Creeping Thorns

Fall

Hello! Welcome. I recommend pulling up a playlist filled to the brim with RWBY OST, because I reference the songs as though they were currently playing. A lot. It's kind of my thing for this story. Yeah...

Anyway, hope you enjoy it!

In Remnant, there is only one real truth.

Long before Man had ever discovered Dust, long before the shattering of the Moon and the rise of the Kingdoms, there was only Humanity's desperate, vicious fight to survive, and the Grimm. They lurked in every shadow, haunted every night, and plagued the corners of man's mind and soul.

One common legend explains why. Long ago, there was a village that was especially unfortunate, being fraught with Grimm attacks that only grew in ferocity as years went by. One by one, the villagers fell, and despair grew in the hearts of man. Eventually, it's inhabitants sought refuge in other villages. Then one by one, the villagers around them succumbed to the same fate, and despair grew further still. Desperation came next, as word spread, and the survivors were barred entry from other villages, hailed as a cursed blight on Humanity. When hunger set in, Man's soul had already twisted into something unrecognisable. Brothers spilled the blood of brothers, all to sustain themselves at the expense of others. Other villages, seeing the bloodshed, shored themselves up against others. Tensions grew as resources became scarcer, the trade between villages diminishing to nothing. As famine set in, so did disease, mistrust, and hate. The most vicious villages smelled blood in the water, and then there was only War.

Man had become his own worst enemy. At a time that he needed to stand united, stronger than ever, the Grimm dwelling in the hearts of man struck first. This spiral did not, could not, last forever.

When the Grimm returned, it was to dust and ashes. A lone woman stood amongst the death and ruin, silent as the grave. Then the Witch strode forward into the crowd of Grimm, bearing a head full of striking white hair, and laughed. She commanded they kneel, so it was done. They had been following her orders all this time, crippling the Humans with a few key strikes to set them against themselves. At this point, many stories diverge. Some say she still roams with an ever growing horde of Grimm, consuming all life in her wake. Others say she rules from a dark throne beyond the mortal plane, controlling the Grimm like puppets, manipulating Man into petty conflict to weaken them. A handful say that she is a myth, and nothing more.

There is often no reason to believe the whole legend, but one thing is certain. That somewhere, at some point, at some time, the story began for a reason. Some truth, be it cautionary or literal, grounds the story in reality. And if it is only a sliver of truth that remains after centuries of retelling, then let it be there was once a girl who was like Grimm. And not that there remains a creature beyond Human understanding manipulating us like playthings, twisting our fates for sick amusement.

Because if the latter is true, then there is only one real truth. That Man did not overcome Grimm through might alone, because who could slay a God? Man was permitted to live. Man is a plaything.

Man cannot overcome God. Such is our misery, to be toyed with eternally, until we are empty of amusement.

He breathed, letting the smoke fill the cold autumn air.

The darkness of nighttime Vale stretched out around him like a cloak, held at bay by dim street lights and the obnoxiously bright sign of club 3B. The 3 was reversed, to give the nightclub and criminal hot-spot a more professional appearance, presumably. TJ still thought it looked stupid anyway, but he wasn't paid enough to get his head ripped off for expressing an opinion, so he kept his trap shut.

Thankfully, it wasn't any stupider than his current company. Twice already he'd smacked his fellow Door-guard (a title far more legitimate than paid muscle or run-of-the-mill Bouncer) upside the head for dozing off. Somehow he managed to sleep standing up, despite the headache inducing decibel of the club's otherwise acceptable music. Unbe-fucking-lievable. There was something to be said about him if his boss thought they were both equally talented at scaring off undesirables. Still, he hadn't seen it yet. Maybe they both just drew the short straw…

For a moment, the darkness of nighttime Vale became darker, as the light of the club's neon sign flickered. TJ blinked slowly, then removed his uniform dark shades to rub his eyes. "You good?" His partner for the evening grunted, cheap cigarette glinting in the dark as he lit up. TJ grunted back. He refocused his gaze on the empty street, internally grumbling about a lack of sleep.

Something stared back.

TJ and his fellow henchmen almost leapt out of their own skin. A child stood at their feet with piercingly empty eyes, a runt in red clothing. She was there, as though she'd always been, affixed to the concrete. She made no movement, nor noise. She wasn't even blinking. After hours of nothing, somebody had dropped a disturbingly human-like statue at the door of 3B, right when TJ had rubbed his eyes.

