IMPORTANT A/N: Alright, so all credit to the idea of the Grimmdark AU goes to Angie (weissrabbit). You can go on her tumblr under her "grimmdark_au" tag to find her amazing artwork and information about the AU. I tried to explain things as best I could, but I still recommend you check out her things, if not before, then after you read.
I wrote this in like 3 hours the day after she told me about the AU. From the images she drew at the time, this was simply how I pictured things. It might not be very accurate, though...
Still, it's a fantastic idea, and I hope I could do it justice!
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.
Darkness Falls
They ran.
It was all they could do.
There was nothing else that could be done.
Red and white blurred through the charred black trees, following the scent of burning flesh and blood.
Blake had told them what had happened. How she and Yang had encountered the White Fang. How they had killed her. How Yang had poured every last bit of strength and life and aura into Blake in order to bring her back.
But now Yang was too far gone.
The professors said it was a dreadfully rare occurrence that someone turned, but it had happened in the past.
And it had happened to Yang.
Blake had described it to them, how Yang had brought her back by sacrificing herself, succumbing to the darkness, merging to become one with it. Past the bone mask of the Ursa she had taken the form of, Blake had seen Yang's eyes, terrified and painfully red.
Blake had tried calling out to her, but the enervation that weighed her down had been too great; the second Yang saw she was alive again, she had taken off into the deep forests, the black pelt of fur on her back concealing her presence in the shadows until there was nothing left of her.
And now all they could do was run.
Weiss had tried to dissuade Ruby from coming along. In fact, the school faculty had all denied them permission to go after Yang. But they were stubborn, frightened, confused. Naturally, they went anyway.
But Weiss had tried - just once - to persuade Ruby to stay behind. Yet Ruby apologized and refused. This was her sister they were going after.
Both Blake and Weiss understood, and the latter had said nothing more to deter Ruby from following, for truthfully, she had not wanted to go alone anyway.
The staff had tried to confine Blake to the infirmary, but she had skillfully evaded them and gone off in search of her partner. When Ruby and Weiss had been notified, they had left behind the precarious words of "We'll bring them back" and slipped away before anyone could stop them.
And so now they ran.
Ruby was almost too focused on her feet, not wanting to stumble, nor wanting to look up for fear of what she might see. The forest was darker than it usually was, the stench of blood leaking through the air, tainting it, forcing them to breathe in that scent against their will.
But Ruby was trembling, using the excuse of motion to hide it, but trembling nonetheless. The fear was worse than any cold, than anything she had ever experienced before. It was constricting, suffocating.
Yang...
Thankfully, Weiss seemed more focused on the task at hand, her mind set on what they needed to do, sparing not a second glance to any minor distraction. The sounds of howling grew louder as they proceeded deeper into the trees, audible threats telling them to turn back. But of course they kept going.
Weiss could tell they were getting closer – the pungent scent of blood was overwhelming.
But it was peculiar. Dozens of glowing red eyes were upon them, and had been for quite some time, but none of them moved, as though under order, awaiting commands.
The trees thinned out up ahead, and a long valley stretched out before them. A bottomless chasm of rock fell away deep into the earth, shrouded with mist. On the other side were enormous mountains, further than the eye could see, massively terrifying structures that promised to conceal horrifying things. Caves lined the side of almost every one, but nothing could be seen beyond the immediate shadows.
Ruby swallowed – hard – as she came to a halt beside her partner, gazing out across the endlessness of what they needed to conquer, that many had tried to, and all had failed to. The Chasms were forbidden territory for all Beacon students; upon coming here, the teachers had threatened students with expulsion, but had said that was hardly necessary, since you would not be coming back at all.
By this point, Ruby had more or less mentally rescinded her position of leadership; she had let Blake die once, let Yang be turned, and now she was endangering Weiss like this.
What was she doing?
She opened her mouth to tell Weiss to run, to go back to Beacon while it was still an option.
But as if she knew what was coming, the heiress spoke first. "We're going." Her breath billowed white in the cold mountain air. "We've come this far. We promised to bring her back, after all."
The entire time she spoke, she did not look at Ruby, which unsettled her. It was clear that Weiss was just as lost as she was, only her partner did a better job of covering it up.
In reality, both of them were too consumed with trepidation to think clearly, and now it was too late to turn back.
The beasts of the forest had let them pass so that they may be cornered by the perpetual canyon. That much was clear now. But still, the eyes never advanced, and that concerned the heiress greatly. They were waiting for orders from something. But what?
