To the respectable Miss Schnee,
Where the hell are you? I know it's hard to believe, but Ruby's back. She's actually here, I don't know how or why, but she is. So, get your dust damned head out of your spreadsheets and get over here. I… Don't know how long this will last. You should see her, before anything happens to either of you.
You owe her at least this.
-Blake Belladonna
The leaves rustled in the moonlit breeze, their red petals fluttering around and tickling one another. They swayed to a silent beat, and long, thin branches knocked ever so slightly against one another in the dense forestry.
Ruby breathed deeply, letting the cool autumn air fill her lungs and ease her. She felt tense, on edge besides not being able to see any clear danger. Perhaps it was the web of shadows cast on the ground by the arching canopy of increasingly skeletal branches that almost seemed to resemble that of a spider. Yet, she knew her query lay further on, deeper into the forest. There had been no sign of any other of the Grimm.
She picked her way across the leaves strewn on the ground, careful not to make a sound despite the crinkling one would suspect would accompany footfalls on crisp, dried and dead foliole.
When Ruby Rose donned her hood and wielded her scythe, she was as silent as death itself. All she could do was hope she was equally as deadly.
Deathstalkers, three if her intel was correct, were her adversaries on this day. She would have preferred not to do this alone though. But Weiss -
A pang shot through Ruby, striking the most discordant note in her chest. She had to shut her eyes for a moment to stop from gasping in pain as her chest constricted at the thought. It felt like a physical stab, white hot agony exploding through her.
The truth was that she was losing Weiss. She loved Weiss with all her heart, and to see the beautiful woman throw her happiness to the wind in hopes of pleasing a father too long dissapointed and too far removed to ever truly be proud. But Weiss had a sense of duty. She had to undo her father's wrongs, even if it meant she would only walk into his footsteps. Good intentions lead many places, but far too often to the very ends one wished to avoid from the start.
She wished she could see Weiss now. Hold her again, gently stroke her cheek, trace the scar that only seemed to enhance her beauty as she had so many times. She wanted to go back to those perfect nights in Beacon when Yang and Blake were away and she and Weiss would curl up in the blankets laying next to one another. They would whisper their hopes, their dreams, and their fears into the long hours of the night, heedless of the passing time. They never felt tired, they never worried about the next day, all that mattered was the other wrapped in their arms, and the beauty of the moment.
But those days were scarce now. And where once hope had been the domineering topic, it seemed that now more fear and worry had plagued Weiss, that perhaps what she was doing was not the right thing, and even more worryingly, that she might lose Ruby.
Ruby had been appalled the first night she heard those words tumble out of Weiss' shaking lips, so close to the verge of tears. How could Weiss not know that Ruby would never leave her? In fact, could never leave her.
But with Weiss trembling, her gaze never meeting Ruby's, her eyes shut tight, Ruby knew that she was afraid. Terrified. She had calmed Weiss that night, held her tight and reassured her, but once she knew, Ruby couldn't help but see it. The worry. The premonition of terrible irreparable damage. It was tearing Weiss apart, and as much as Ruby tried to stitch the pieces together, she was beginning to wonder how long she could outpace the fear. Someday, Ruby would fail.
And that day may have come.
So Ruby was alone as the air, now seeming to hold a hostile, icy edge, twirled her hair and she walked through the forest. The ground was now littered with decaying leaves, almost as if they understood the beasts of death that lingered just a few hundred feet from where she was.
Crescent Rose slid off her belt into her hand, the smooth metal now more familiar than anything else, even than Weiss' touch. She felt a hollow pang in her stomach.
The scythe unfurled, hundreds of tiny gears locking into place. The perfect instrument of death. Ruby brought her hand up to her hood, slid it over her head, and Ruby Rose was gone.
The cloaked woman glided through the woods, seeing her prey ahead. A small burrow set near the edge of the woods, a tunnel of sorts. She could feel her aura tingling, rebelling at the presence of the Deathstalkers. The telltale glow of the stingers lit the inside of the cavern a cold orange as she walked forward. They wouldn't even hear her before the first was dead, and the second was a moment removed from joining its companion.
But she was patient. She took her time, avoided twigs and leaves. She made as much noise as her shadow, and was less visible.
Snap.
The woman in red stilled and crouched next to a small bush. Had she made the sound? She didn't think so, but it didn't matter now. The Deathstalkers had heard.
Chitter echoed out from the rocky burrow as three hulking figures emerged. Any other human would be afraid. Their hearts would be racing, breathes would be hitched or coming too fast, but the hooded woman was still. Her heart beat at a steady rhythm as she observed them sweep their large heads from side to side, looking for her. They knew she was there, and the Grimm never stopped when they had found prey. They would spread out, experienced enough to know that they could easily kill one measly human. They had no reason to be afraid. She wondered if they felt fear.
Her aura tensed, and a brief moment of confusion clouded her mind before her hood was ripped off and she felt something enter her neck. Her heartbeat skyrocketed as a cold liquid seep through her veins. She twisted hard, the needle sliding out of her neck as she rounded on her attacker, but as she turned she lost balance and lurched to the side.
In front of her stood a silhouette, but her vision was too blurry to make out details, and the grimy light of the moon did little to reveal its face. The shadows had allied themselves with another. It looked like a demon to her, standing there so impassively, watching as the poison began draining her life.
"Sorry about this, don't make it too messy." The leathery snap of a glove, and the shadow slipped behind the tree.
Whoever it was had just killed her. Perhaps it hadn't been a who, but a what. Perhaps she had just come face to face with death, and now, her time was up. That silhouette had just stolen everything from her.
