AN: The second chapter has arrived, enjoy. Any and all reviews will be graciously accepted. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.
It was when the sirens started wailing did Ruby know that this was going to be an interesting night. She had been walking down the sidewalk, looking for any Dust shops open late at night before crashing in a hotel room she had been staying in nearby when she heard the gunfire. Quickly she turned in place, putting her headphones away when she saw something out of the corner of her eye; a sight that immediately sent a familiar chill down her spine when it rushed past her on the rooftops above.
'There's no way,' she thought as she pulled out Crescent Rose.
Dread seemed to steadily fill in her chest, feeling almost like a weight on her lungs, as she used her Semblance to reach the rooftop. Keeping her weapon close, she sprinted after the retreating form of...something she didn't want to believe was there.
As she saw the 'thing' jump down into an alleyway below, she sprinted to catch up with its feeling form, following closely behind as she dropped down onto the narrow pathway. Ruby barely had time to shout before a monstrous hand easily wrapped around her middle, grabbing tight and slamming her back into the brick wall behind her.
The air was knocked out of her in an instant as her aura flared, her left hand dropping Crescent Rose as it clattered to stone, the Grimm looking straight into her silver eyes as it held her against the wall. Ruby's heart leapt into her throat as recognized the Beowolf Alpha pinning her to the coarse stone. She knew that it had been acting oddly then when it ran away from her then, leading her to those Ursa, only to lose it track of it after she had doubled back. Now here it was in the flesh, and the normal hatred she expected to see in its eyes like so many others of its kind was there, but something else lurked in those crimson depths that seemed to take what little of her breath remained away.
The wolf held her there for a few moments more, Ruby thinking to herself that it was going to lean forward and rip her throat out, her breath hitching and heart beating wildly as the Grimm leaned towards her. Reaching down and grabbing the highly-customizable killing machine and backing off, Ruby slid down on her butt, drawing in precious oxygen in deep breaths as she held a hand to her chest; she was absolutely amazed that she was still alive right now as her aura continued to flare around her. In one attack, and her aura was almost completely obliterated, the thought chilling her to the core as she immediately admonished herself for ever going after this Alpha alone. Yet, she couldn't help but feel some draw to the beast that managed to evade her the first time, amazed at how different this Grimm was in appearance and behavior to the rest of its kind. Thinking about the Grimm, she looked up, now studying the Beowolf more closely as it held her weapon in both hands.
It was massive, the beast easily over seven feet tall and then some as it stood before her, the copious amounts of armor on its upper body easily adding to the intimidating air the Grimm exuded. The bone mask looked more like a full helmet than a mask to her, the red markings on its surface were arrayed in three vertical lines trailing down the center of the bone; the vermilion streaks only deviating from their path to the top of the wolf's snout where they curved around the eye sockets. The bone continued down from the lower mandible to the neck and upper chest in a uniform piece of interconnected plates, the bone only completely stopping just above the stomach while covering all the major organs above in more layered bones. More bones covered parts of the hips and the expanses on its legs and arms, its feet and hands along with its joints left bare except for the wicked claws that tipped off the appendages. Shiny, ink black fur filled in the spaces between all the armor, looking more like a noble beast in the moonlight from one of her favorite books than something that crawled around in musty caves and burrows. Ruby couldn't help but admire the amount of armor this Grimm possessed, only being drawn out of her observations when she saw that the Beowolf was still studying her Crescent Rose.
"Hey," Ruby shouted as the Grimm continued to run its clawed hands along the weapon, "drop it! Don't make me come over there and...," She tried saying before the Grimm glared back at her.
"Or you can stay there, that's fine too," she said as she felt incredibly awkward all of a sudden as it gazed at her, a faint heat rising in her face as she looked down at her boots before peeking back through her bangs at the wolf.
The wolf's ears, the only thing on its head not covered in armor, swiveled in her direction as it looked at her. Seemingly understanding what she was saying, or through sheer coincidence, it slowed its roving hands; the action shocking Ruby again as it carefully held the scythe close to its face in a seemingly feather-light grip. If she wasn't absolutely terrified right now, she may have laughed at the innocent curiosity on its face as it looked at Crescent Rose, the expression contrasting wildly with its savage appearance. Then one of its fingers pressed a button on the side of the shaft before dropping the tool in the dirt with a pained yelp. The mechanism it had activated in its study had collapsed weapon on its unarmored fingers, pinching the appendages holding the shaft. Then in a burst of rose petals Ruby disappeared, reappearing further down the alleyway with the weapon in her hands again.
