Author's Note: And so we've finally reached this point. Two more chapters to go, now.

"– Tch!"

Ruby barrel-rolled off the roof just in time, as a sudden claw emerged out of nowhere to almost puncture her spine. The young warrior landed neatly on both feet before propelling herself towards a nearby cover, gun already trained towards her previous spot to fire three shots into empty air. Ruby's eyes narrowed as she morphed Crescent Rose into its second mode immediately. Was it her imagination playing tricks? It can't be; the atmosphere was so thick with murderous intent a second ago that only a dead man could be oblivious to it. She quickly came to the conclusion that the Demon must either be invisible, formless, or so quick that even her eyes could not catch its figure. Neither type made it in her favorite list of enemies, and the cold sweat forming underneath her palm only served to reinforce the notion.

The shadow struck. Had she not encountered the strange fog from this morning, she would not have noticed the pools of darkness gathering directly beneath her before shooting out in a spray of deadly shards. With uncanny agility Ruby danced and sidestepped and dodged the endless shots with Crescent Rose occasionally parrying away at the impossible before diving straight into the open for more light, but just seconds into the ambush she decided that the usual modus operandi would not work against this enemy. She winced at the various cuts and bruises she accumulated just during that short window of assault: The anticipation of her reactions, the accuracy of the shots, the cunningness that nearly had skewered by her own shadow and just about everything were at a complete different class as compared to before.

Being a creature of darkness she had expected this shadow to be unusually strong during the night, but this performance might as well negate completely the critical damage she dealt to it this afternoon! She thought fast. A change was needed; one that would undermine her opponent's advantage and boost her own, one that would even the playing field and end this embarrassingly one-sided pummel as soon as possible. A change of time was obviously impossible even though it would have been the most effective, but she could… change… the battlefield.

Ruby ran. Unlike some of her more prideful ex-colleagues, she – well, most of the time, probably – was not one to let arrogance overcome survival instinct. At this point the former Executioner was almost one hundred percent certain that this was the being that created the black fog phenomenon, and the dark and narrow alley she was in gave her enemy near infinite angles to ambush with. Without hesitation, Ruby ran at full speed towards the nearest cross road, but kept from using her Semblance in case her enemy could not keep up and chose to run away instead.

But it was pointless worry. Suddenly she crashed towards the ground with a resounding thud, and it took Ruby half a second to process that a pair of black coils had gripped firmly onto her ankles. Then the searing pain stalled yet another half before she finally reacted with a clean swipe-and-leap into the air, but by then it was already too late. Ruby landed roughly atop a moon lit roof, nearly collapsing as she leaned heavily against Crescent Rose for support and cursed. The young girl glared down at her ankles and to find them seared and blackened, and worse, she could feel a strange chill spreading out from her wound, eating away at her strength like a greedy leech.

This was bad. This was really bad. Even as she jumped again from roof to roof trying to escape the relentless assault, Ruby wasted no time to fish out two pouches of common Dust and sprinkle them over the wounds. The pain was downright unholy as the two opposing substances did battle against each other, but thank goodness that the corruption seeping away at her flesh had stopped. The young girl understood keenly that she was going to fight this without her usual mobility, and adding that to this morning's injury the young girl suddenly found the tables completely turned, that the hunter had suddenly become the hunted. She was not at a hundred percent to begin with, and if this trend of injuries kept up she might find herself too hurt and too weary to even escape, much less achieving victory.

But she would have to endure. As the apprentice of one of the greatest Guardian in history, defeat at a Demon's hand was simply out of question.

She hated her.

It was not as if the young Huntress' actions were unjustified. Had the little girl not interfered, she most likely would have succumbed to the thing anyway, and there wasn't anyone in Bamborsa that could stop it from rampaging. Walls and barricades meant nothing to her inner monster, and the only thing that could harm it was light, Dust, and Aura. The outcome would have been hell. Therefore she agreed that the shot was necessary. She agreed that any other alternatives were too dangerous, and that was their best chance of survival. She would even concede that had she been in the Huntress' position, she too would take the same shot without a second thought.

