He knows my name.
His tiny swollen bloodshot eyes followed her every move, his body immobile but those eyes alighted upon her own with recognition, with her name on his split lips.
And all at once the world hurtled back into motion. Fredrick was yelling something to Ficke, his hand tightening around her arm in a vice like grip. It took a moment for Milena to realize that he was trying to get her out of the suddenly suffocating small room. It took another to realize she was fighting him, screaming something unintelligible at that thing restrained to the chair. That thing that called her by name.
Fredrick yelled at Christuf and the man understood enough to help him hold Milena as she bucked, clawing at his embrace.
He knows my name, he knows my name. The same name she tried to erase from existence, the same name she carved into the wood of her cabin before she knew better, the same name of that sad little girl who-
"Milena calm down."
I don't want to calm down- I don't-
If he knew her face well enough to recognize her, someone had told him something, someone was looking for her. After all these years someone was still looking for her; the little girl who got away, the girl who still had nightmares about-
She caught the hand just as it was about to hit her cheek, focusing all her attention on who it belong to. Christuf and Frdrick were panting but Milena was barely out of breath. After a moment she released Ruiss' palm and the French girl waited a moment before she said, "You can let go of her now", repeating the order on German for Christuf's benefit.
The two men gently eased the girl to the floor as she slid down the wall, Fredrick immediately stepping back even as Christuf waited by Milena's side should she choose to charge again. But the Grimm forced her eyes to stay on the ground, even as she heard her teammates attempt to communicate with her. Fredrick uttered a low oath, pacing in front of the others, boots slapping against the cold pavement.
"I just- I don't understand." He seemed more at a loss than Milena did. The he stopped walking, kneeling in front of Milena as he forced her to look him in the eye.
"Have you met this wesen before today?"
"No."
"Have you met him before this mission?"
"No."
"Do you know of any prior ways he could have gained contact with you?"
"No."
Silas shoved his way past Renata and Ruiss. "What the Hell is going on?"
Fredrick barely spared him a glance. "The wesen knows Milena's true name."
Milena didn't know Silas well but she doubted even his close friends saw his face obtain the pallor it did now. "Oh shit."
Normally it wouldn't matter if a dead wesen knew a Grimm's name before they died, in fact many knew a lot more than they had before they kicked the bucket than they did when they were actually living. It wouldn't have mattered if a lowlife like Rat knew Milena's name before he died. But that was what the problem was; a lowlife like Rat knew Milena's name before he had even been captured, recognizing her by her face alone.
A life of a Grimm was about ambiguity. The longer you stayed in the shadows, the longer you prolonged your life. Grimms like Valian and Fredrick were well known because they were Grimms that lived past their thirtieth birthday and had impressive track records. They wanted their name spread, feared by wesen. But a lowlife wesen knew of Milena.
Valian had kept her daughter as a coveted secret because everyone literally wanted a piece of a Grimm. Profit, revenge, blood, spells, Milena was valuable if someone could prove her existence. If anyone was to go looking for Lilith or Ruiss, they would meet multiple dead ends and even a few death certificates before they came anywhere close to the Fountine girls and by that time both Lilith and Ruiss would have been notified of the person searching for them. And yet a lowlife, the scum of the earth everyday kidnapper knew Milena's face well enough to identify her.
Someone's looking for me and their influence extends to America.
Fredrick was pacing again but Milena decided it was enough. She stood. Ruiss, Renata, Christuf, Silas and Brie all looked a little more than surprised.
"We have to interrogate him for more information." Milena reminded them quietly.
Fredrick waved another careless hand. "I assigned Fredrick to that."
The Grimm felt her eyes widened. "No that's not a good-"
A loud unmistakable sound of a pistol fired once in the office, effectively punctuating her late warning. Fredrick immediately rushed inside but Milena was slower to follow, the rest of the group on her heels. Ficke stood before the chair, what remained of Rat's inner hear spattered on the wall in front of him.
The large man simply shrugged at Fredrick's seething expression. "He wasn't going to tell us anything more."
"You're right Ficke, he can't anymore." Ruiss replied dryly, eyeing the wall.