TJ frowned hard, pushing back the reptilian fear emerging from his instincts. The child's large, silver eyes simply looked at him. No expression. His unease intensified, unconsciously gripping his weapon before he caught himself. This was just a kid, doing a stupid prank. No need to overthink it.

Seeing that the kid wasn't inclined to speak first, TJ opened his mouth, only for his partner to beat him to it.

"The fuck do you want, kid?" Wisps of smoke drifted out of his mouth as he spoke, exhaling the drag of his vice with excruciating slowness.

The child's head turned unnaturally slowly, as though only remembering to move it after the fact. TJ's gut was begging, pleading for him to put as much ground between him and the kid as possible. He couldn't for the life of him figure out why.

Then it spoke, and his blood turned to ice.

"Is Hei Xiong here?"

If TJ was holding anything, he would've dropped it into a thousand pieces. How the fuck did this kid know his Boss's real name? He only knew it because he'd been working here a while, and even then one of the club's many unspoken rules was that you never say the name. Was this kid… but then she wouldn't be using the front door…

The unease blossomed into full-on panic. This kid was rigged to blow, or something, and TJ was not paid nearly fucking enough to throw his life away for a shitty graveyard shift. His partner, however, whose ears were so green they could've been used as farmland, leaned into the child's face. He probably hadn't the faintest idea why TJ was panicking.

His lips parted in a menacing grin, and he exhaled the rest of his toxic vice straight into the kid's face. The plume of smoke clung to her, lazily wafting around, but was otherwise absolutely still. Unnaturally still. TJ's stomach sunk even lower when he realised the kid wasn't even breathing.

He quickly gripped his partner's shoulder, and bit out "we need to back off. Right the fuck now."

His fellow thug about-faced in incredulity, planting his hand roughly atop the girl's head in some twisted facsimile of an affectionate touch. "It's a kid. How the fuck are you scared of a-"

He stopped. The next sound to emerge from his mouth was a surprised gagging noise. TJ turned to look at the kid as though expecting the Witch herself to be there.

She wasn't there. Instead, she was already walking past them, blood dripping from her fingers. He slowly swivelled towards his partner, only needing a brief moment to find the blood. His forearm was flattened, like a toothpaste tube crushed by a steamroller, with his wrist and elbow as the caps. It was attached to his body by a limp piece of skin, dangling listlessly.

Several moments passed in absolute silence in nighttime Vale, punctuated by a brief increase in the decibel of club 3B's music, before his partner began screaming at the top of his lungs.

And yet Humanity prospered. It is truly a curious thing.

Remnant is a place of unspeakable beauty, fraught with countless dangers, sustained by endless sacrifice. Sacrifice of those who came before, who never lived to see their bravery honoured or their struggles given meaning. Sacrifice of those who fight for it now, carrying the torch of those long gone in place of their own dreams. Sacrifice of our descendants, upon whom we place an impossible burden, the weight of an ever-growing flame that was once a spark.

Hope. That which banishes shadows and burns roads into nothingness, that twists anguish into purpose, and ruin into prosperity.

But perhaps this is not a sign of Man's defiance, despite what the optimists and Followers of Oum may say. Perhaps the horror of the Gods' machinations is not truly beyond comprehension, merely requiring a longer form of understanding, transcending petty things like Human lifespans.

All songs reach a crescendo before the fall. Our prosperity may very well be their latest game, to build us up into truly fearsome opponents, to make the next conquering a truly incredible feat. They want us to dream, to scheme, to raise our armies. To become a Beacon of light, the Shade to their radiance, the Haven from their gaze, the imposing Atlas against their wrath.

Then, in battle, they want us to watch. To watch as our efforts become in vain. To watch as we Fall.

The inside of Club 3B was only marginally brighter than the night outside, despite the abundance of flashing lights and starkly red commodities. Darkness clung to the air of this place, personifying its patron's leering faces and hushed whispers. Music pounded to the beat of a throbbing headache, loud enough to drown out any chance of eavesdropping. Or of having second-thoughts.