And yet Blake hated the Huntress still. She hated her so, much. Blake hated red riding hood for taking the fatal shot, thus robbing her of her dreams, her life, even that tiny chance she might have at regaining her humanity. Blake hated her sloppiness, for if the Huntress had bothered confirming her kill, she would never have fallen into such a horrifying state of limbo; a half man-and-monster stuck in this equal mockery of a body. She even hated her for not stopping the monster in time from roaming all the way into the town, for if she did she would never have killed an innocent man, would never have come so close – too close – to murdering her own best friend.

Who cares if the young girl was actually an innocent in this laughable farce? Who cares if she was just being a child trying to pin all the blame of this terrifying misery on a guiltless person? She too was an innocent, and look where she was now. There would be no stopping this fountain of bitterness bursting from inside her heart. She needed an outlet. She needed to vent. She needed to find someone, anyone to just fling all of her hatred at, to strangle and crush and rip and kill –

And so Blake hid among the shadows, quiet as the dead as she conjured upon countless shapes of pure nightmare to assault her fleeing enemy. There would be no hesitation. No foolish dreams of miracles. Blake was the monster of fairy tales, and she the sworn protector of humanity. Between the monster and the human, only one would survive, and no matter what the outcome was Blake Belladonna intended to perform her role to the utmost, and see things through until the very end.

So please, kill me and end this once and for all…

If there was one thing Ruby could say about the Demon, it would be that it was a local. To begin with, it could not have possibly known to corner her into that particular alley too narrow to dodge, or force her through that odd door that just happened to be riddled with nails on the other side, or even force-trip her at that one lousy ramp which was hollow at the center. Unless dear Demon happened to have an army of angels whispering into its ears, it was too much of a coincidence to be just pure luck at the right place at the right time. Only three minutes into the escape she had already accumulated so many wounds – a cut here, a gash there; and shallow as they were she immediately treated them with a spray of Dust although it slowed her down even more – and along with that, a mounting rage that could find no outlet. When Ruby had finally reached her chosen battlefield, the young Executioner was pissed enough to burn the entire town to the ground.

"Thank you for all that you've done! Now kindly allow me to return the favor!" Growling un-ladylike, Ruby wasted no time in sweeping Crescent Rose into a wide arc and destroyed the onslaught of blackish nightmares coming at her way instantly. Unlike before, the shadows were now constrained by the streetlight's illuminating presence, and Ruby could better predict the next strike with fewer shadows around. And of course, if the Demon tries to strike from beneath Ruby's own shadow –

Whump! Before the black nightmares could even rose a few centimeters, Ruby flung towards the ground around her a few specially customized Dust grenades she prepared specifically for this situation, and the world instantly exploded into shimmering clouds of Dust coating the entire world. Soon, the entire asphalt crossroad was glistening with blue Dust, and the nightmarish shadows could barely pierce through the thick clouds, much less latching onto any surface layered with the substance. Ruby grinned as she smashed the tail end of her scythe at the floor and declared loudly, "Why don't you come out and play now, little girl? Those pitiful sneak attacks of yours are getting boring."

The slithering darkness suddenly shook, halting in its tracks. Ruby was already surprised to find her taunts working – they never work unless it involved smacking away half their faces – but that shock was multiplied when she suddenly realized she was addressing the Demon as a she. It must have been a flawed afterthought; not to mention utterly pointless in this battle, and yet her instincts were one of a kind, and there was something obviously different about this creature – the purposefulness behind every action, the clear intelligence of its attacks, even the unusual deviousness in employing the environment to set cunning traps. Sentience. As far as she remembered only an Ancient or Legendary class Demon possessed that, and since she hadn't been ripped yet…

"You," A disbelieving gasp creaked over her face, "I don't believe it, but you're a mix, aren't you? A crossbreed."

Even as the words poured out of her mouth the rising shadows had come to a complete still in mid-air, further reinforcing her confidence as she continued with a tingle of pure disbelief, "I don't believe it. Sure I've heard rumors, but I always thought they are total bullshit concocted by crazy zealots. But to think that it's possible for a Demon and a human to have children… but how? Possession maybe; some form of strange infection that targets the unborn child?"