The man's face twisted into something other than an easy smile. "You little-"
"Enough." Fredrick snapped. Milena had never actually seen Fredrick angry but with the incessant pacing, the frown, how he wrung his hands, came close. He turned to Brie, asking quickly. "Did any of the others tell you any more information?"
The woman's hands were already bloody but she shook her head in dis content. "No but I've had less than five minutes with them. I need more time."
"We don't have that much." Fredrick glanced to Ficke, what little remained of Rat. "And now since they heard a shot, they will assume the worst which means they have nothing to live for." His eyes snapped to Silas. "Find the weak ones and line them up. Kill the strong ones for them until they start talking."
The smile Silas gave him in return turned Milena's volatile stomach but she felt a grin rise her cheeks as well. He knew my name. She glanced back at Rat's body, the Grimm shifting beneath her skin at the violent justice. He spoke my name name and paid the tithe.
Fredrick noticed the subject of her attention and grasped her arm again, gently pulling her from the room. She ignored the tremor in his hands. "If you want you can watch but keep your clothes clean." The option gave her pause; had Valian been there, she wouldn't have had the choice, expected to be present and be appropriately enthusiastic. Normally she would jump at the opportunity to skip out on the bloodbath but now… now she had to know. This search for information was on her behalf, a small gift for Fredrick's daughter from the others, a method to couple the madness. The Grimms finally had a reason to torture their victims for one of their own.
Milena gave a tight nod, following her father down the hall again, hearing the silence being abandoned as chairs scrapped along the floor and people were moved. As her feet finally rounded the curve, Milena felt her attention immediately zero in on Brie.
The woman had a record of her own. Valian had personally trained her in the first few years she joined the woman's task teams. Brie was intuitive, blunt and observed more than the average Grimm did. Silas dragged the wesen before her, one by one and Brie quietly stared at them for a few seconds before sending them either left or right. Milena didn't know what she saw in their uncovered faces, didn't know what abilities allowed Brie to sort them into two groups but she knew the efficiency of allowing the woman to work. Brie had a talent few possessed, allowing her to pick those who would be weeping underneath a blade, what techniques to use and which ones would break if she applied the right pressure.
The Grimm had tried explaining it to Milena once, how to sense the false bravado most people let on, how she could tell by the way they stared at her, when they looked away, which punishment would be most effective. Milena never truly understood but she always wondered what Brie saw in her, what actions she would be forced to endure if Brie ever changed from her teammate to her opponent, wondered when she would break beneath the woman's blade. Those were the thoughts Milena didn't allow herself to dwell on, making a point to ignore the small voice that sent her eyes drifting over Silas, the voice that knew if she hurt Silas, Brie would feel it ten times more acutely.
In a few minutes, the group Brie had deemed the talkers were tied down, secured to a variety of mismatched chairs Magda and Ruiss had procured from a small closet somewhere in the building. Milena hardly noticed the horrendous smell she knew lingered throughout the building, instead registering that the scent of fear had spiked noticeably in the past few minutes. The Grimms lined in back of Brie, most settling to lean against the walls. Ruiss moved to stand next to Milena, her back easing to rest on the concrete surface as Renata exited the room, most likely to watch the survivors.
Brie allowed for a moment of silence to settle, breathing in the scent of piss and fear before she spoke to the mute room. "Who is guilty?"
After a moment of allowing the silence to once more cover the group, Brie let out a tired sigh. "Vary well, begin with that one." She gestured to a wesen they had placed within the talker group.
Magda and Silas immediately rose, grasping the thin man's body on either side as they hoisted him from the floor. The wesen's feet stumbled across the floor before his one good eye finally noticed where he was being dragged to. Ficke allowed a slow smile to spread across his lips when those eyes alighted upon him.
Face bleeding of all color as he looked to the Grimm in front of him, the vary large sword settled on his lap, the wesen finally started struggling, shoes finding no purchase on the smooth floor as he desperately tried to stop. Somewhere in between the moment of Silas and Magda kicking his knees, forcing him to kneel in front of Ficke and the giant man grasping the sword hilt, the wesen's voice finally shrieked "Wait- wait!"
Brie raised a hand and Ficke paused, sill holding his weapon at the ready. Their acting skill have improved. Milena felt a small glimmer of approval. You can almost believe they didn't expect that wesen to speak out.
