Chapter 4: The Toll of Thunder

Okay so it's been a while... Let's see if I can still do this. Here's the latest chapter of From Heads Unworthy.

"This is something that I've never seen before. Something that can't be allowed to spread." The doctor of Deytere had visited the Belladonna family many times over the past few days. "Ashleigh and Cole Belladonna have contracted an illness unlike any I've encountered." The doctor removed the dark full length coat he usually wears, placing his bag of various tools on the desk of the Elders. "Nothing I have administered has had any effect. The only remaining course of action is to quarantine anyone who's had contact with either Cole or Ashleigh until we're sure this thing has passed." he said, sitting down with a heavy sigh, rubbing his temples. "Including myself."

"Is that truly the only thing that you can suggest? To allow them to suffer, and hope they can weather this storm?!" The oldest Elder, an old wolf faunus, asked with all the force his lungs could muster.

"The Belladonna's have done more for this village than any other family can claim. They deserve better than to be abandoned when they need our help the most." the eldest woman in the village, a soft spoken rabbit faunus said. She had helped raise both Cole and Ashleigh, they were like her children.

"Believe me when I say, th-this is beyond the last thing I would suggest. Truth be told, Cole told me to suggest it. As a doctor, it is only logical to agree with the boy." The doctor weaved his fingers together and hid his mouth behind them, as if he were trying to hide from this undeniable truth.

"If it is his wish to isolate himself for what he believes to be our safety, then so be it. We should honor the wish of one of this village's greatest men." The wolf faunus again spoke.

"I will begin preparations for this imme-" Thunder clapped, interrupting the doctor, followed immediately by a symphony of rain falling on the roofs and windows of the village. "Immediately after this storm breaks."

"Even the sky mourns for them." the woman observed, looking out the large pane window toward the edge of Deytere, toward the house of the Belladonna family.

Coughing and wheezing were masked by the roll of thunder in the shack the Belladonna family called home. "Ashleigh," Cole wheezed his wives name. He brushed the sweat-sticky bangs from her face, putting his palm gently to her forehead. She had long since fallen asleep, only shortly after she said her goodbye to her dear Blake, days before.

"To think, we survived so much. The War of Inspirations, the War of Unification, and countless battles with creatures of Grimm..." Cole was beginning to lose fortitude. His voice was strained and wavering, from crying and trying hard not to continue. "We raised a beautiful little girl... Survived all the trouble and happiness Blake gave us... So much to be proud of and something like this gets us..." Cole's lip began to tremble as the thunder again rolled through his body. Every clap of thunder ringing in his ears like the toll of a church bell.

Ashleigh had been breathing so shallow and ragged since before Cole had awoke that morning. He had been placing cool rags on her forehead all day, but he had run out of freeze dust a few hours ago. So he had to settle for plain wet rags. Neither had made any discernible difference in Ashleigh's condition. "Please wake up." Cole had begun to plead his wife, in vain of course.

When the rain began to fall, and drip through the roof, everything only got worse. It was wet everywhere. Cole was left to miserably watch his wife's condition deteriorate. All the dry blankets he had spared for her, hoping her fever would break. Cole sat at the edge of their bed, watching her breath. As long as she was breathing he could hold onto hope. As long as she was alive, he could...

Cole was awakened by something... Or rather, the lack of something. He opened his eyes and sharpened his hearing, searching for what was missing. He lifted his head slowly, and saw his wife's eyes meeting his. She smiled at him, "Good morning, darling." she reached for him, stroking his cheek softly. Weakly.

Cole couldn't contain the happiness that swelled in him, he grabbed her hand and nuzzled it. He kissed her wrist more than a few times, unable to contain his happiness, "Ashleigh..." He said, as his kisses traveled up her arm. Then he stopped, and looked into her eyes. "You're awake. How do you feel?"

"I've felt much worse." she smiled, "And I've felt much, much better, but I'm alive." Ashleigh wrapped Cole in as strong a hug as she could muster. Gently, Cole returned the embrace, fretful that she'd break if he touched her too strongly.

He wanted to look at her again, so he gently pushed her out at arms length, holding her shoulders. He saw how weak she looked, how whatever she had affected her, how strained her smile was... Her eyes looked different. Cole's lip began to quiver, he wanted to cry. To cry for relief. To cry for fear. Just to cry for the sake of crying.

"Cole?" Ashleigh saw the maelstrom of emotion in her husband's eyes. She didn't know what was wrong. She looked at the mirror they had on the wall near the sink in the corner of the small home. She saw what had stirred the storm of emotion. Her eyes were wrong. Her body looked terrible. Her whole visage was off. "Oh no..." she muttered to herself.

"Ashleigh," Cole gently turned her head toward himself. Tears welled up in his eyes, he looked uncertain, scared, "when?" he asked.

"I-I don't remember," she thought hard. "I've never even seen one since we left the brotherhood and moved here." she couldn't understand. She grasped her head, her eyes screwed shut.

"It's already been a few days. Maybe it's not-"

"No. There's nothing else it could be." Ashleigh interrupted Cole. "Please, I can't. I won't change. I don't want that to be how you remember me."