Ruby Rose loathed Demons. Ever since her Master killed was the young girl literally dedicated every waking second of her life into hunting the murderers down. But before the tragedy happened, she had always harbored a fascination towards the Grimm; a simple, innocent curiosity towards the strange and wild beings that had literally shaped mankind's way of life. It was the same, now. For just an instant, Ruby Rose forgot about her original purpose and acted like a child appropriate of her age. She even forgot her guard and walked closer towards the closest floating darkness, with her scythe facing her back and her eyes wide with curiosity. The strings behind the shadows seemed utterly confused by the reaction, as it simply allowed her to walk past its appendages without any resistance. The young girl stopped at a particular pool of darkness attached to a household's wall and watched it shivered involuntarily against its own will. This is cute, Ruby thought, I can almost believe that she – it – is human.

With careful aim, she sank her scythe deep into the pool and felt it connect. Then, firing her rifle a few times just to be sure, Ruby Rose waited, and smiled when the screams began.

The pain was unimaginable. Words could not describe pain of holy hellfire feasting gleefully on her corrupted flesh, and then there was the familiar taste of betrayal dancing at the tip of her tongue; ever present and never fading, mocking at her stupidity again and again until her very soul was ground down to dust. It was a miracle that she was still intact. It was a miracle Blake Belladonna still existed. She would be lying if she said she hadn't expected this. The young girl mixed the perfect blend between acting and truthfulness, but she had fallen for the same tricks too many times not to recognize it for what it was. How could she still let this happen then? Was the young girl really so convincing with her innocent outlook, or was she hypnotized by some power she did not know?

And yet deep down, she knew. Her monster half might be able to withstand the end of the world, but the human her could not even stand the lack of company. The most devious Player in Bamborsa was rather be fooled than lose a dear friend, and her temporary life at Bamborsa – dreamlike, fleeting, happy – had set that sentimentality running completely out of her control. Blake wanted to be recognized. Blake yearned to be treated as an equal. Above all, she wanted to be seen as human, to be loved as human, and for once in her life, actually love herself for what she was. In Bamborsa, many of these impossible dreams had actually come true. Given a little more time, she probably could love herself. Beyond that, she might even be able to finally let go of her fears and even love someone else.

Yes… it was a wonderful dream.

She unfurled her hand to stretch the fingers, before fastening a hold onto the crimson head of the offending weapon. It was slick, tough, and coated with a layer of Red Dust that sizzled away at her skin even though she was barely touching it. No wonder it had managed to pierce through the shroud of darkness so easily. No matter. The attack had nearly killed her, but it also presented with it a wondrous opportunity. As she tightened her grip Blake on the metal she felt only little resistance, and before her enemy became aware the woman forcefully ripped the entire blade out through her waist. Even as she cried out with unbridled agony the woman too relished with unholy joy. Finally, she was freed from own her weak flesh and blood. Finally,she was unleashed from the final chains of her humanity.

For too long she had lived within a prison of fear and malice, chained by no one but the literal curse of her own blood. No more. As her flesh and bone reknitted quickly as if time rewinding, Blake hauled herself out of the dimension of oblivion – the world of color emerging back into view along with the Huntress's alarmed expression – and casually tossed the red scythe back to its user. Already she was regenerated, but Blake still took the time to glance over herself and admire every pore of it. Whatever disfigurements or monstrous limbs due she had before were completely corrected, and to the normal eyes she looked every bit the usual human Blake down to the very last cell. And yet something was different. Something was obviously unnatural. The black-clad, red cloaked girl apparently sensed it as clear as night as she hissed with unbridled menace,

"I can feel you! You're… more than you should be! How?"

"Does it matter?" Blake answered lightly, while brushing a hand across her bow. She did not fully comprehend the logic, but even her clothes seemed to have regenerated, looking good as new and showing no signs of damage whatsoever. Convenient, "You are the human, and I am the monster. There can only be one ending."

"I'll kill you," the glint behind the young girl's eyes suddenly blazed into utter madness, and with a banshee's screech she charged ahead with contempt that could rival an unstoppable plague. But Blake had been reviled for her entire life; this tiny amount of hate was nothing at all, "I'll destroy you, Demon!"