The man on his knees was breathing erratically, working hard to hyperventilate. A balding head, slight stomach pouch, he could have been someone's father, a hard working man. But the fur spread across his face, the dulled claws extended from his fingernails revealed the Drang-Zorn hiding beneath human flesh.
"I'm innocent! You've got to believe-"
"I don't have to believe anything." Brie's voice was steady, calm. "You refused to speak up before and only do so now to prolong the inevitable." She waved a hand and Ficke raised his blade.
"Wait- wait" The man yelped, shaking voice filling the petrified silence. "I didn't even know about this until a week ago John-"
"Shut up Walter." Another wesen snarled from within the group.
"He made me do it- he's the one who told us what to do- who to grab, where their house was- please, please you got to believe me."
Brie pretended to consider his blubbered statement, watching the man who had spoken out in the group on the floor a tad more interest. "We will consider your plea Walter." The woman gave him a quiet smile as she waved Ruiss forward and the Drang-zorn slumped in relief. "You're going to be taken to another room and she's going to ask you questions about the others." Brie shot the girl a sharp glance and Milena read the silent order. No weapons- words only.
Ruiss gave a small, almost insignificant nod back, gently hauling the wesen to his feet. Milena didn't know how much longer he had bought himself when other wesen began to speak up in rapid succession, voices Brie ignored when she met the man's snarling face with a steady gaze.
"Is what Walter said true?"
Lowen. Milena recognized the short fur and the mane as the man snarled, "I wont tell you nothing Bitch, you might as well kill me now."
The Grimm tilted her head slightly to the left. "No, you wont." She waved Silas forward. "You'll be begging to tell me." The man immediately cut a path through the bound wesen, lifting the lowen to his feet with what looked to be a generous amount of ease. The countless voices immediately quieted when Magda placed a small table beside Brie, Silas disposing the struggling wesen into it. Once he had been properly secured, the man drew a set of almost curved blades from his belt, waiting for Brie's command.
"Our code calls for us to dispense justice." Brie stated out loud, turning her attention on the table and not the captivated crowd in front of her. Every word she said was for the benefit of them, working them in her careful way. "But what we do to those convicted is purely for the our own sake." A slow smile. "We are Grimm after all."
She gave a single nod to Silas and the man stepped forward, face stoic but eyes dancing as he cut through the thin shirt covering the man's lower torso. The silence that had settled over the small group was deafening and Brie waited, waited until the lowen finally let out a gasp as Silas' curved blade grazed the skin of his stomach, until the first groan permuted the air, before Brie finally pretended to realize the rest of the wesen group was watching them.
"Whomever Walter names will meet the same treatment unless they speak in their own defense." The lowen finally began screaming, Silas cracking a grin as he peeled a long strip of skin away, throwing it carelessly to the ground. Milena watched one of the wesen near the back of the room vomit even as her own stomach twisted at the small plop the flesh made when connecting with the floor. Brie shook her head in dispare as the Lowen shrieked again, whimpering. "Really all you would have to do is talk to us. We are not unreasonable people. Claim your innocence, claim your right to walk away with the others."
Despite everything, the wesen seemed to band together, silently watching the lowen as Silas wiped the blood away from his finger tips, continuing to carve. More screams were soon to follow.
Another scream echoed through the building and Milena shot Brie a glance, seeing her own confusion mirrored back. Ruiss wasn't suppose to harm him. The Grimm forced herself not to flinch as another scream echoed through the building's walls, loud enough to make the wesen seated on the floor twitted and shrink. At the third, Christuf stood, the action seemed redundant as the sound broke off.
People don't voluntarily scream like that. Milena ignored the warm sense of pleasure she felt in her stomach, produced by the sound, and forced herself to hold onto caution. She loosened her pistol, the weight familiar, a comfort even when she wished for her hunting leathers. Ruiss wasn't suppose to hurt him- something's wrong. Ruiss is many things but she's not stupid- she doesn't disobey orders.
When Ruiss rounded the corner- her arms red up to her elbows, the carefully blank expression on her face- she took one look over the group of deathly silent wesen and fixated on one face.