The child calmly walked forward, gait steady as she searched for her goal. The central dance-floor was filled with heat, warm bodies gyrating in ecstasy, burning with desire and sweating in the humidity. At each corner protruded a glass cage, thin girls with animal traits dancing exotically, letting their bought and paid-for assets become especially lurid amid all the other amateurish movement.

She scanned the outskirts, noting the blood-red glass furniture, and subtle red lines denoting the outer wall. They lead up the stairs on either side of the club, ending in something beyond the rolling crowd. It was while examining the elevated walkways that she noticed the bar, as red as the furniture, and the bearded man attending it.

She was spotted as she approached quite quickly, one of the patrons nudging the bearded man in her direction. His eyebrow rose higher the closer she got, until she was peering at him from behind the counter, chin barely above the red finish. He looked half-way caught between amused and agitated. "Alright," he said, sighing as he drew back to look at the rest of the sunglass wearing patrons. "Which one of you idiots let her in?"

"We're not on door duty, Boss." One of the henchmen shrugged lackadaisically, nursing his brown drink. "That's TJ and Baby's fuck up right there," he ended by gesturing offhandedly to the fuck up in question. The rest of the uniformed men nodded with varying levels of enthusiasm, in such a pattern as to seem like they'd been previously sorted by sobriety.

The 'Boss' rolled his eyes. "I'm not 'Boss' until next week. So…" He leaned over, hands on the counter-top as he stared deeply into the child's motionless eyes. "Are you gonna fuck off kid, or do my guys have to make you?"

Her response was not quite what he was expecting.

"Are you Hei Xiong?"

He blinked, slowly. With a growl, he turned on his men who all but ran away screaming. "Alright – I can excuse a fuck up at the door but my name? How is it possible for somebody to be that fu-"

"I'm looking for someone."

He stopped. Gears visibly turned in his head. Suddenly, Junior was all business, straightening himself and his tie. Only then did the child appreciate his height, standing at a towering 7 feet, or just about. He pointed authoritatively at one of the henchmen, who almost jumped out of his skin at the gesture. "You! Bar duty! Now!" The darkly clothed thug scrambled off his stool, almost gauging out his eye in his haste to salute and jump the counter. Junior smiled disarmingly, an extremely well-practiced motion.

He lifted the entrance to the counter-top with one hand and walked through. He gestured to his side. "Please. Come with me." The child did so wordlessly.

They ascended the walkways to the highest level, then walked briefly to the farthest end. Junior thumbed the wall, a beep that was practically impossible to hear through the noise below signifying that he'd found his mark, and the wall slid aside noiselessly. The corridor beyond was much, much darker than the rest of the club.

"Follow me." Frowning slightly, the child watched the adult calmly step into the darkness. Eventually, she followed suit, and was consumed by darkness.

They see you as small and helpless, they see you as just a child…

"So." Junior leaned back into the expensive leather, exotic cigar held between his teeth as his hands cupped his lighter. He took a moment to inhale, then breathed into the great nothing of the dark room, lit dimly by red light along the walls. "Who're you looking for?"

In the meantime, the child had practically turned into a different person. She couldn't sit still in her seat that was far too tall for her, eyes squinting almost comically in the low light. She was drawn so tightly together she'd practically shrunk half a foot. Any tighter, and she'd snap in half from the tension.

She was, literally, twiddling her thumbs. Like a child. Well, a younger child. Junior's eyes narrowed, his next words coming out with the same harshness he'd showed his men earlier.

"I don't enjoy being fucked with. If you're being put up to this, I'm going to beat you and them like a slacking Faunus in a Dust mine for wasting my time. Understand?"

She stopped, staring at him wide eyed, the first time he'd seen her eyes harbouring emotion. He glared back intimidatingly. She audibly gulped, and opened her mouth wordlessly. It shut moments later, as she closed her eyes tight and tried to steady her breathing, looking like she was fighting merely to remain conscious. Just when Junior had begun to tire of her theatrics, she finally spoke.

"I'm… l-looking for a girl." Junior blinked, as though he'd just forgotten everything he knew. Was that it? "With…" she smiled softly. "Blonde hair. Big Blonde hair, and lilac eyes."

He hummed in thought. "Alright. Anything else? Place of birth? Occupation? Scarring or tattoos? Name?" At the last one, she perked up.