"I've ruined many lives with these two hands, innocent or guilty, young or old," her bestial eyes glowed golden with equal cruelty, "What is one more?"

A glob of unearthly darkness flew directly towards Ruby' face, forcing the young girl to sidestep out of the way while readying her scythe for a counter attack. She would not allow it. In an instant, the glob turned into a string of the ugliest black as it lashed hard against the young girl's shoulders, sending her faltering a step before twisting away just in time to avoid a slap to the face. Blake Belladonna barely moved her arm at all, using only her wrists and fingers to craft an impossible web of punishment, and although Ruby dodged and blocked and sliced away at the tricky whip that seemed to come from all eight directions at once, they somehow always managed to find a defenseless patch of flesh to lash at, a spot of open skin to cut bright red. It was as if the accursed black had a life of its own! No matter how tough that Dust-formed clothes of hers were, it would not matter if the flesh underneath was pounded into indistinguishable bits!

But Ruby did not disappoint. By the fifth strike she had already seen through Blake's trickery, and as she backed out of attacking range suddenly – even as the whip elongated and chased doggedly for her head – the young girl elevated her rifle to point directly at the appendage and fired three rounds of Dust fire. Each bullet cut through the unnatural limb with unnerving accuracy, and before Blake could even think of regenerating them Ruby wiped it out of existence with a following flash of the blade. Blake nodded once in amazement, and Ruby gave away nothing at all.

Seizing the moment of opportunity, both woman dashed forwards almost simultaneously with weapon in arms and guttural growls, with Ruby getting into range first and bearing her giant scythe down like the grim reaper of death. It was one of her most powerful attacks; a simple swing with the best footing and the best range and the full use of her entire body strength to reap the enemy's life from head to toe, shoulder to kidney. Many lower class Demons had underestimated the raw strength of the human body, especially one so small as her, and be cleaved in half before they even understood what happened. No puny sword was ever going to stop her killing blow, and when she saw that the enemy had no intentions to dodge she thought for sure she had won the duel there and then.

However, it was Ruby who had underestimated her enemy. How long had it been since she fought a Demon skilled in armed duels? Twisting her waist down left Blake bent at an impossible angle to hold up a defensive cleaver, and as the grand scythe crashed into the crude metal it resisted, skidded, then got carried away completely to the other side without scratching even the skin of its intended target. Shocked, Ruby barely reacted as a black katana stabbed cleanly between her ribs, and she would have been severed in half by the following pause-and-slash had she not threw herself onto the ground at the last second.

Blake snorted derisively at her failed ambush, but wasted no time in pressing her next attacks without mercy. In an instant she rushed in like lightning towards the gasping Ruby, bearing twin swords and a gun against a scythe suddenly too huge to do anything within such close quarters. The dark-haired woman grinned with sadistic satisfaction as she pulled thrice the trigger of her pistol and watched them bounced painfully off the girl's chest, further robbing away precious air from her lungs. Who was the hunted now, Huntress!? As Ruby staggered into a desperate horizontal swing, Blake easily leaped over the blow and aimed a thrust towards the forehead. The once-human heaved a stoic sigh in her heart; it was over.

However, just as Ruby was ignorant of Blake's skill, the latter was unaware of the girl's resourcefulness. Against all expectations and shocking Blake to the core, Ruby Rose actually swung her head forwards to meet the deadly thrust with a savage grin on her face. Was she trying to die? Blake's grip on the blade did not falter, but she suddenly realized that the thrust had not gained enough momentum. Instead of the single, fluid motion she expected to pierce the Huntress' skull like hot knife through butter, the tip was actually balked for just the briefest of an instant against the human skull.

It was exactly the moment Ruby had waited for. Immediately she twisted her neck to one side just in time for the blade to slide off with an appalling squelch, and before Blake could react the Huntress had exploded the head of her scythe to snap directly across the woman's ribs. The appalling crack was every bit as bad as it sounded as Blake crashed a good twenty feet away like a rag doll. Impossible, Blake thought dazedly to herself even as she writhed with unspeakable agony, she actually pushed my blade away with her forehead. Impossible!As she tried to climb back to her feet, Blake saw clearly with growing horror the fallen girl already staggering back to an upright position, smiling, utterly careless of the horrible gash across her forehead and crimson blood spilling into her eyes. How could anyone pull such a crazy move, and not falter for even a second? How could anyone suffer such a hit, and still smile as wide as a kid eager for their Christmas gift? It was only then Blake realized that she had perhaps made a huge mistake of perception.