Milena watched her stalk forward, ignoring Brie's warning glance, that careful expression replaced by an razor bladed grin. This is wrong. Milena didn't feel herself relax, even her Grimm loosing its edge as it perked an interest at Ruiss' stalk.
Brie had been placed in charge of getting information and unless everyone fell in line the illusion wouldn't work and it would take hours more to procure information, hours they didn't have if Fredrick was to make his dinner date. Milena had never seen the look that now flashed in her eyes, the deep expression set into her cheeks. With all her experience hunting with Ruiss, watching her kill, Milena felt at a loss.
This is wrong. Even her Grimm held itself with caution, recognizing another predator before watched as Ruiss stopped only a foot away from the wesen she had fixated on, breathing uneven, erratic. This isn't right.
Ruiss could make herself small, angelic enough to fool God himself into forgiving her and it was that voice she used when she purred. "Would you mind telling me who this is?"
The wesen, a Jägerbar, barely even glanced at the object Ruiss held in her hands, hidden from Milena's view. Despite the situation, the screams that had turned into whimpers as Silas worked, the smell of vomit and piss hanging heavily in the air, the wesen smiled at the girl in front of him. "I wouldn't know."
Ruiss had an easy smile on her lips but Milena felt her heartbeat increase, body unconsciously tense. "Then tell me," Ruiss ran a bloodied hand down the front of his shirt and Milena felt her gut twist. No, no- "Who killed Casse Raison?"
A second after the name left her lips, Fredrick was moving forward, Brie had paled, Ficke and Magda frozen, Christuf understanding the name and connotation enough to watch the girl with caution. A millisecond, in the span it took Milena to even blink, Ruiss struck.
The Jägerbar didn't even have time to look at the blade sticking from his shoulder before Ruiss' hand tighten on where she had stroked his shirt, gripping the material with white knuckles as she dropped, dragging the wesen straight to the ground. Fredrick's voice rose over the clamor of terrified wesen desperately trying to crawl away from the angelic girl who dropped their college, her fists already bloody from beating them into his face, lips locked in a wild, bordering on deranged, snarl.
"Ruiss no-" Fredrick attempted to grab her as Brie rose to her feet, shouting for Silas, Ficke and Magda to control the clamoring wesen as they crawled away, to bring them back as the Jägerbar roared in pain. Milena couldn't desern if he had woged or if his features were just permanently altered by what Ruiss was doing to him.
"Ruiss-" Fredrick's voice cut off with a humph of breath when a well placed kick sent him tumbling to the floor, winded.
Milena finally moved. In a moment, she was beside her cousin, Ruiss' white skin painted with gore. Recalling the countless nights Milena had woken to screaming, the countless more she had spent training with Ruiss, Milena pressed her fingers to the girl's neck, mimicking Lilith's movements.
For a moment, Ruiss went limp and that was all Milena needed to rip her away from the Jägerbar, her stomach almost relieving itself of its meal because Oh God, his face, his face-
A spatter of blood and a whimper was the only sign that thing was even living. Before she had even made it a few feet, Ruiss was alert and snarling once more, slamming her elbow into Milena, effectively driving the wind from her cousin but Milena didn't allow her grip to loosen as she kept Ruisseau on the ground, struggling to keep her immobile. Even before a minute had passed, Brie and Christuf entered her limited view and helped Milena contain the struggling screaming girl.
Somewhere in the general din of chaos, Milena heard Fredrick call. "Enough." He raised his voice, calling out again. "Enough!"
After a moment, the sound seemed to abate, even the wesen pausing. Milena hadn't seen Fredrick so… pissed. Holding his stomach, heaving in a vain attempt to take a full breath, he almost looked comical. The words that issued from his mouth were not.
"We've lost enough time. Magda, Renata, dispose of the spares. Ficke, make sure the proper authorities are allowed on the scene." He wheezed again, pointing a finger at Ruiss. "And you-"
"He was there." Ruiss spat back with equal venom. "He was there when my mother was killed."
