms but able to halt them.
She ripped a few stems from the plant and mashed them in her palm with her nodachis' hilt crushing the weed into a green clump and threw it into her mouth swallowing it. Instant relief washed over her as the weed slide down her throat. The dark veins stopped spreading to the rest of her body. The nausea and convulsing have stopped making it easier for her to stand steadily.
She looked at the stranger with hate in her eyes and pointed the blade of her nodachi at him. "I don't know who you are, or what you are, but you have made a grave mistake choosing to attack me," said Raven launching herself at the stranger.
The stranger fired his jagged cannon at Raven again that would make dead contact with her head and chest. She swiped the bullets/knives out of her way. The poison started to take effect again as Raven deflected the bullets/knives with her nodachi.
"What the hell kind of weapon is that he has?" thought Raven as she shrugged off the poison letting the still digesting Nymphs weed handle the poison.
The stranger struck out with his heel aiming for Raven's temple. She quickly dodged the kick by ducking under it but the stranger placed his hands on the ground, making them act as feet. The stranger's legs flowed around Raven's guard as if they were arms as they kicked and blocked.
The stranger was too close in Raven's for her to properly use her nodachi against him as she was forced to use her blade as an impromptu shield against the stranger's barrage of kicks.
The nodachi then retracted itself and was now the same size of a standard katana, allowing Raven to have more room to maneuver the blade. She swung her now shortened nodachi up to catch the stranger in the torso for a debilitating strike. As she was about to deliver the devastating blow to her attacker, his leg hooked around her sword arm and used it as leverage to deliver a crippling kick to her chest with his other leg while arresting her sword arm.
In the nick of time, Raven brought up her injured arm to block the kick with her forearm, letting her gauntlet absorb the blow. At the moment, the stranger lacked stable footing against Raven, causing his kick to barely fraze Raven's arm.
The stranger pushed himself off the ground to narrowly avoid the retaliatory swipe of Raven's blade making him land back on his feet some distance away from Raven. Raven flicked her nodachi as she tilted her head a bit with a smug smile present under her mask, pleased by what she has done to her opponent.
This manner caused the stranger to look down to where Raven was looking. He lifted the hem of his cloak to see that it has received a long cut, seeing how close Raven was to hitting him. The stranger was obviously aggravated by the damage that has come to his already worn cloak.
In response, the stranger raised his free hand to show Raven what he had managed to grab during their brief exchange of deadly blows. He held a feathery object that hung from the right side of Raven's skirt. This caused Raven to stiffen at the sight of what the stranger had acquired.
This hesitation gave the stranger the amount of time he needed to end this fight here and now. In a matter of seconds, he was in front of Raven striking her in the stomach with a punch that felt like a freight train crashing into her. He gracefully ducked under a swipe from Raven's blade and appeared to her right repeatedly delivering punch after punch to her side and ended that attack with a crippling blow into her armpit, causing her to scream out in pain.
Raven tried to retaliate against the stranger but to no avail. When he delivered the blow to her armpit, he struck a cluster of nerves overwhelming her senses in her arm causing her to drop her nodachi sword.
The stranger kicked the back of her locked knees knocking her down. He brought up his thorny weapon to the side of her head and rested his finger on the trigger.
Raven started to remember everything that she had gone through in her life. When she and Qrow made it into Beacon to train to be Huntsmen (or to train to kill Huntsmen), when they met Summer and Taiyang, when they were labeled as team STRQ (Stark), becoming friends with their two new teammates, their years at Beacon together, when Ozpin told them about the threat of Salem, when she married Tai and had Yang (kind of funny how she's named), and when she assumed control over the Branwen tribe as their leader.
She then remembered her rule, "The weak die, the strong live." she was not weak, she was strong, and therefore … the strong shall LIVE! She grabbed a blade from her belt and thrust it into the stranger's wrist, causing dark red blood to spill out like a waterfall. He screamed out in pain and dropped his weapon. Raven seized the weapon and snatched it from the ground, but the moment she did her mind was overwhelmed with hundreds of dark whispers, her vision was filled with the countless murders this weapon has caused, the sorrow that it held.