She nodded, the same soft smile resting quietly on her pale face.

"Yang. Yang Xiao-long." The wistful look spread to her silver eyes, the beginning of tears forming at their corners. "She's my sister. She's been missing for 8 years."

Junior had been quiet for a long time, contemplatively so. Ruby was somewhat appreciative, though her social anxiety was still choking her with questions of what if this means he's mad and should I be saying something and please don't be a dead end please don't be a dead end.

Though that last one may have simply been her own inner mantra, repeated so often as she came here that it was almost second nature. She wasn't sure she could handle the heartbreak of finding nothing again, not after how much effort she went through to find out who Junior was. She wouldn't have needed to go through so much effort if she could've justasked him, but his dismissal of the importance of her search and her own awkwardness made that impossible. Try as she might, she couldn't challenge him on anything, whether that was because of gratitude or weakness was an internal struggle for another day.

Today, she searched for Yang. Her sister.

Junior finally broke the silence with a heavy sigh. "So from what you've told me, you were separated at least 8 years ago." Ruby nodded, having already told him all she knew, something that proved markedly easier once she was already talking. "You don't know when, exactly, or where. You don't know who took her, just that it happened, and afterwards, you came to Vale. You don't even know if she's in Vale, or still alive," Ruby flinched slightly, but still nodded again.

The ensuing silence was much shorter than the previous one. Junior ground his deathstick into his ashtray, already sporting a handful of used cigars. He left it there, simmering, burning down like a reversed candle. When it died, he finally spoke.

"Look, kid. I hate to break it to ya, but she's gone." Ruby's heart sank, eyes watering. For a brief, brief instant, Junior almost looked guilty. Almost. "I know just about everything that happens in Vale, but this? You don't need an info broker. You need Oum himself." He stated it matter of fact, no doubt used to relying harsh truths in the info business. He shook his head, as though ridding himself of any responsibility. "That said, we should move onto the next topic. My payment."

Ruby stared, blatant shock momentarily halting her burning tears. "W-what?" He hadn't so much as moved from his chair, and he expected to be paid?

"My time is valuable." He stated as though it was glaringly self-evident. "And you just wasted it with a fool's errand." He snapped his fingers, and immediately 5 of his henchman funnelled into the small room, towering over the seated child with menacing looks. Their tall forms shadowed her own, the sparkling tears and bright silver eyes the only thing left visible in the darkness. She looked up, staring at the cabal of thugs peering down at her with visibly malicious intent. The anxiety in her chest blossomed into something much, much worse.

Junior raised a hand, showing his palm. "You can either cough it up, or we can beat it out of you."

Ruby was silent, pulse racing as terror set in. "H-how much?"

"Fifty thousand lien." He said quickly. Ruby was dumbstruck. "Like I said, my time is valuable. That, and you haven't paid the entry fee." The thugs above her chuckled darkly in unison, watching the blatant extortion with thinly veiled glee.

Several moments passed in tense silence as Ruby contemplated what to do, shivering despite the warm bodies surrounding her. Then, she shakily reached into her dress pocket. Her hand resurfaced with a wallet, swollen grotesquely with Lien. Junior couldn't stop his mouth from falling open, astounded. That was much, much more than fifty thousand Lien. They'd just hit the jackpot.

His men whistled, one of the more impulsive ones attempting to reach for it before his hand was swatted away by another. Ruby slid off her seat. She almost tripped over her own feet, she was trembling so violently, despite the handful of steps she had to walk. Something much more frightening than the man in front of her lurked within the room, much darker than the henchmen's shadow, and much more primordial than light. She tried to hand off the wallet lightly, but Junior practically ripped it from her small, pale hands.

Something coursed in Ruby's veins, rolling under her skin. Her fear became paralysing, and she was no longer able to stand, falling gracelessly against the leather chair. Junior cocked an eyebrow, both at the melodramatic child and the wallet's contents. The Lien was mostly new, some strips were a couple years old, but otherwise perfectly legitimate. He had an eye for this sort of thing, considering his occupation. When he was done counting, he 'tsk'ed in annoyance. He'd apparently been mistaken.