Just who was the human here, and who the real monster?

Blake Belladonna shook her head and steeled herself. None of her internal conflicts mattered; the only thing she needed to do was to end this clash, now. Suddenly darkness spread out underneath her feet like a stain of corruption, and it ate away even at the Dust-encrusted ground until everything except that ominous, bloody red was encased in darkness. Black figures writhed forth into existence, and the young girl's eyes widened to see that were all Blake Belladonna; growing from ten, fifty, a hundred, a thousand. All of them were armed. All of them were her equal. Classic novels would dictate the young girl to kill just one true body to appease all. In reality, she had to vanquish each and every one of these shadows and her, until there was no speck of her existence left in this cruel world. Had this fight happened during the day, it could've been possible.

But the night was still young, and amidst the darkness she – she was infinite.

Ruby had seemed like she wanted to say something then, but Blake refused to be distracted. As the army of clones marched forwards, the front line with blades and the second with whips and the back with pistols zooming from every high point possible, they crashed down onto the poor youngling like a gigantic tsunami. A hundred blades bore down onto the enemy with cuts and thrusts and strikes and smashes, and yet the young girl held on forcibly with mighty swings of her crimson scythe, swatting them back again and again. A hundred whips slithered into view to wrap and whip and strangle the Huntress to death, and yet she cleverly manipulated a tiny twister with rapid spins to strike them out of harm's way. A thousand bullets fired endlessly from all sides to riddle her like a hornet's nest, and still she managed to dodge and parry and dance out of the way like a fairy of legends, and came out with only the lightest of cuts.

Blake had to admit that she was impressed. Mind-boggled, even. Blake had to concede that she would not have won this fight if she fought her as a human, fought her without using almost everything at her disposal at the absolute limits of her strength. Unfortunately there was one more technique that she could not employ under the current circumstances, but with sheer numbers on her side the handicap was irrelevant. Impassionedly, Blake ordered the frontmost clones to charge at all costs towards Ruby Rose. As if sensing her intentions, the first and second waves were decimated before they even got close. The third wave managed to slink in a few meters before meeting the same fate, and the fourth got even closer with both its comrades' sacrifices and supporting fire from above.

Before long, even with Ruby's heroic efforts, the shadow clones finally squeezed the Huntress into a literal dead end. Desperate, the young girl risked everything by leaping sky high in hopes of finding better fighting ground, but before she rose even a few centimeters she abruptly fell towards the ground limp and weak. She looked down confusedly towards her legs. Then her hands. Then her body. Everywhere she looked stains of darkness was spreading like a plague from the many inflicted wounds she forgot to be consequential, eating away at every bit of strength she could barely move an arm. Many steel rose. Many steel, fell.

Blake closed her eyes. She was a master of deception and trickery. She may be an excellent and versatile fighter, but the very origin of her style was built on those foundations. Still she could not bear to look as the cold steels sank with hollow thunks into the body of the young girl. It was not a worthy death. In her entire life she had never met such a powerful Huntress, much less fight one and emerge the victor. It wasn't even her own strength. In the end, the hero had fallen to the cheapest tricks in the book, and the monster lived yet to kill another day. Blake laughed emptily to herself. There was no such thing as a happy ending; the world wasn't a fairy tale after all.

Wait a second. Thunk?

"Ahaha! I applaud your efforts, they were very impressive," An innocent laughter pierced through the shattering white moon clear as a bell, "But I hope you're done, because I'm going to show you mine now!"