Weiss shook her head. It mattered not. All that mattered right now was finding Yang and getting both sisters back home, if not safely, then at the very least, alive.
The amount of energy and aura the run through the forest had drained from them was more than they could allow, but they could not afford to be still for much longer.
"We're going." Weiss repeated. She lifted her arms, pulling Ruby close to her and preparing a spell beneath their feet, aiming to launch them over the chasm.
But before she could, a deafening screech sounded, and suddenly everything was black. They looked up, only to find that it had not been the voice of one Nevermore, but dozens, all bellowing together as they blocked out the sky.
Their was no choice but to fight.
The beasts swooped down, claws scraping earth, hurling it into the air. The forest creatures recoiled, but did not vanish, ever watching, waiting. It had only been seconds before Crescent Rose and Myrtenaster were drenched with blood, adding to the stench in the air.
Ruby and Weiss fought for dear life, for one another's lives. But they had just ran through the entirety of the Emerald Forest on naught but adrenaline, and the palpitating fear had only served to weaken them.
They managed to fell two giant bodies into the ravine, but more just kept coming. They were exhausted. Terrified. They were only two girls.
The battle raged on, the giant birds destroying portions of the cliff as they dove, giving Ruby and Weiss less and less space to stand on, pushing them further and further back from their destination.
The red eyes still glinted within the trees. At this point, it would have been kinder for the beasts within to just finish them off, but for whatever reason, they never did.
Ruby swung her scythe, a weakened blow that only managed to shave off a few feathers. There was a split second of silence, and she looked to Weiss.
The heiress was at her limit. The wasted spell from earlier had drained a lot of her aura, but the battle was too fierce and unforgiving. She could barely breathe as she struggled to get up.
Was this what Yang would have wanted? For them to come all the way here and die trying to find her? Ruby's lack of judgement, lack of leadership skills would get them both killed.
It was at that moment she came to a decision, and a heartbreaking one at that. Yang may have turned, but she was still alive.
This was not worth the life of her partner.
In that moment, Ruby decided to leave Yang, abandon her, for the sake of the team she still had left.
But that decision was made a moment too late.
Weiss was too far away for Ruby to reach her, so all she could do was scream her name.
The heiress's aura was as good as depleted, and she could not even move when the talons locked around her. Myrtenaster fell to the ground as its wielder was taken by the claws of the very beasts she had been trained to fight.
Ruby screamed, again and again and again, Weiss could hear her. This poor girl; she had just lost her sister and her partner within the course of several hours.
But within the back of Weiss's mind, there was an inkling that told her Ruby would get out of this alive, even though she herself would not.
Weiss's vision blurred in and out of focus as the mighty wings beat above her, carrying her off to some distant place mankind could never imagine.
The last thing she saw was Ruby's tearstained face.
The last thing she heard was Ruby screaming her name.
The last thing she felt was a single tear dripping down her cheek.
But the last thing she thought was all the surrounded her then:
I don't want to die alone.
The screaming, the howling, the crying. Yang could hear it all.
The walls of the cave around her were thick with rock, coated with lava, melting with hellfire. The message was clear; no one was allowed to enter. No one was allowed to come near her.
Perhaps it was due to the side of her that had once been human, or perhaps it was because of the semblance of flame she had once harbored. Yang did not know what it was, but for some reason, the beasts of the forest obeyed her will. Those of the air she had no control over, but everything on land was under some unspoken, unwritten creed to follow her command.
She did not know what would happen in the future, when she had long-since descended into madness, but for now, her misted thoughts were clear.
She could hear those girls screaming, knew that they were trying to find her, knew that they never would. Yang wanted to emerge simply so she could show them what she had become, force them to go back and leave her be.
But she was too broken to move and could do nothing more than keep the Grimm of the forest away from them.
She did not know how it worked, but she understood that it was happening – the very air was her will, her intentions, and all creatures obeyed it. That was why she kept them at bay as Ruby and Weiss tried to find her.
She should have let the beasts chase them away, but Yang realized there was a part of her that still wanted to be saved, hoping beyond hope that they would somehow manage to find her, to take her back, to turn her back into who she once was. So she had let them come, selfishly praying to the non-existent gods that they could still salvage what was left of her soul.
But even after she had turned, her human naivety still remained. She had let them come that far, and now all she could hear were the screams of her sister.
Yang knew Weiss had been taken.
The magma coursing through the cave flared crimson with rage. She wanted to go on a rampage. She wanted blood. But Yang was too hollow inside to move.
In the end, all she could manage was to lift her head, letting out a long, moaning wail past the bone smothering her face, and then collapse.