Then a loud long whisper filled her ears, it was spoken in the stranger's voice, "It held no petals: only the jagged purpose of angry thorns!"
She dropped the weapon and fell to her knees once more grabbing her head screaming in pain. The whispers would not leave her. She then felt a shadow being cast over her, she looked up to see the stranger staring down at her. He could see her teary red eyes through the slits in her mask. He bent down and picked up the cursed weapon. She could still see his blood pouring from the wound she made. As he picked up the gun, two crevasses in the barrel of the gun started to glow a deathly green when the handle of it made contact with the stranger's blood, letting out more dark whispers. She screamed in response to the recent whispers.
Her head felt like it was about to explode from the millions of whispers being spoken. The stranger looked at her as she screamed in agony. He looked to his gun then back to Raven.
"You hear the whispers too now?" said the stranger
Raven nodded her head as the stranger said this.
"Well, it seems now that you have been enlightened by the Mark of the Devourer," said the man, "Thus … I shall not kill you, but free you from the whispers. Would you like that?" asked the stranger with curiosity dripping from his teeth.
"YES!" screamed Raven
"Very well," said the stranger
He stretched out his hand that held his gun and jostled open the chamber emptying it. He shut the chamber back into the gun and placed the barrel of it against Raven's temple. She could feel the whispers being siphoned out of her mind but as this was happening, she was seeing flashes of a separate life, the stranger's life.
He was once a man clad in pearl white and gold trimmed armor with golden roses imprinted on his gauntlets and his cloak, with one beautiful red, rose-adorned on the neck of his cloak, with a golden helmet with a green visor. She saw that people loved him, that he was a hero, a protector. Then he was then placed on the moon.
"The moon!? Impossible, off-Remanent travel is to be proven impossible. Dust only works within the atmosphere of Remnant, it is useless outside of our planet, how did he get there?" she thought to herself.
He faced a temple with glowing green runes that chilled her to the bone. At the entrance of the temple was a monster covered in bone floating two feet off the ground. It chanted a dark hymn to the stranger, he then entered the temple. She could not see what happened inside the temple, but when the stranger came out she knew that he was different.
When he returned to Remnant, he took his gun which also had a rose imprinted on the barrel of it, he took a collection of bones from his belt and infused them to his gun, turning it into the nightmare that it is now. She saw the man slowly change over time until he became the stranger that he is today.
Next, she saw him talking to a floating collection of triangular parts with a single glowing blue eye. They spoke endlessly,
"You were not always this man," said the little light
"True," said the stranger
"Then the math says you do not need to remain this man. You can be other," said the little light
"I am other," said the stranger
"You can be better," said the little light
"This is better," said the stranger
"That matter, at best, is subjective," said the little light
"Then what? Lesser," said the stranger
"Some would say," said the little light
"But what would you say?" said the stranger
There was a brief silence between the two as the sun started to set over the horizon. The more it set, the more Raven could see of the landscape. This was not Remnant in any shape or form, this was somewhere else. There was red sand everywhere, decaying buildings scattered across the hills in the distance, and smoke billowing from a military base with heavy artillery cannons that puts Atlas's defense ordinance to shame.
"All we've seen and now, here with me, you have no words." said the stranger
"I have words," said the little light
"But...?" said the stranger tilting his head to the little light waiting for his response.
"But you will not like them," said the little light
"There is much I do not like," said the stranger turned his attention back to the sunset, acting that he has no care towards the object.
"More now than ever it would seem," said the little light
"Heh," said the stranger
"I find no laughing matter in your path," said the little light
"Only in the journey," said the stranger
"What brought you here was nobility," said the little light
"And my prize," said the stranger brandishing his jagged weapon as it smoked its deathly green aura.
"That is no prize," said the little light with spiteful hate in its robotic tone.
"A curse then?" said the stranger holstering his gun.
"I would say," the little light agreed with him.
"And I would disagree," said the stranger
"You are no longer yourself," said the little light sounding concerned and worried for the stranger.
"Do they hold a bond of some sort?" thought Raven
"I am myself. It's who I was that's gone," said the stranger angrily
"Who you were held all the value," said the little light with a voice of encouragement
"To you," disagreed the stranger
"To the Light." said the little light sounding so filled with pride at mentioning that word.