"You're twenty Lien short." He shook his head, as though pretending he was being forced to do this. "Normally, I'd sell you, but you know my name. That makes you a loose end. Killing you here and now, however, is bad for business." He stood up to his full height, lording over Ruby and his henchmen alike. "I have a better idea." He gestured, and his men grabbed her arms. They groaned as they lifted Ruby to her feet, surprised at how heavy the tiny girl was. Even as she stood, motionless, they continued to hold her, restraining her with comparatively large hands.

"You're young, very young." Junior thought aloud. His enormous finger traced along the contours of Ruby's torso, stopping at points of interest as he spoke. "The lungs will be an easy hundred thousand, the kidney and liver another fifty, each. Your heart will be a cool million." Fantasising about how much money he was about to make had almost made the man aroused, and it showed in the low growl of his voice. His finger landed on her face, no longer crying but perfectly still and sorrowful. "And silver eyes, if they're as rare as they say, are going to be five million. Each. Fifteen million for a pair. Hell, maybe I hold onto them. They're sure to appreciate in value soon enough." He smirked darkly at his own sick humour, laughing at thoughts of things that none outside his line of work would ever know. His finger suddenly pushed into Ruby's forehead, more than hard enough to bruise.

"Look at me." Ruby ignored him, so he pushed harder, shoving aside flesh and digging into the bone. Ruby flinched, yet her eyes never rose. Junior growled, and drew back his hand. The reprieve was momentary, as he punched the silver eyed girl for all he was worth, and damn near broke his own fist in the process. He shook it, hissing as he noted how hard her bones were. She definitely drank her milk. Hell, maybe he could sell them too.

The damage on Ruby's end was considerably worse. She spat blood right onto the carpet, which mysteriously refused to sink in, instead sliding around like water off a duck's back. Her cheek was already beginning to swell, and the roaring in her veins grew ever louder. Junior's gloved hand forced her chin up as Ruby desperately fought to remain conscious, fingers curling and uncurling. He glared straight into her emotionless eyes as she drooled blood, mindfully keeping his expensive shoes away from the growing pool.

Then, he smiled. It was not a pleasant expression. It carried with it the darkness that infested club 3B, that choked the light from the backrooms deeper within. The same darkness that Ruby already intimately knew, as it struggled to escape beneath her skin, and was frightened of beyond words.

"Nobody but my brother gets to say my name. Ever." He leaned back, and promptly returned to his seat. An off-hand gesture sent his men outside, dragging the girl along with them.

As a parting gesture, he yelled - "when you meet your sister, tell her I'm sorry we never met. I haven't fucked a blonde in ages." He disappeared with the slamming of the door, his men chuckling at their boss' crude humour, sitting on his leather throne, smoking in obvious contentment.

Her heart beat loudly in her ears as she was dragged. Erratic, vengeful. Something dwelling even deeper within clawed at the walls. Ruby screamed and screamed and screamed, but she never made a noise, having already half lost the battle. She closed her eyes, waiting for the nightmare to be over, and let go.

"I-I'm sorry," she whispered. One of the men dragging her cocked his head in obvious confusion.

"For what?"

The eyes that met him were no longer silver.

Surprised when they find out that a monster will soon run wild…

Junior had only a moment to enjoy his cigar and fantasise about how much money he was going to make before everything went wrong.

Louder than usual screams echoed through the dark hallways of 3B's backrooms. In fact, they sounded like -

A headless corpse shattered the door, breaking it off the hinges in a grand display of blood and wood, and absolutely ruining his carpet. The force of the thrown body had shaken the whole room, momentarily stunning Hei Xiong. More screams echoed through the dark corridor until he stepped out, carefully avoiding any strewn viscera or blood. The sight before him left him on his knees.

A monster – no, a Grimm – had appeared suddenly in the corridor, lashing out with decapitating viciousness and violent cruelty. He watched his last two men make a run for it, their other two colleagues already ripped in half, before two tendrils shot out from the dark form and impaled them. Gargling on their own blood, they clung desperately to smooth walls and carpeting for dear life, quite literally. Their fingernails came off long before the monster relented, and they screamed for whatever they were still worth through a throatful of blood as it dragged them closer. Then they were silenced, gaping holes where their hearts once were, as the monster dripped blood from every limb. It was absolutely covered in it, having seemingly eked out every single drop of blood from the handful of men, and doused itself with the red liquid. The hallway, which had echoed with the screams of the dying, was returned to absolute silence.