Blake trekked through the woods, alert and aware of what was going on around her.
The Grimm were being held back by something. They would not attack her. And she knew who was behind it.
She knew that Ruby and Weiss must have come after her, but could only pray they had stayed behind.
With a fierce determination in her soul, she continued to run where her heart led her.
Weiss opened her eyes.
Everything was blue, blue with the remnants of forgotten snow.
The surface she laid on was rough and prickly, and when she managed to open her eyes further, she saw it was a nest. Bones littered the branches that composed the structure, and dark stains of red told her that it must have smelled like blood, but she could not smell it. The white puffs rising feebly from her lips told her it was cold, but she could not feel it.
All she could do was see, see the colossal claws of the one who had brought her here, see the small shadow of the offspring at its side. And it was then Weiss understood; she had not been brought here to be eaten – she had been brought back as a spoil of war. She was not a meal, she was a pet.
She was not sure which fate sounded worse.
She could feel a small flickering within her stomach and recognized it as her aura, struggling desperately to replenish itself.
But Weiss knew she did not have much time left. She could feel it with every fiber of her being, that her soul was fading, that she was dying.
There were only two things her mind told her, over and over again. One was a phrase, the other a name. And it was all she could think right now.
I don't want to die alone.
Weiss could feel her life draining away as the flicker in her stomach was finally extinguished under the pressure of trying to keep itself lit. With her final heartbeat came her final thought:
Ruby...
Darkness fell.
. . .
. .
.
. .
. . .
But Weiss had always been the most stubborn person alive. She refused to die now. She refused to leave Ruby all alone to wallow in her grief and do heaven knew what reckless things.
Something shifted within her, and Weiss could feel the black energy slowly creeping toward her. The life force of the countless Grimm began to engulf her, flowing into her, mixing with her blood. It burned.
It was an excruciating pain that ripped through her body like the fangs of many beasts. Over and over again it ripped at her from the inside out, clawing and scraping. Her body convulsed as her jaws parted in a silent scream, her lungs searing and on fire. The agony was smothering enough to stop her thoughts, stop her senses, until there was nothing at all.
And yet, somehow the pain remained. It gathered at her back, teeming and eager as the black energy boiled at the surface of her skin. It festered, writhed, struggled until at last it burst free. Blood poured from between her shoulder blades, erupting in a fountain of red and black. The dark energy fused with the crimson liquid, spreading and expanding until it webbed out into feathers. Long, black wings stretched out behind her, tints of blood still smearing them in certain places.
At the same time, the bones from the nest had been drawn to the dark aura, implanting themselves within her skin until they formed a bone mask. A skinny white beak protruded from the front as beady red eyes gave her vision back to her.
She was alive.
She was furious.
She was ravenous.
The will to survive fueled her, the vengeful rage propelled her as she leapt forward, slashing with her nails, tearing with her beak until a spray of red showered down on her. Dark feathers rained over the nest as the great Nevermore gurgled one last cry before falling – dead – out of its nest.
Weiss watched with calm eyes, unfazed. She felt there should have been something moving within her chest, but there was nothing.
When she turned, a small bird looked back at her, instantly imprinting as it flew up to land on her bloody hand.
She knew not where to go from here, but she knew there was something she wanted. It had been the last thing she could remember, the last thought on her mind before she had turned.
She wanted it. Now.
She spread her wings, and took off with the smaller Nevermore at her side. And still, there was only one thought in her mind:
Ruby.
She was screaming, crying, wailing, begging the gods to bring Weiss back. Ruby screamed again and again, still looking up into the direction the giant bird had taken her partner away to.
But as Ruby continued to fight, she knew there was nothing she could do. She was helpless. She was hollow. And so terribly alone.
She could feel her sanity slipping away as she swung her scythe over and over, slicing through flesh and lopping off limbs. First Yang, and now Weiss was gone, too. First her sister, and now her partner. What was left to live for?
Desperate and cornered, Ruby screamed again as she turned tail like the coward she always knew she was and fled into the trees, grabbing the white rapier as she went. The Nevermores did not follow her, but she was waiting for the other creatures of Grimm to pounce on her, to finish her off like she deserved. But due to the efforts of the very one she had been searching for, that never happened.
Ruby ran, stumbling and wailing, with no sense of direction or rhyme or reason as to where she was going, what she was doing, what she was living for anymore. There was nothing.
If Blake found Yang, she would surely be killed again, but this time by her own partner's hand. Within the course of two days, Ruby had managed to lose her entire team.