Ruby felt the poison hit her heart and burst through every last nerve. She stumbled backwards, the unfamiliar feeling of fear clawing at her stomach. And she knew what that meant.
She twirled her scythe as she whipped back around, deflecting the first blow she knew was coming. The stinger was knocked away, but she didn't even see the claw coming from the side that knocked her into a tree. Her aura took the hit, and Ruby stood.
Four - no three - hulking shadows chittered in a semicircle around her, dozen of fuzzy glowing eyes tracing streaks of light through Ruby's vision as the forest blurred into swabs of grey and black. She couldn't do this. She needed to get out.
She turned and activated her semblance, but her legs were numb. She lurched as she pushed off the ground and flew through the air, uncontrolled. She cried out as she slammed into a tree. It cracked as her aura did, splintered and fell behind her.
The Deathstalkers had her, and they knew it.
They clacked their claws excitedly as their talons clamped into the ground. Their amorphous shadows closed in on her, towering darkness bearing down on her and blocking out the stars above. The only light left came from a sliver of shattered moon.
Ruby walked backwards as they advanced. Looked behind her and saw a drop off. She could not run. She was backed up, drugged, against a cliff with three Deathstalkers advancing.
She pulled her hood up, and levelled her scythe.
The first stinger came and she knocked it away. The second shot at her leg and she bunted it away with the butt of her scythe. The third gashed through her shoulder and Ruby cried out as liquid fire leapt through her body. She let go with her right hand and swung the blade up, cutting through the soft tissue just under the hook-like stinger. It slid out of her shoulder as it slid off the tail and the Deathstalker shrieked.
The next round of stingers came at the same time, one twisting behind her to go for her calf. Ruby saw it, but was forced to deal with the one shooting at her skull. She knocked it aside then tried to roll to avoid the other stinger, but stumbled and fell onto her wounded shoulder. Lightning arced through her and she couldn't help but scream.
She felt something slide through her leg smoothly. It took a moment for the pain to hit this time, but when it did, it lanced through her system. The drugs were taking her.
She still screamed.
She was on her back and she could see the nigh on golden spike pinning her quadricep to the ground. Another reared up above her and Ruby slashed at it, missed, and it buried itself in her stomach. She braced for the pain.
None came.
Ruby was dying.
She looked at the stinger buried in her stomach curiously. Detached, she watched as her scythe slid through the tail and separated it. She reached for the stinger, but her injured arm wouldn't move. She cocked Crescent Rose and it turned into a rifle as the uninjured Deathstalker crawled over her, its fangs opening, covered it glittering saliva as it approached. A gob dropped onto Ruby's chest, but she didn't even feel it. She just levelled the gun and pumped a dust round right through its eye.
An unholy shriek ripped through the air as it reared back onto its hind four legs. When it crashed down, on of the talons slammed onto Ruby's injured arm. She felt a sickening crunch, and this time the pain overwhelmed the drugs. She groaned, too tired to do anything more as an ocean of agony crushed her. She arched her back, but that just shifted the hundred shards of bone and she writhed uncontrollably.
She saw another Deathstalker slinking towards her. She raised Crescent Rose once more, but her arm was shaking, and when she shot the round bounced off its armor harmlessly. In response, its claw shot forward and took her leg.
The world flashed white and Ruby was consumed in a living hell. When she could see, she saw her leg disappearing into the gnashing maw of a Deathstalker. Blood dripped down and pooled beneath the monster's mouth, dribbling over Ruby's remaining leg. She looked at it in shock, trying to process what she was seeing.
Ice was spreading through her veins now, making it impossible to move. Her fingers were numb, and Ruby knew that death was calling to her. She managed to flail her head to the side just in time to lose sight of her arm in a Deathstalker mouth as it blotted out the world. It tickled as her arm was devoured.
She should fight.
But she couldn't.
"Weiss…" The word dribbled from her mouth alongside her life-blood. Ruby had failed her. Weiss would be truly alone now. Ruby wished she could see her, just one last time.
She closed her eyes - all she saw was black now anyways, and let the Deathstalkers have their way.
The Grimm were merciless. Bones were stamped into puree as they trampled the huntress. Crescent Rose is the only thing they didn't touch, and its already red surface was stained a different kind of scarlet when scraps of flesh and muscle landed on it as the Deathstalkers tore the vestiges of Ruby Rose into tattered bits and pieces.
Ruby screamed as she shot up, a sheen of sweat covering her body. Fear and revulsion shook her and rattled her breath. Made her tremble. She was in the spare room again, the shadows looming large and heavy around her. Under the door though, she saw a sliver of pure light. She staggered towards it, almost drunkenly, and opened it. It felt like a breath of fresh air to see the kitchen, alight and devoid of shadows. It seemed someone had forgotten to turn it off.
"Ruby?" Blake, the shadow cat asked. Ruby whipped her head towards the voice to find Blake, wearing her house-coat and flicking her ear at the sudden disturbance. "What's wrong?"
The dream was fading quickly, once again slipping into the hazy fog of her past memories, but she ensnared one thought, one image. The shadow, nothing more than the utter and sheer absence of life, that had murdered her.
"I..." Ruby trailed off, troubled. It was just a nightmare right? There was nothing to it. It was just the manifestation of fear, caused by her being scared. Of what she wasn't certain. The death she had had? Nonetheless, fear was the enemy of any huntress, and Ruby needed to master it again. She couldn't entertain the idea that caused her fear.
"Nothing. Just a dream." She half-whispered. Blake cocked her head, but didn't press.
Ruby walked back into the shadows of her room and lay down on the couch. She didn't close the door to shut out the light.