Raven pondered on what this so-called Light was, and why the little machine said it with such importance? She would have to listen more.
"The Light…" said the stranger scoffing at that word.
"It is all," said the little light
"It is nothing but a crutch." snapped the stranger with venom dripping from his tone.
"One that has held you up," confirmed the little light
"Only just. And nothing more," scowled the stranger
"Nothing more? You were a hero," said the little light with sorrow in his voice
"And yet people still die. Corruption still exists. Light still fades. And Darkness still spreads." snapped the stranger.
"As it will ever be, that doesn't mean you give in to…"
"To what? Hope." scoffed the stranger
"This is not hope," said the little light
"This is peace," calmly said the stranger
"You have blood on your hands," cried the little light
"How's that any different than prior?" asked the stranger
"Innocent blood," growled the little light
"Matter of perspective," said the stranger possibly grinning under his mask
"That's the shadow talking," said the little light
"And am I not," asked the stranger
"The shadow?" said the little light sounding shocked
"Ya know... These past cycles, you've made an honorable effort. Tried your best to correct my course. But I don't know it needs correcting," said the stranger disregarding the little light's helpful actions.
"And if it does?" demanded the little light
"Could be too late," said the stranger
"'Could be' is a winding path," said the little light
"Long way from where I was to where I'm going," said the stranger
"That is my hope. That there is still time," said the little light
"For?" the stranger asked
"Corrective measures. The righting of our path. The cleansing of your shadow and a return to the Light." said the little light.
There was a long silence between the two again. This stranger was obviously a dangerous man now. Fallen from grace you could say, has given into the shadows of sin than staying on the right path. Raven could now see this in her own actions, this man had become a coward like her. She was told of the dark powers of the Grimm and their leader, Salem, and she ran from it. Abandoning her newborn daughter and her husband to protect her tribe.
"Why'd you pick me?" asked the man
"It doesn't work that way," said the little light
"Was I special?" asked the stranger
"You were," said the little light (Keyword: were)
"But only as special as any other," said the stranger
"You are all special," said the little light
"There's more of them?!" exclaimed Raven
"Seems to contradict the word don't it," said the stranger
"Not in my estimation," said the little light
"If we're all special, are any of us special?" asked the stranger
"Is that what you want? To be special?" said the little light now starting to become angry
"Heh,"
"You dismiss, but it's a very serious question. Is that all you're after? Is all of the death worth that badge?" asked the little light
"Am I not already more than the rest?" asked the stranger
"Looking at you here, now. The smoke, ash and bone at your feet mark you as so much less," said the little light
"Maybe. And yet here you are," said the stranger
"Meaning?" asked the little light
"You have been at my side every step of the way," said the stranger
"Where else would I be?" asked the little light sounding curious to where this is going
"Yet you disagree so thoroughly with my change in perspective," said the stranger
"If only the change was simply one of perspective. Your "evolution" was no choice. This is not you having come to an understanding after careful considered thought. This is corruption." exclaimed the little light
"The shadows?" asked the stranger
"The Darkness," said the little light spitting that word out like it was poison
"Maybe so," grumbled the stranger
"There is no maybe here," said the little light
"And you think you can save me?" said the stranger
"I rekindled your Light, it falls first to me to aid in its survival," said the little light
There was another long silence. Whatever is going on in that stranger's mind, it must be the man he uses to be trying to reemerge from the abyss he has fallen into.
"I tire of it," said the stranger in a tone of pain. Like something is trying to break free.
"You must try…" said the little light hoping that this is his former partner trying to take back control. But he was too hopeful.
"I tire of you," said the stranger
"... Rezyl," said the little light saying his name.
"That is no longer my name," growled the stranger as the little light spoke his name.
"I will not speak the other," said the little light
"It doesn't matter. This is where we part ways," said the stranger
"I will not leave you," shouted the little light sounding like he is on the verge of tears
"I am leaving you," said the stranger
"Without me, your journey ahead will be more than any one Guardian can handle," said the little light with a shaky voice
"That's the point. It's been sometime since you saw me as worthy of walking among those I once called brother and sister. Yet... anymore, I feel as though I am worthy of so much more," said the stranger
"Without me... You will die," cried the little light snuggling into the crook of the stranger's neck. He simply ignored the object and continued to stare off into the darkening skies.