Cole blinked, his lip again quivering, the welled tears falling, "Ashleigh," He remembered everything. Everything they survived. Everything they've done together, god and bad. He remembered Ashleigh holding Blake for the first time, how beautiful his wive looked as she looked lovingly at their daughter. He remembered how her smile would grow as she watched Blake play. He remembered how proud they were when Blake accepted Weiss.

Then Cole also remembered all the allies they lost to the darkness that his claiming his wife right now. How they'd become darkness itself. How they turned on their oldest friends and family. How they changed into monsters and destroyed everything they loved. Cole knew exactly what has to happen. Through a sorrow soaked voice, he began to speak, "The storm has forced everyone inside. I know where we can get it over with. Wait here a moment, I need to prepare for it." he rose to his feet, kissing his wife's hand before the left the little home.

Cole's tears were swept into the rain that fell. Every step he took brought more memories to life. When he got to his destination, he walked up the stairs, and knocked on the door. Glynda answered the door, "Cole? Wha-There's a quarantine in effect, you can't-"

"Don't worry, it's not contagious like this. Glynda, I need you to promise me something." he said, not a demand, but a plea. Cole was begging her for a favor.

"Cole, what's wrong?" She grew scared. Scared of how he was talking. Scared of how he looked. So very scared.

"Please, Glynda. I need you and Ozzy to take care of Blake." It became obvious that the water running down his face wasn't only rain.

"Cole, what's happening?" Glynda asked, her breath short. She knew, deep down, this might very well be the last time she sees her old friend. "Just, please... Tell me, what's happening?" Her voice broke.

"Glynda..." Cole turned around, his head angled up to the drowning sky, looking for a way out of this answer. His hands raked through is hair, turning back to Glynda, "Ashleigh, uh... She has it." he said simply. "The darkness, ah... Some how, she caught it." He stumbled through his words. "Glynda, my wife is turning. Now. She's in the last stage. I need to do this tonight. I can't live with out her. Not with Blake. Not knowing what... I can't. So please..." His face contorted in silent agony, his heart slowly dying, "Please, take care of my daughter. Take care of our heart."

Glynda began to cry, coming in short sobs, "I promise. Cole I promise to care or her like my own. I promise."

"Thank you. Please, don't ever forget we love you guys." Cole said as he walked away, disappearing back into the pouring rain. Lighting crashed and for an instant, she could see him again, the strength with which he walked through the rain was all it took.

"We love you too." Glynda whispered as she wrapped her arms around herself. She closed the door, sunk into the chair by the fire place and broke down.

Ashleigh sat on a chair at the dinning table, looking at the family photo album, dying more and more with every turn of a page. "Oh, Blake..."

Cole walked back into the house, "Ashleigh, it's time." he walked over to the fireplace, reaching up into the chimney. He pulled out a short blade with engravings on the flat of the blade. As he stepped closer to his wife, the engravings began to glow with a dull light, reflecting the shadows that streaked across Ashleigh's aura.

"Okay." she said, numbly. She rose from the chair, stepping behind it, and pushing it back into place. She spared one last look at the picture of Blake and Weiss smiling deeply at the camera, before closing the book.

Cole threw a lit torch into the mostly dry bed before they left, letting nature take it's course and spreading the fire. They walked swiftly to the edge of the forest, when Ashleigh turned around to watch their past burn away. Nobody came to help stop it. Perhaps because of the quarantine. Still the view mad her heart ache. Ashleigh held her hands over her heart, and shed the last of her tears.

Cole put a hand on her shoulder. When Ashleigh looked over her shoulder, they nodded at each other and ran into the forest. The pouring rain never bothered them as they ran through brush and low branches, passing through a corner of Forever Fall, and continued through the Emerald Forest until they arrived at a cave. The cave had some carving's just outside indicating the presence of one or more Deathstalkers.

Ashleigh was noticeably more winded than she should be, even for the distance they ran. Her aura is already nearly gone. "Cole, how much further?" she asked through raged breath. The darkness was decently well lit for their faunus eyes, and in the darkness, they saw a fork in the path.

"Huh," Cole grunted, "When you need to find the correct way always choose right..." he said, heading down the right path.

"Cole, honestly." Ashleigh face-palmed.

"I heard the scuttling and scraping of a Deathstalker down the other path. But you know me..." he said over his shoulder. "Either way, that's not the way I plan to die."

"Where are you taking us?" Ashleigh asked. Her grip on Cole's hand grew weaker by the minute.

"It's only a little further. I want to be sure Grimm don't find us. We don't want that at all."

"No. We don't." she shuddered at the thought.

The couple continued on in silence for what seemed like an eternity. When they reached the cavern Cole wanted she saw why he chose the spot. Dust grew from the walls like a giant geode of power. No Grimm would ever come to this place. "It's beautiful..." Ashleigh said in awe.

"Mmm, a perfect resting place for the Belladonna's, no?" Cole said.

"It's glorious." she genuinely smiled for the first time in days. "How-" she doubled up in agony.

"No, no, no, not yet!" Cole rushed to her side, just before she fell, catching her. He tried to slow the process, but already the darkness was seeping out of her pores. A black vapor was coming off her skin like she was on fire inside.

