Volume 6, Episode 2: The Beauty's Sleeping Aurora
Ruby wasn't the only one with nightmares.
Rudolph found himself in a snowy blizzard at night. He began trekking through in order to find some shelter. However, Rudolph realized he wasn't alone. He found someone, a boy possibly in his teens, standing alone in the woods. Rudolph had been trekking for hours and had been possibly scared for being the only one here.
The boy had blonde hair and green eyes. Upon further inspection, Rudolph realized that the boy had his FATHER'S hair and his MOTHER'S eyes! Could this be….
"Now you know…." The boy said. "Now you know how I feel. Being left to die. Left to fend for my own when I wasn't ready. I've been in this living hell for YEARS!"
"But I can help you get out!" Rudolph said. "My name is Rudolph Rose. If you can tell me your name, your TRUE name, I can help you escape!"
The boy only turned to him. His face was heavily bruised and scarred. The result of years of being by himself.
"My name isn't of any goddamn importance to a little brat like you." He growled. "I've never even HEARD of a Rudolph Rose. And I never will."
"Listen to me! You don't have to keep living like this!" Rudolph tried to reason with the boy. "If it's not what you want, how you want to live, then you can change it!"
The boy only gave him a cold stare.
"It's too late."
"NO! IT'S NOT! You can get yourself out of this mess! You can-!"
"Only the man who got me into this can do it. And he's not coming back. He's damned me to live the rest of my life in the worst punishment imaginable."
"I can get you out of this! We can work together to-!"
"There IS no we! There never has been!" The boy snapped. "I'm forever alone. I always have been….and I always will be."
As he glared at Rudolph, the red boy noticed his eyes flicker from green to red. As the boy ran off, Rudolph realized what was about to happen to him.
"NO!" Rudolph screamed at the top of his lungs as he gave pursuit. "DON'T DO THIS, PLEASE! THERE'S STILL TIME! YOU CAN TAKE THE OTHER PATH! YOU CAN STILL STOP YOURSELF!"
As his heart forced Rudolph to stop and catch his breath, he heard an inhuman scream of rage. The boy rushed over to see the boy furiously smash a scroll against a rock. His FATHER'S scroll.
"You…." The boy began to growl as his voice change to what Rudolph recognized. "You did this to me….." Purple plasma claws began to slice through the knuckles of his fists. "You let my mother die…..You left ME to die…." His skin crumpled away to reveal pale white skin. "You……You……RRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrr…AAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa…I….I….I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR THIS! YOU WILL PAY FOR EVERYTHING! AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHH!"
Rudolph could only watch helplessly as Arkos completed his twisted transformation, then began to vanish from this astral location.
"YOU'LL PAY! YOU'LL PAY! YOU'LL PAAAAAYYYYY!" Arkos screamed this over and over as he faded away. Rudolph realized this was the moment. Dr. Merlot was giving this hatred a physical form.
"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Rudolph ran forward and tackled Arkos, only for him to phase through as Arkos was sent to the real world. The boy was left in tears as the storm intensified. He had failed to stop all of this from happening. He was beginning to lose all hope….
When he remembered his words.
"You can still….stop yourself…." Rudolph realized. "YOU….stop YOURSELF…. Does…..does that mean….. the only one who can stop Arkos…..is Arkos HIMSELF?!"
Rudolph felt himself getting lifted from this dream.
"But how….There's no turning him back to the light….What does it all mean….How do I explain this to the others?"
All went white as Rudolph began to wake up.
…
When Rudolph woke up, he was still in bed. Fighting back the tiredness, he rubbed his eyes to see….
"AAHHHHH!"
Rudolph basically fled under the covers, only to peak out a few seconds later. There, he got a clearer view of what scared him.
It was a Grimm. Or at least, a statue of a Grimm. The Beowolf was looming over him, its jaws ready to bite into him.
Rudolph gave it a little tap, and the statue crumbled into dust. Then, behind the statue, he saw a little girl. She seemed to be about his age or younger, just standing at the open door. She had silver eyes, red hair, along with a red hood, cape, clothes, and skirt.
Huh? No way…. Rudolph thought. Is this Mom when she was younger? No, wait, she doesn't have completely red hair.
"I see that you're awake, Rudolph." The girl said. "I heard some noises and came up here to check on you. That's when I saw the Beowolf ready to eat you. Good thing I turned it to stone, huh?"
"W…Who are you?"
"Oh. My name's Briar. Briar Rose."
"WHA?! Rose?! Are…Are you a relative of mine or something?!"
"No one of the current bloodline has ever heard of me. But yes, I am related to you in some way."
"Wait….You should have charged up the memories for your powers to work." Rudolph realized, getting out of bed. "I should've been dead by now. How did you petrify the Grimm?"
"I looked at it when I opened the door, and it saw me."
"And?"
"I just said. I looked at it."
Rudolph still wasn't buying it.
"Here, let me show you."
Briar made the room flash. Rudolph then saw himself still asleep, then the Beowolf came in. It loomed over the boy, ready to attack.
The door opened, with the noise alerting the Beowolf, causing it to turn around. Its gaze came into contact with that of Briar's….
And then it roared in agony. The Beowolf then prepared to bite at Rudolph, its entire body solidifying into the statue Rudolph saw. The room then shifted back to normal.
"That's impossible…" Rudolph gasped. "You can turn Grimm to stone….just be looking at them?"
"They need to make eye contact with me. I'm unimaginably ugly to them."
"But….that's not how the Silver Eyes work…Mei said that she discovered its true power….Could this be it? More than that silvery aura?"
"Possibly." Briar said. "It's almost time, so I don't have any time to explain. Here. I want you to have these."
Briar handed Rudolph three roses. One was red and engulfed in fire, which didn't burn Rudolph when he touched it. The other was white and covered in ice. The last one was silver, surrounded by a silver glow of Aura.
"What are these?"
"Our family's symbols." Briar explained. "The Red Rose symbolizes the power you have within yourself. The White Rose symbolizes the romantic unbreakable bond your parents have. The Silver Rose symbolizes the soul of the Rose bloodline, and that it can become unforgettable legends, whether they bear silver eyes or not."
Rudolph then felt himself get lifted again as he put the roses in his pocket.
"Never lose them." Briar said. "They determine who you really are. This is who you are, Rudolph Rose."
All turned white as the boy heard four words before losing himself.
"This is your destiny."
…
Rudolph woke up, for real this time.
"Man, two dreams in one." Rudolph moaned. "What do they both me-huh?"
Rudolph felt something in the clothes he was still wearing. As he took out whatever was in them, he gasped. They were amulets. But not just any amulets.
These amulets had the same three roses Briar had given Rudolph in his dream!
"But….how….." Rudolph was completely dumbstruck. It was only a dream! How was this even possible!?
As Rudolph put the Rose Amulets in a safe location, i.e. in the back cover of the first family album, he began to ponder how he should explain the solution he found out to the rest of his teammates and if he should keep the amulets secret.
The Son Of Ruby sighed. If only he know a lot more about this Briar Rose.