And all she could do was run.
She ran for hours, never knowing where she had intended to go in the first place, but Ruby never saw the edge of the forest. Everywhere she turned, those red eyes glared back at her, and she was forced to veer away, only to scramble and do the same a few minutes later.
Night was falling, and the growls only grew louder as the eyes grew brighter, hungrier. Why would they not finish her off? She was already dead inside.
Hours of frantic pelting through those trees passed until Ruby's legs could take her no further. She fell to the ground, dropping the weapons as she hugged her knees to her chest, buried her face, and wept like the child she was.
Yang could hear Ruby crying, and she could feel the beasts longing to approach her sister, to sink their fangs into that soft flesh. But Yang's will shook the air that they breathed:
DON'T TOUCH HER.
Her jaws parted as she let out a beastly roar, her sheer rage restricting the creatures for a while longer as the hell flames seared to life around her.
But she could not keep this up for much longer.
Yang moaned again as she crashed back to the ground.
Ruby never saw the Grimm of the forest emerge, only their eyes watched her, and their growls reached her ears, but nothing more.
The dawn broke and she looked up to see white sunlight cutting through the black branches, and the creatures seemed to recoil a bit. Ruby did not know what she was doing any longer, but she stood, gathered the weapons, and started to move. She knew the fate most befitting of one such as herself, and that was to wander these woods until she perished because of one reason or another.
She walked for hours, and still nothing changed, not the distant growling, not the vacantness within her soul. Nothing.
Until the wind came.
It was a powerfully silent gust, and it was cold.
And it was familiar.
Ruby looked up to the sky. She wondered if it was an angel of death, come to drag her to hell where she belonged. She wished it had been. But what it was instead might have been something far worse.
Her voice was hoarse:
"Weiss..."
As soon as she had spoken her partner's name, the black wings were upon her, the sharp beak aiming to cut out her throat.
Ruby knew she should let Weiss kill her, but for whatever reason, her survival instincts kicked back in and she dodged the strike. Weiss's attacks were too swift for Ruby to have time to draw Crescent Rose, so she drew Myrtenaster instead.
Upon seeing the weapon, Weiss's swings halted for just a split second before the deadly nails lashed out again. Ruby rolled out of the way, narrowly avoiding losing half her face. "Weiss!" She screamed. "Weiss, it's me! Ruby!" She did not know if her words would do any good.
Just like Yang had, Weiss had turned, and perhaps that was a fate worse than death. The haunting eyes that stared back at her now were not the same calculating mist-blue ones that Ruby had come to know and love. Instead they were red and hungry, just like the eyes of the beasts around her.
No! Ruby dodged another swing as Weiss flew at her again. Weiss isn't a monster! She's my partner!
But Ruby was enervated from everything that had transpired within the past two days. She was physically and emotionally drained, whereas it was evident that Weiss had been given a newer, darker energy to drive her.
Blindly, Ruby swung the rapier as Weiss charged her again, still being selfish enough as to fear for her own life.
The battle froze for a split second as the blade connected with flesh. Ruby cut through a section of one of Weiss's wings, and blood sprayed out.
It was Weiss's blood.
Her beak opened to let out a thin screech as Ruby realized what she had done. She dropped Myrtenaster and backed away, shaking violently. "W... Weiss..." The tears welled up and quickly fell down her cheeks.
Weiss shook out her injured wing, the bone severely broken now, before her deadly gaze met Ruby's once more. She shot forward, her hands gripping Ruby's throat as she pressed her against a tree. Ruby cried out in pain, but realized this was what she deserved; this was nothing – nothing – compared to what Weiss had suffered.
But still, Ruby fought like a coward for her life, one hand gripping Weiss's in an effort to have her let go of her neck, the other reaching out to her. Somehow, her palm managed to reach Weiss's shoulder, but Ruby then froze.
A second later, the white beak opened and a strangled voice sounded. It was undoubtedly Weiss's voice, but it was warped, contorted, just like her soul was now. And she spoke only one thing:
"How could you leave me?"
Then, Weiss stepped back, letting Ruby go, letting her crumple to the ground, coughing and sobbing. Weiss turned away and took off, eerily silent as her twisted wing carried her in jerking motions, a small shadow flying off beside her.
Ruby remained where she was, clutching her right hand – the one that had touched Weiss's shoulder – to her chest. What she had felt was deathly cold skin, but what she had not felt was what drowned her in grief. There had been no heartbeat.
Ruby continued to weep, until night fell once more, and the red eyes returned to watch her.