"God, Cole! MAKE IT STOP!" Ashleigh's screams were becoming more animal.

"I will. I will." Cole repeated as he stroked his wife's hair, fighting the urge to cry. He had to be strong. He began forcing his aura into her to ease the pain of turning.

Tears of blood began to stream down her cheeks. Then, she opened her eyes, screaming even louder, the agony growing as aura was forced into her body. The darkness inside her was trying to reject the light of life as her own light was darkened. Ashleigh opened her eyes, and they had already began changing. She looked at Cole for the last time as her skin began to dissipate and darkness took it's place. "I.. L-love..." she tried to sputter before she coughed up blood. Then fear took over her eyes as she died.

Cole's despair grew as he gently set her down. He rose to his feet. "I love you too, Ashleigh." He watched as the body of his fallen wife began to change. To turn. It wasn't long before all her skin was completely replaced by the writhing darkness that had killed her. What surprised him was the shape it began to settle into. "How...?"

Before him stood a new born Beowulf. Believed to have been nearly wiped out years ago, these are the most horrifying type of Grimm. Not because of their numbers, or their animalistic form of mauling. No they are the most terrifying species of Grimm because of the way they grow their numbers. They infect humans with their very darkness.

The creature opened its eyes, those red, glowing pools of hell fire, and roared at him. The roar of a Beowulf is particularly unnerving. The growl is said to sound like the dying scream of the human it had been born from.

Cole simply gazed at the creature. For a moment, he couldn't believe that creature was his wife. That demon was his wife. It was the evil thing that took her from him. Cole began shaking with rage, his grip on the dagger turning his knuckles white. When the Beowulf charged him, he rolled out of the way, slashing the beast's arm. The aura infused weapon doing more damage than just steel. The runes on the flat of the blade began to glow a fierce red.

The Beowulf quickly spun around, kicking off the wall, trying to make a leaping swipe. But Cole dodge to the side, and slashed at the beast again, this time the blade burned through the demon's side. As the Beowulf landed, it continued the battle, heeding no mind to the injury. The beast, rushed Cole, hitting him into the side of the cave. Cole felt a sharp pain in his back, and found it a little hard to breathe. He couldn't check though, the feral beast was attacking without mercy. Cole had little chance now that he'd been injured; possibly by one of the many Dust crystal outcroppings in the cave.

With little else to do, Cole stood his ground where he was. The Beowulf again charged Cole. This time however, Cole moved just to this side, allowing the demon to impale it's arm on the same crystal that had stabbed Cole. The beast howled and roared in anger and agony. The arm useless for now, the beast used it as a club, throwing its weight into the arm, trying to hit Cole with it. Cole still had difficulty moving due to the new hole in his back, not to mention the possibly punctured lung. Still, he tried to defeat the demon that was only just his wife.

Cole was hit by the haphazard swinging of the probably dead arm, and thrown to the ground. Like lightning the Beowulf was on top of him, trying to maul Cole with its good arm. Cole used the dagger to fend of the raking claws of the beast. Slashing at the monster's hand when it came into cutting distance.

When the Beowulf raised its arm up to deliver a crushing blow, Cole slashed the beast's thigh. Forcing the monster to roll off of him, the wound releasing a black vapor and a tar-thick ooze. While the monster was rolling away, so did Cole. The Beowulf looked at the wound then back to Cole, emitting a hissing growl. Cole readied himself for what ever came next. He knew neither of them were going to leave this cave.

The beast rushed toward Cole. What caught him off guard was the attack wasn't a slash or a shoulder charge. No, the Beowulf had thrust with it's sharp claws. Thrust its claws into Cole as far as they would go, and even more. Cole coughed up blood, spattering it all over the white mask of the demon. The Beowulf brought Cole close to its face. Cole saw the fires of hell in the monster's eyes. He couldn't let this monster get away from the cave. He wouldn't.

Holding onto the arm he's impaled on with one hand, Cole thrust the dagger he still held with the other into the beasts neck. Angling the blade into the demon's brain and jerking the hilt to the side to break the beast's neck. The arm of the beast went slack, dropping him to the ground. Cole landed on his feet, but stumbled backward and again impaled himself on an outcropping of Dust crystals.

As his life ebbed away, he watched the Beowulf dissolve into the air. Then the cave began to glow. Each Dust crystal in the cave began to glow. It was beautiful sight. 'This is the perfect resting place for a Belladonna...' Cole thought as he shed a tear. 'Blake... I'm sorry.' Memories of his daughter began playing before his eyes. He couldn't help but smile proudly as he watched his daughter grow again. Then just before his light went out, he saw his daughter smiling with his oldest friend's daughter, Weiss. And he shed one last tear, 'Weiss... Thank you.'

Blake didn't know why she felt so terrible but she felt absolutely awful. Like she wanted to cry, scream, and run away all at once. She couldn't explain it, but she knew something horrible had happened. Then thunder clapped and the dark clouds that had hung around all day opened up and released the torrent they held. Blake hugged her legs as she began to cry as she looked out the window.

Okay, so how'd I do? Please reveiw, PM, or whatever. Have a good one! :)