Except for the rapid, wide eyed breathing of Junior, staring at a monster far more terrifying than the one he saw in the morning mirror. Then it became worse.

The tendrils that had murdered his last surviving men emerged, and for a millisecond Junior distantly wondered if he was witnessing his own demise. Instead, they lashed out and impaled the corpses, skewering several with a myriad of tendrils. It dragged the bodies closer, faces soundlessly screaming, limbs desperately reaching, leaving rivers of blood in their wake. At once, dozens of smaller tendrils tore into the body, and -

Monty fucking Oum. Junior turned away and let loose his late dinner. The creature's grotesque feeding was decidedly efficient, turning the bodies into much smaller portions so that its small body could consume it wholesale, shoving entire limbs into the maw that was its very skin. Just the sound made Junior wish he could throw up more than once, but he was already empty.

It wasn't until something else happened that Junior was broken from his panicked revelry. Namely, when the monster finished feeding, and looked directly at him.

Junior ran for his life.

Welcome to a world of bloody evolution...

Ruby looked to her side, happily rocking her legs back and forth atop the roofs of Vale. The setting sun cast the city in an orange glow, gentle and warm. A green-haired girl and friend (?) of many years sat with her, eating a late lunch fervently.

Something nagged at the back of her consciousness, a thought that had yet to be realized, but she shook it away. The action caused Emerald to raise an eyebrow.

She swallowed the last of her Vacuoxian cuisine, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She had about as much table manners as Ruby did, which meant none. Though Emerald's excuse was markedly better than the girl raised in luxury. "Something wrong?"

"Nope!" She chirped, smiling happily, grateful to spend any time at all with Emerald, however short. The act caused Emerald to roll her eyes.

"You haven't said anything this whole time. For anyone, that's suspicious, but especially for a loud mouth like you." The comment was stated in jest, yet also in all seriousness. Ruby was still figuring out the portions on that one, despite knowing the meanspirited jerk with a heart of gold for years. She sheepishly laughed, swaying legs refusing to stop for anything.

"Well... I have somewhere to be... later..."

"You're not reading your comics, either." The pile sat behind her, ordered haphazardly, but also untouched since being dropped off. In the interest of being polite, Ruby usually read while Emerald ate, having no need for sustenance in the traditional sense. The statement of fact was about as poignant as anything else Emerald said, but Ruby felt it pierce deeper than normal. Perhaps because Emerald was beginning to pick up Cinder's habit of cutting through all manner of pleasantries. Maybe... just maybe... she was learning to show real concern? Ruby didn't get her hopes up, unlike every other time she thought she was getting through to Emerald.

Ruby sighed, her legs having stopped swaying at some point during her relatively deep musing. Try as Ruby might, Emerald always had a way of killing the mood. That was probably something else she picked up from Cinder.

"It's about my... sister." Ruby let the word hang in the rapidly darkening evening air, knowing the effect it would have, and steeled herself for what was to come.

Emerald rolled her eyes. "This again..."

"It's not like that!" Ruby became defensive almost in reflex, this song and dance having played out many times before. "This time, it's different!"

"The more you cry Beowulf, the less people believe you. At this point, even if you found something, you should just give it up." Ever the pragmatist, Emerald shrugged evenly and averted her gaze to the sunset, letting the sun fall on her dark skin in some facsimile of home.

Ruby clenched her hands, and lowered her eyes. "I really do mean it this time. I found a guy, he's supposed to know everything in Vale-"

"You live with the Crime Lord of Vale." Emerald stated, deadpan. "If he doesn't know it, nobody in Vale knows it."

"Roman doesn't know everything!" Ruby was on her feet in an instant, balled fists at her side and yelling as her eyes brimmed with silver tears. "He told me he keeps blindspots, right?! So that means somebody who works in those blindspots might know something he doesn't! A-and maybe he's not from Vale, maybe he's from Atlas or Mistral-"

"Leading yourself on like this is unhealthy." For the first time, Ruby saw... something in Emerald's eyes. It vanished immediately, Emerald's shields up for everyone to see. "You're building yourself up to fall. The higher you build, the worse the fall will be." Something else lurked in Emerald's eyes, as her hands rested flatly atop the rooftop's rough surface. They scrunched up, a glimmer of Emerald's inner turmoil. "Break your own heart now, before it grows into something worse."