There was a loud, whooshing sizzle, then the mechanical switching of a Dust magazine. She thought she saw a cross, and then it was just red. Red everywhere. From the center of the ground gushed forth an unbelievable tornado of bloody petals, and they swallowed away at her shadow clones so quickly Blake could hardly believe it was happening. Even as she sent forth the rest of her remaining clones to suppress the enemy – all the while regenerating new reinforcements from the back – the crimson death ripped through them so easily they might as well be made of paper. Impossible, the young woman thought despairingly, hopelessly, almost admiringly at the endless red killing the darkness faster than it could exist. All this time, she thought with an uncontrollable chill down her spine, she fought me without using her Semblance? She fought me without using her trump card? Was she really human? Was this even something a human's capable of?

If this was the true potential of a human's capacity, then all this she had spent scorning herself, disbelieving in her own strength to control the monster living inside her – had she misjudged her own capabilities, her human strength and heart? She thought she believed in people. She thought she believed in their potential and strength.

But had she really been looking down on humanity this entire time?

There was the fluttering of cloth, and then a painful crack at the back of her head as Blake fell unceremoniously towards the ground. She felt the unmistakable sole of a boot stomping down on her head immediately after, and it grinded harshly in a circular pattern as if to elicit pleasure out of her tortured groans. Her heart turned cold as death as she felt round steel jamming roughly behind her skull,

"C'mon, run away. I'm sure you can do some sneaky stuff like sinking into the walls like before. And I've noticed that you tied your whip to the pistol; why don't you try to do anything fancy with it?"

She certainly could. There was near absolute safety behind the dimension of darkness, and she could easily summon every one of her shadow clones and fight again, not to mention that she still had the kusarigama style. She also had near infinite energy to employ until morning arrives, and if the heavy breathing and shaking boots were any indication then her opponent was faltering, weary, hurt. Whatever the Huntress did to escape her curse have to have taken a terrible toll. She could win. She could beat this monster of a human.

But to what end?

"I have lost," Blake Belladonna said in a subdued tone, "Kill me."

"Aha! Don't you worry about that, I definitely will," There was more than just chilling to that innocent voice, but Blake could barely feel anything the way she was now. She just wanted everything to end already, "But don't you want to resist? I mean, you've fought so hard and long, surely you don't mind entertaining me just a little longer, hmm?"

"No," there was a little more energy in her voice this time, "I don – Gagggrrgrf!"

There was a crack of gunfire, and an extraordinary pain blossoming at the center of her neck. The young woman gurgled and clawed at her throat, but already her wounds were mending, healing ever so slowly against the counteracting effects of Dust. Ruby Rose bowed behind to her ears and cooed admiringly,

"Oh my, this is interesting. I've seen some Demons with powerful healing factors, but yours is so fast it's almost like time itself is rewinding. How do you do that? Is it the same everywhere else? Let us go by the order of your legs, your hands, and your heart and see, shall we? Ahahahaha!"

Every time she spoke gunfire broke through the air, and Blake screamed as the bullets penetrated her body mercilessly and burned like wildfire. Fear gouged through her as she thrashed wildly trying to escape, to no avail: before she knew it the youngling had scattered Dust all over the ground again, preventing her from forming even the tiniest hole of darkness. With her entire body literally being consumed by Dust, she couldn't possibly concentrate enough to form one anyway. Is this it? Blake thought amidst the haze of heat, is this the punishment for my sins? Humiliated, tortured, helpless to do anything until death claims me? She thought of her mother. She thought of Brawn and his family. She thought of Elliot, cowering at a corner with his pure heart forever tainted by blood.

Will it be enough?

She turned quiet. Unresponsive. No matter how much Ruby tried to provoke a response, Blake uttered not a sound and didn't so much as twitch an involuntary muscle. It didn't take her long to grow bored, and as the adrenaline faded her own injuries had begun to take its toll over her. She pulled the young woman by her hair and slipped Crescent Rose's blade right underneath her neck, drawing countless streams of blood during the process. Blake Belladonna closed her eyes, and waited.

"Any last words?"

Blake opened her mouth, before closing it again. There were so many things she wanted to say; but in the end, none of it mattered. She did not deserve it anyway. She had meant to repay everything in death, and death alone would be her answer.

"I see. Goodbye."

Indeed. Goodbye, Elliot. Goodbye, Berry. Goodbye, Bamborsa, everyone. And mother… here I come.

BANG.

Death, had never felt so peaceful.