"You know, if wanted to look at my Crescent Rose so bad you could have just asked," she said trying to sound smug and confident as she internally face-palmed at her quaking voice.
The Grimm tilted its head like Zwei did when something interested him, the air losing its tension, as it stood there for a moment before turning and running away again.
"Hey, we are not playing this game again!" Ruby shouted as she appeared in front of the Grimm. It pivoted in place, scrambling up a wall and onto the roof next to it, running off deeper into the city as she chased it.
"Can you stop runni-," she started to say as she ran in front of it before she ducked a claw swipe, the air whistling overhead as she narrowly dodged the telegraphed attack. It stood there growling at her, seemingly demanding her to leave it alone as it glared at her, but she stood her ground.
"I don't know what your problem is, but I can't leave you alone if you're going to stick around here. Grimm aren't exactly welcome here you know."
In her mind though she was really curious about this Beowolf now; the Grimm had plenty of opportunities to kill her, yet it chose not to, something that completely defied everything she had ever learned about Grimm. A Grimm would never disarm a Huntress (in-training) just to take the time to study their weapon, run away from fights or even refuse to attack fallen prey. Just what made this Grimm act this way?
She didn't get to dwell on that thought further when she noticed the Beowolf looking behind her, its eyes widening before it dropped to all fours and pounced at her in a blur of black and white. It tackled her center, knocking her over as the sound of several rifles discharging rang through the air, the Dust bullets passing through where she was just standing before. It quickly stood over her on all fours, her face soon full of fur, as its growling shook the roof they were on. She looked up, seeing the militia from the gates she had talked to earlier that morning were starting to gather at the other side of the roof, all their rifles trained on the Grimm in front of them.
"Hold your fire, it has a hostage! Are you all right miss?!" one of the militia men shouted at Ruby. She tried speak without getting a mouthful of fur when the Grimm reached down with its maw, grabbing the back of her hood and yanking her up in front of it.
"Whoa whoa whoa, don't shoot, I'm f-fine-just great," she shouted, wildly waving her hands in front of her in panic. Luckily, she managed to collapse Crescent Rose before the Grimm lifted her up by her hood, preventing any mishaps with the large weapon in such close-quarters.
The men in front of her became visibly flabbergasted by what they were seeing, the tension in the air soon suffocating Ruby, or maybe it was her cloak wrapped tightly against her neck. She slowly began reaching back to get her hood when the Grimm growled at her movements, the sound sending vibrations through her whole body.
She decided to stop resisting as she went limp in its hold, the Grimm slowly turning around when a Bullhead flew in over the wall, the militia no doubt having called it over when they noticed the Alpha in the city. The Grimm, unfortunately, snapped its head towards the sound giving Ruby whiplash.
"Hey! Watch the hood, I don't want holes in this!"
When the Bullhead pulled up overhead did Ruby let some small hope grow as she saw a team of huntsmen from Beacon drop down on the roof in front of them. Four teenagers met her sight, the Faunus with bunny ears in their group looked at Ruby worryingly as she spoke first.
"By the Gods, are you okay!?" she asked in a panicked tone as her team glared at the Grimm from behind her.
"I'm okay, just some aura depletion is all...I would worry more about my cloak right now."
She should have just kept her mouth shut, noticing the other girl on their team wearing clothing from some designer line quickly shift the hand bag on her shoulder, the rest of the team reaching for their weapons. Ruby would have loved to look at their weapons in closer detail, especially when the handbag on the girl's shoulder shifted into a freaking mini gun! However, when the Grimm noticed the weapons being pulled on it did it start growling again, moving Ruby from its mouth to holding her over its right shoulder, as it backed up slowly to the edge of the roof.
"Listen well mutt," Ruby guessed the girl with the sunglasses said as she couldn't see over the Beowolf's shoulder," drop the little girl and you wont have die...painfully."
What?! Little?!
"Hey, I am not little, take that back!" Ruby shrieked as she kicked her legs uselessly over the Beowolf's shoulder.