"Someday. Won't be the first time," said the stranger
There was utter silence, even Raven didn't dare to breathe. It air had so much tension in it that you could cut through it with a knife.
"Consider this my last good deed. I am releasing you of the burden of my deeds, both done and yet to come," said the stranger
"I will not abandon you," said the little light with confidence
"You will. Or I will carve the Light from your shell and leave the carcass of my first and last friend in the dirt of this dull, red world for no one to find," snapped the stranger
"Then I've failed you, completely," sobbed the little light
"Not me. Maybe the man I was," said the stranger
"He is truly dead," said the sobbing little light
"I believe so," said the stranger turning his attention to the skies as a spaceship past over
"Holy Oum! Was that a spaceship!?" exclaimed Raven as she pointed at the jump ship soaring over the decaying city of Mars.
"Belief is not fact," exclaimed the little light
"Semantics I no longer have the patience for," said the stranger
Silence once more.
"When you speak of me, use my proper name. Tell them of the man that stands before you, not the ghost of the hero I once was," growled the stranger
"You will always be a hero to me," said the little light
"If you cannot let that man go, you will forever taint his legacy. All the good I have ever done will be washed away in the fire of who I have become," snapped the stranger
"If you care, there is still some promise within you," said the little light
"If I am being honest, I care only to give hope to the frightened, huddled masses so that when I come upon them they will have more to lose. Their pain will be greater. Their screams more pure," growled the stranger
"You…"
"Nothing dies like hope. I cherish it," said the stranger, forever imprinting this past conversation into Raven's mind
"You're a monster," gasped the little light, terrified by what his former friend had just spoke.
"Finally, you see the truth," said the stranger
"Then Rezyl Azzir … is truly dead," said the little light
"So I've said. Long live Dredgen Yor," said the now named man.
"This is farewell, but you can only run from your sins so far. In the end, you will die alone," the little light growled at Dredgen Yor
"Maybe so. But I gotta tell ya... I tend to like my odds," said Dredgen Yor
"Your tainted "Rose" will not always save you," said the little light
"Old friend... It already has," said Dredgen Yor
The memory went dark and the rest of the horrors that the man had experienced and caused during his second life washed into Raven's mind. She soon passed out due to what she has just witnessed and as Dredgen Yor have fully removed the whispers from her mind. He looked down at her with a grin under his mask. He picked up the unconscious Raven in a bridal lift and carried her away to his campsite.
One week later…
Raven finally started to wake from her slumber. As she opened her eyes, she thought about getting some of that tea she favored but as her eyes saw where she was, she panicked. She tried to move but was stricken with unbearable pain in her left arm. She looked down at it and saw that it was in a cast. It was soaked through with an inky black and green substance that disgusted her. She also noticed that she was dressed in some old casual wear that was two sizes too big for her and smelled of age. She looked for her clothing and her weapon, she fanned her eyes around the campsite, but her sight caught sight of something more interesting than her wears.
There was a giant space ship that was clad in rock and bone, panels were ripped off or torn to pieces entirely. There were crates that were colored in military green and some that were white and bore the logo of the Schee Dust Company on them. She was curious about how she got here and how there are crates that belong to the SDC in the middle of the forest of Anima.
She then heard the crunching of heavy boots against the soil of Remnant and the sound of metal hitting metal. It must have been her attacker, Dredgen Yor. She did not want to become his next victim, she shut her eyes and assumed her previous sleeping position to the best of her ability.
As Dredgen Yor entered the premises of the camp he set down a dear's carcass and tossed four logs into the fire. He then made his way over to Raven and rested the back of his hand against her forehead, placing a damp cloth on her. He then went to his ship to retrieve something.
"This is my chance, I must escape from this place while I can," thought Raven as she pushed herself out of her makeshift bed. She ignored the pain from her muscles screaming at her to lie down, she grabbed her clothes and nodachi and ran into the forest.