Weiss continued to hunt her for days.
The only reason Ruby assumed she had been permitted to live the first time was what gave her a fleeting bit of hope – the hope that Weiss still had a shred of humanity left within her. Why else would she have let Ruby go?
As a huntress, Weiss had never been one to draw out the chase for the thrill of it. She had preferred to end things as swiftly and efficiently as possible. Which was why Ruby believed that her partner's soul was still salvageable, because she had let Ruby go, not to draw out the hunt, but because something within her stilled heart had remembered who Ruby was and wanted her to live.
Night after night, day after day, Weiss hunted her, and Ruby continued to run. She felt she deserved to experience that dreadful terror of being the prey for once.
But she knew that once Weiss caught her and killed her, whatever humanity that had been left within her partner would be gone. And yet Ruby did not know what else she could do.
And so she ran.
On the fourth day, she finally succumbed to her fate.
Her legs could not carry her a step further. She was backed against a tree with Weiss standing before her and countless other Grimm surrounding them. They snarled at Weiss, but did not attack, shifting and grunting as though conflicted.
But Ruby thought it was finally time. She could not run or scream or cry anymore even if she wanted to.
So she stood with her back against the tree, weapons on the ground at her feet, staring into Weiss's crimson eyes past the mask, and waited.
Weiss wasted not a second as her wings brought her forward in a flurry of black and white and red. The force of her motion was enough to allow her nails to pierce into Ruby's stomach, drawing blood. Lots of it.
Ruby coughed as she grasped Weiss's arm, looking up past disheveled bangs to stare into her partner's eyes. "It's okay..." She rasped, sputtering. She knew that in killing her, Weiss's human soul would die as well. Which was why Ruby could smile at a time like this. "It's okay, Weiss..." A single tear ran down her cheek. "You don't have to be alone anymore..."
At the same time she spoke, Ruby began to channel what little aura she had left within her, giving it to Weiss. Ruby's healing aura battled viciously against Weiss's darker, foreign energy.
And Ruby won.
A warm, white glow encompassed Weiss's arm, reaching up to spread out over her entire body. It sheared away at the cold, black feathers until they began to fall off, one by one, until the only things left were two long trails of skeleton. But they disintegrated almost instantly, crumbling away and turning to dust.
Not long afterward, the bone mask met the same end, dissipating into the air around them to reveal a familiar face; Weiss's irises lost their crimson tint, and before long were back to the captivating mist-blue color they should have been.
Weiss blinked into a new conscious. What had she been doing all this time?
But when her vision finally came into focus, she saw Ruby before her, impaled on her own hand.
Weiss screamed.
Ruby collapsed to her knees and Weiss did the same, carefully drawing her bloodstained nails away. It was Ruby's blood, and she had been the one that attacked her.
"Ruby... Ruby!" Weiss clutched onto her partner; the poor girl had been through so much over the past few days. She did not need to die. Were the terrible wound, the pain and suffering, and all the tears she had shed not torture enough?
"Ruby... no... no..." Weiss hugged her tighter, feeling the warm blood pooling into her lap.
But Ruby continued to smile as she rested her chin on Weiss's shoulder and closed her eyes; Weiss's heart was beating again, and that was all she needed to know.
But Weiss was just as stubborn as her partner was. She refused to let Ruby die like this. Alone. If Ruby was going to die, then Weiss was, too.
Yet the heiress knew it would be a sin to throw away the life Ruby had strove so hard to save.
Therefore, Weiss emitted her own aura, giving it back to Ruby. Upon seeing the bright light, the small Nevermore that had followed Weiss fluttered in confusion before disappearing into the sky.
Like a miracle, the two forces of their aura mixed together and mended the worst of Ruby's injury. The blood stopped flowing.
Ruby opened her eyes.
Weiss moved back to look at her face; it must have resembled her own, smeared with blood and tears. But their eyes were open, their gazes locked, and their souls were united once again.
They smiled before throwing their arms around one another, weeping freely.
In the distant shadows of her cave, Yang lifted her head as she let out a long sigh, before closing her eyes at long last. Ruby was safe. Weiss was alive. Blake was still searching for her. Perhaps there was a sliver of hope for her as well...
But for now, she could wait.
Ruby and Weiss continued to embrace one another as the tears fell.
The light had defeated the darkness.
They did not have to run anymore.
A/N: I really hope this was okay. As I mentioned before, I wrote this all in about 3 hours and might have rushed it juuust a tad. Also, please go check out the Grimmdark AU information and art on the blog mentioned in my first author's note!
Please review!