She heard a few chuckles from the men behind her, her face heating up again as they laughed at her outburst. When she started to hear the sound of the barrels spinning on the mini-gun did the Beowolf move, dropping over the edge of roof backwards, Ruby screaming as she nearly slammed face-first into the stones before the wolf twisted mid-fall. It landed on its hind-legs, the ground buckling under the impact, as it ran in the direction of the wall as it continued to hold her tightly. Over the shouting and the sounds of four impacts in the stone behind them, Ruby heard the Bullhead start to follow them overhead as it kept a spotlight trained on them. The ground passed in a blur underneath them as Ruby tried not to look at the buildings rushing by, the motion blur making her sick as it wasn't her Semblance that was making her go this fast in the first place.
Soon they reached the end of the street, but by then some vehicles with more militia had already moved into position to block the Grimm's escape, the t-section filled with security vehicles as the armed group awaited their arrival. The Grimm didn't stop, however, instead only running faster at the blockade ahead of it with a daring look on its face. When it looked like the Beowolf was going to collide with a cement barrier did the Grimm jump at the last second, easily clearing the collection of emergency responders and vehicles below it. Everything seemed to be in slow motion to Ruby as the air rushed past her on her perch, the people underneath them staring up at the flying duo with dumbfounded expressions frozen on their faces, as time started speeding up again when the Grimm collided with the front wall of a shop. Brick and mortar rained down on the people beneath the beast in a shower of destruction, those few without aura scrambling to cover with their hands above their heads to block the chunks of stones falling on them.
Wasting no time, the Beowolf quickly bound up the side of the tall building, alternating climbing with its free paw and feet, soon climbing over the edge of roof and making another leap to cling to the outer wall of the kingdom. Ruby was almost knocked off the Grimm's back from the jump, having to cling onto its fur just to stop herself from falling to her death. The blinding light of the Bullhead shined in her eyes, the rotors sounding much closer now as the Grimm continued to climb to the top of the wall, the whole experience being quite overwhelming to her. It was little over halfway up the wall when disaster struck; someone from the ground below shot the unarmored part of the Beowolf's right arm, the same arm that was holding onto Ruby. The wolf flinched from the wound, the sickening feeling of free fall beginning to take hold as her stomach started doing flips, another scream tearing from her throat from the sudden shift in altitude. She knew that from such a height her Aura could not have saved her from the fall, even if it was full in the first place, and Crescent Rose had no more ammo left from her earlier fight with the Beowolf. Yet, when it looked like she would have made a very convincing looking breakfast pastry at the end of her fall did she suddenly gag as her hood caught onto something.
Hands flying up to her throat, she looked up to see the Grimm had grabbed her hood in its mouth again, the Beowolf looking at her with that same annoyed expression from earlier.
"Oh...come on...hasn't this hood...taken...enough...punishment?!" she struggled to say as the fabric tightened around her windpipe.
Then her gut seemingly sunk to her feet as she heard a faint ripping sound, the hood starting to tear from the continued abuse, the fabric beginning to slip between the wolf's teeth as it clenched down tighter. She desperately swung in the air, colliding with the back of the wolf, clinging onto the tall bone spikes on its back as it finally let go her hood. The poor hood flopped against the back of her neck, riddled with holes and soaked with Beowolf saliva much to her disgust. Only when it saw Ruby clinging onto it tightly did it turn around, prowling up the rest of the wall much faster now despite the injury on its arm. Soon they crested the wall of metal and stone, the shattered moon shining down on the two as the Grimm quickly looked over to the forest beyond.
Ruby then let go, dropping to legs that turned to jelly the moment she landed, looking up to the strange Grimm as it turned to look back down at her.
"Well, now what?" she said in an exasperated tone, the wolf's head tilting again at the sound of her voice before turning to look back at the forest beyond.
It started growling to itself, its whole form shaking as it seemed to get caught up in its own little world before suddenly going quiet and looking back. The feeling of that growl sent shivers down her spine, her mind attesting the unconscious response to being overtired, as she looked where the Beowolf was staring. The Bullhead that was hovering overhead had leveled out with the walkway on the wall, the passenger bay opening up to reveal the same team of four from before waiting inside. The rabbit Faunus was gesturing to Ruby to get in, her voice drowned out by the sound of rotors spinning overhead, as the wild winds whipped her hair into a frenzy. Ruby then looked back, immediately noticing the hulking form of the Grimm was gone, quickly getting up and looking over the edge to see a streak of black race across the field before vanishing into the forest.