"You don't understand." Ruby bit out, years falling freely, as her emotions ran right through her reason. "Nobody understands! Not Roman, not Cinder, not you, not anybody! She's real!"

"I understand more than you think." Emerald's comment stopped Ruby, midtirade. Then Ruby's fists drew up, tight at her sides and she shook in raw emotion. "Don't act like you know me."

"How could you-" Those three words would come to be Ruby's greatest regret in her relationship with Emerald yet, and would be for the rest of her life.

"How could I not?" She rounded on Ruby, towering over her by half a foot and two years of seniority. They stood face to face with each other, the emotional child and the surprisingly mature teenager. Something panged deep in Emerald's eyes, a hollowness that was horrifying to witness. "How could I not know where I came from? How could I stand to not find out? Well, I did." She bit out the word with such bitterness and hate Ruby stepped back, eyes wide, heart on her sleeve as horror bloomed. "They didn't even recognize me. They forgot I existed. They didn't abandon me because they hated me, or because they were forced to, or because they sold me - or anything! They left me behind because they were too wasted to remember I existed! They left me behind because they didn't care." Emerald threw her arms up, a deep anger that needed an outlet drawing her closer and closer to Ruby as Ruby slowly walked back. "That's the real word, Ruby! No one cares! Not about your imaginary sister, or your conviction, or anything! You take what you can get because it's all you can get-!"

In a moment, everything twisted, the light of Vale's sunset going from horizontal to vertical. Ruby fell, without a sound, tears trailing behind her, as she-

A strong hand reached out and grasped Ruby's collar milliseconds before she became out of reach, Emerald groaning in effort.

A look past between the two of them. Anguish, in the silver eyes of someone desperate to believe. Anguish, in the red eyes of someone desperate to forget. It lasted a soulful moment as Ruby's sideways world became upright once more.

Ruby fell onto the rooftop, gravel digging into her skin roughly. Emerald did as well, after a moment. Laying down and watching the orange sky turn pink, then black. The silence between them returned, for a while. Ruby couldn't fathom what she could say that would make up for what she had done, and Emerald was simply silent. Lost.

It took an eternity, long after the night had settled in, before Ruby worked up the courage to push aside her guilt and anxiety and speak first.

"I-" Emerald chose that exact moment to sit up, eyes blank as ever. Her hand was outstretched, raised to indicate for Ruby to be silent. She obeyed.

"I," Emerald countered, "don't want to hear it. Do what you want, Ruby. I can't stop you from falling if you're so set on it... this time doesn't count."

She walked off, calmly. Ruby's throat choked with too many words and apologies to speak at once. The moment Emerald stepped off the ledge, she was gone. In retrospect, she wondered if she was even there in the first place, considering her semblance. The pull that saved her from falling several stories certainly felt real, but Ruby knew just how deeply Emerald's powers could affect someone's consciousness. The fact that she took some form of pleasure in it only heightened her... creativity.

She fell back against the gravel, dull ringing in her ears as the silence drowned out everything else. It intensified as the silence deepened, Ruby's heart beating madly in her ears in some faux attempt at fighting back. She balled up, letting the tears fall until the noise became too much. "Stop..." she whimpered, small hands clasping her ears. "I'm sorry... please... I didn't ask to be like this..." The ringing continued to roar, roaring in her ears, the bestial howl of Grimm. She continued to plead. "Please... please..."

It growled right in her ear. Hungry. Vicious. Primordial. The child begged. The monster laughed.

The door was open.

The ringing stopped.

Ruby slowly opened her eyes.

TJ, aka Terrence Jaso, roughly means 'Soft Grass' as Jaso is roughly derived from Sorghun which is a type of cereal grass, hence his soft green eyes. Since, you know, the red men of Vale are like grass. It's goddamn everywhere. Likewise, Baby gets his name from his initials - B.B. - which roughly translate to Beal Ban. Which is Irish for 'white face'. As in after having all the blood in his body squeezed out of his arm, he has a white face. Because he's dead. Damnit, I'm a writer, not a sophist!