Every Grimm in the room immediately stilled. When the Fontaine family had been brutally murdered, the case immediately went cold, even Valian couldn't track the killers. Any lead, any connection, any tidbit of information was to be coveted, preserved to the best of anyone's abilities. An entire family of Grimm, Ruiss and Lilith's family, had been executed; that action demanded retribution.
Fredrick's expression said he could care less.
This wont go well for him. Milena retained a tight hold on her cousin but the Grimm knew something drastic was going to happened. Fredrick didn't see Ruiss' outburst as a thing of passion as the others of the group knew it to be; he saw it as a blatant lack of control, a power play that challenged his place as the leader of the group. Ruiss had defied a direct order, she had unsettled him. He didn't know her well enough to know that this had never happened before; all he knew was that someone had stepped out of line. And such outbursts deserve punishment.
"You defied a direct order Ruisseau." Fredrick drew a gun hidden in his jacket, cocking it. "That doesn't fly on my hunts."
"His blood is mine." Ruiss snarled back, renewing her uphill struggle against Brie Christuf and Milena. "I claim his as my own."
Milena shivered at the words, noting that the other had paused in their actions, focusing on Fredrick. A blood claim. A Grimm could claim a hunt as their own for a variety of things but usually it wasn't for a fortunate reason. No one could touch the hunt except for the one who had claimed their life. Milena had been young when she had witnessed one. Another Grimm had taken a blood claim against a wesen who had spited him in the past. She still remembered the screams that echoed through the camp days after. The punishments of a blood claim were as promised; Blood for blood, bone for bone, a life for a life.
A hunt belonged to whomever had claimed it. Ruiss invoked a long held tradition dating centuries past, proving that she hadn't acted against Fredrick's wishes just for the hell of it. This matter went beyond petty; it was personal.
Fredrick shook his head, lifted his gun and ended the Jägerbar's life with a single bullet to the forehead. He tucked his gun away in his jacket, oblivious to the fact that every Grimm in the room had stopped, eyes riveted on the bleeding body. Ruiss was the only one he noticed. She had stopped struggling, staring aghast at the lifeless body in front of her, her normally pale face ashen.
Fredrick stooped down to her level, forcing their eyes to meet. "Don't cross me again."
Milena blinked at her father. Blinked again at the dead body. That was the only connection she's ever found to her mother. Five years and suddenly she has a lead. Milena stared at Ruiss, watching the girl's eyes slowly go from shell-shocked to burning, staring deep into Fredrick's own, matching the venom packed into her curling lip. The tentative respect Fredrick had inspired in the French girl evaporated, dying with the breath of her only hope to absolution.
"If you weren't Valian's lover I would take your life as forfeit." Ruisseau breathed, shoving the other stunned Grimms off of her as their slacking limbs allowed her to rise.
Fredrick crossed his arms across his chest, huffing. "Whom I sleep with has nothing to do with this. I am in charge-"
"You violated a blood claim." Renata sounded like she couldn't fathom what had just happened, a sentiment Milena mirrored.
"That isn't a real thing." But Fredrick was beginning to notice that the other Grimms weren't obeying his orders, instead watching Ruiss intently as she stalked forward, standing over the body Fredrick had taken from her. The body that had been taken from her
"Valian will pay for your mistake." Ruiss spoke in a quiet, light voice as she nudged the body, her hope of finding justice cooling with the dead wesen before her.
Milena felt herself loosen. She could have shot him and no one would have touched a hair on her head. Even if she decided to come back with us, mum couldn't even touch her if she wanted to get revenge.
Fredrick shook his head. "Do I have to tell you all to do your jobs? We've lost enough time. Magda, Renata, kill them." He gestured to the wesen bound on the floor.. "Ficke, call the police and give them the location- no names. Christuf, check the survivors- make sure we didn't miss any wesen in the bundle. If we did, bring them out."
"No."
Fredrick froze, spinning on a heel as he looked at the German man, a glare Christuf responded to by only shrugging. Before Fredrick could blow a gasket, Milena quietly explained "Christuf can't see."
The Grimm rocked back, eyes on Milena. "What?"
"Christuf is no Grimm." Brie clarified. "He does not have the sight."
Fredrick blinked again before sighing in frustration, lifting his hand to roughly rub his nose. "Okay- Silas, check the survivors. I want this done quickly."