Quickly turning back to the Bullhead, she grabbed the Faunus's outstretched hand, crashing into the closest bench she could reach. The rest of the ride was spent in silence after the Faunus, Velvet, did a quick check-up on Ruby and promptly began to quietly converse with the rest of her team. The whole time Ruby could only think about that strange Grimm, a small part of her amazed by the experience, as she held her soaked, hole-ridden hood in her shaking hands.
Ruby crashed onto her hotel bed, completely wiped from tonight's experience, kicking off her boots and throwing her abused cloak onto the chair nearby as she looked up at the ceiling with a blank expression. After a quick interrogation from the Vale militia and giving a brief account from her perspective, they let her off with a warning to leave the fighting to the professionals, much to her great displeasure.
'Professionals!?', she thought, 'those guys would be ground meat if I wasn't there!'
She sat up, running her hands over her face as she sighed in exasperation. It was too late to get this angry, and she was totally done with today.
'Well, at least nobody will know that I got kidnapped by a Beowolf, besides Yang anyway...how embarrassing.'
The Vale News Network had been there in the streets, Ruby being grateful that they hadn't managed to capture any solid footage of her besides her red cloak billowing off the back of the Beowolf as it scaled the wall. Of course, that didn't stop Yang from calling in a near hysterical panic, her sister having seen the flash briefing on the T.V. at a nightclub she had been at. Ruby assured her she was alright, practically drowning in embarrassment as she begged Yang to not call Dad.
Ruby then grabbed the remote on the nightstand, tuning in to the news as they just finished reporting on a robbery made at the Dust shop From Dust Till Dawn. The reporter then went on to say that this was one of many robberies in a string of incidents in Vale, speculating that the attack on the wall could have had some connection to this crime, yet authorities are not disclosing any information at this time.
"Shucks, I was supposed to shop for more Dust."
She then got up, grabbing her pajamas and a towel, heading to the bathroom for a quick shower.
"Hope these robberies don't drive the costs of Dust up too high, I only have so much money on me," she said with a pout. Dad would be mad if she overdrew her account...again.
Closing the door behind her, she started undoing her corset and belt when she felt a sharp pain on her stomach. Shocked, she slowly undid the strings, slipping off the shirt and corset in one swift movement. Standing in front of the mirror, she gasped as she saw the dark bruise that formed just below her bust. She lightly touched it, the action causing another sharp pain to assault her senses, as she drew another shaky breath. It was large, and it nearly covered all of her abdomen and her hips.
'No Grimm has ever injured me like this before,' she thought incredulously, 'how did I not notice this sooner?'
She slipped off the rest of her clothes, turning on the shower to the right heat, as she thought about the Beowolf that did this.
'My aura barely protected me from the grab, yet it didn't completely break, as I was still able to use my Semblance. It must have been my adrenaline that kept the pain down-.'
"Ouch!" Ruby hissed as the hot water touched her bruise.
'That Beowolf's appearance, its behavior and unnatural strength, this creature was much more than some Alpha.'
The thought sent a chill through her body, the heat of the water going completely unnoticed, as the revelation suddenly hit her. There was no way, yet the more she thought about it, the more it started to make sense to her. She thought back to when she talked to the Beowolf, its reaction to the militia and the other Huntsmen, the moment it saved her from falling to her death as it carried her up the wall. Those soulless, glowing red eyes that looked at her when it effortlessly held her against the building; those eyes held more than just the blind animalistic hatred she had expected, but also a deep intelligence to them that haunted her.
She soon broke out of her thoughts, noticing the steam filling the room, as she finished cleaning herself off. Stepping out with the towel wrapped around her, she changed into her pajamas, the tank top thankfully covering the ugly bruise she was sure would be gone by tomorrow. Hanging up the towel, shutting off the T.V. and crawling in under the sheets, the Beowolf popped back up in her thoughts; the idea of seeing this deadly creature for some reason filled her a strange giddiness as sleep slowly came to her.