She ran as far as she could until her legs gave out and collapsed she struggled to get back up and prop herself against a tree. She looked down at the cast and then decided to peel back the bandage. What she saw underneath it almost made her sick. The gash in her arm looked like she was stung by a scorpion fanus, the black veins have been pulled back close to the gash, but the gash itself was another story. It has now been outlined with cracked black skin and puking out black and green ooze that resembles ink flowing from a machine. She started to hyperventilate at the sight of this. Negative emotions started to pour into her, all directed at Dredgen Yor for doing this to her she might possibly never recover from this wound, even with the help of her Aura. She needed to calm herself down, if she didn't take control of her emotions soon, she could attract the presence of the …
RROOOAARRR!
Grimm.
Out of the shadows of the forest came a pack of Beowolves. The midnight black creatures clad in bone armor and spines sticking out of its arms and back with red and yellow eyes. Its teeth bared as its saliva dripping vigorously from its mouth, hunger for the flesh of humans and fanus.
Raven thought that she could transform into her corvid form and fly off the safety, but was a flawed plan since her arm as a raven served as a wing. She was doomed but she would not go down without a fight. She drew her nodachi and assumed a poor fighting stance. She readied herself for the worse that these grim could throw at her. The first Beowulf lunged at her as she maneuvered out of its way and impaled its back with her blade pulling it towards her slicing it open. She moved on to the next one and made a downward motion with her sword and releasing the Beowolf's head from its shoulders. When she went onto the next one, it slashed her left shoulder bringing her aura down to half. She growled at this and impaled the Beowolf through the skull and kicked an attacking Beowulf from behind her as she ripped the blade from the deceased Grimm as it started to fade away into ash.
She was soon overwhelmed by the onslaught of Grimm. She was struggling to keep her emotions in check hoping to not attract anymore Grimm than she needed. Her plan ultimately failed. A mighty Ursa Major emerged from the brush sensing Raven's negativity. It roared into the sky and swiped its enormous claws at Raven. She was unable to dodge the attack from the Ursa in time and resulted in her being sent flying into a tree. She slumped to the ground, aura depleted and severely wounded. This was the end of her, she wished she could have seen Yang just one last time before her demise.
She looked up and saw the Ursa Major as it towered over her growling at her person. She closed her eyes accepting her fate as the Grimm raised its claws to kill her. She was prepared to enter the gates of Hell.
BANG
She opened her eyes to see the Ursa Major freeze in mid-attack. It started to smoke a sickly green smoke from its person. It then started to dissolve from existence, revealing its killer.
She could feel the darkness and negativity radiating off of him. His Thorn pointed to where the Ursa once stood. The barrel of the gun smoking wisps of green smoke. The Grimm was at a standstill, feeling the power of the Dredgen. He lowed the gun and looked at the surrounding Grimm. She nodded his head as if to show his satisfaction to the creatures of Darkness.
"Such hate. Such … evil," he said the last word savoring it in his mouth as if it was a tasty sweet, "I love it," he growled
A Grimm charged at him, claws bared ready to strike. Dredgen Yor easily sidestepped the Gimm and groaned as if he was boarded with the creature. He raised his gun with swift speed that it was a blur to the human eye. He squeezed the trigger and a barbed bullet spewed from the mouth of Thorn, tearing clean through the Grimm then burying into the trunk of a tree. He exterminated the rest of the Grimm with calm wrath that shook Raven down to the bone. The crying and yelps of the Grimm rang out into the night, frightening nearby Huntsmen and Huntresses as they heard the cries.
Dark blood was splattered across the area, ash swirled in the air, fear was stilled in the bones of the Grimm, now fearing the gunslinger of darkness.
Dredgen Yor breathed heavily, feeling the adrenaline rushing through his veins. He turned his attention back to Raven who was shaken by the prowess that he presented. He started to stride over to her. She was too stricken to move or crawl away.
He bent down to her level and looked her in the eye. Sickening green meeting wrathful crimson.
"... Why did you run?" he finally asked
"What?" she said confused by his sudden calmness and caring in his voice.
"I said, why did you run?" he asked, "Raven?"