A cold silence fell over the group as Summer continued to stare at the black-haired woman with hatred.
"I'm actually surprised, and impressed, you still remember that day," Raven spoke, breaking the quiet, her cold eyes never leaving Summer's. She lazily swung her katana to cut some of the grass at her feet, scoffing. "I thought they'd long since wiped your memory of all that happened before you got yourself captured."
"I didn't get myself captured!" she retorted, furious, drawing her two swords. Her daisho was in a way similar to Raven's, but slightly thinner and shorter, and it ever so slightly bent backwards at the tip. Her wakizashi was instead sturdier and straight, with a diagonal-cut tip that favoured its front side. "You were supposed to get me out of there, and you abandoned me!"
Raven's expression didn't change, but her crimson eyes got if possible even harder. "I didn't abandon you, you did. You went looking for trouble and you found it. I just refused to get my tribe involved any more than it already was."
"You could've also saved me when I was in that lab, or at least told Qrow," Summer continued, gripping her weapons so tightly her knuckles turned white. "Instead, you ignored the fact I was still alive, the fact that I was right within your reach, for almost a decade!"
"The strong lives, the weak dies, that's the rule. You were weak, and you needed me to be strong," Raven replied coolly, although a tiny smirk seemed to curve up the corner of her mouth for a second. "I just got rid of a burden that would've caused the death of my tribe. I saved my family, while you abandoned yours… didn't you?"
"I didn't-" Summer cut herself off by daring a glance at Ruby, who sorrowfully looked away from her. The woman's heart ached as she saw her daughter, who she barely remembered after all those years, feeling like she had abandoned her while she had had no choice. Her only mistake had been to bring Raven into it.
"So wait, let's see if I got this right," Torchwick cut in, trying to disguise his uneasiness with his sarcasm. "Big Red over here went somewhere she shouldn't have gone, relying on you to get her out, and you didn't, instead abandoning her to her fate for a decade…" He rubbed his chin as if deep in thought. "Sorry, I missed the part where it makes sense for you to come here and offer your help to the one you betrayed."
Raven frowned for a second before she forced a small, derisive laugh. "You're right, it wouldn't make sense to offer her shelter. Which is why I'm not. Summer and her little brat can go back, I don't care. I'm offering you a place to hide, as long as you help me as well."
"I don't think so," Mercury grinned cockily. "Little Red is kinda needed here." He glanced at Jaune for the briefest hint of a second, but the bandit queen caught it nonetheless, her eyes narrowing. Unable to erase his mistake, he chose to try and work with it. "You see, she's the only one who can calm down Blondie here, and I doubt you'd like him much when he's… well… angry."
"Look," Ruby cut in, trying to undo the fight before it even began even as everyone else tensed up. "We don't want to join you, you can just go now."
"Oh no she can't," Summer growled. "She made me suffer for her own selfish gain… she took me away from my family… I won't allow her to just walk away scot-free."
"Funny you should say that," Raven laughed haughtily, but there was no warmth in it. "Because if that's the case, leaving is exactly what I'll do. Now, if you'll excuse-"
She couldn't finish her sentence as Summer threw herself forward, stabbing at her with her daisho and missing as she stepped to the side. "You've gotten rusty, Summer, while I've only grown stronger… you shouldn't try to fight those stronger than you, if you want to live!" Her katana flashed and impacted Summer's midriff twice before she kicked the shorter woman away.
"Mom!" With a cry, Ruby launched herself forwards with the use of her Semblance, but even then it wasn't enough. Raven blocked her scythe with her sheath before slashing at her with her katana.
Her third swing, however, impacted metal instead of flesh, and in a second she found herself leaning back from a savage swing of Crocea Mors. Jaune launched himself forward with no regards for his personal health, as shown when he couldn't even dodge or parry the two successive counters made by the bandit leader. He kept pushing forward to try and keep her on the defensive, but he knew he couldn't hold on forever. She was stronger, faster and more skilled than he was.
Fortunately, he shouldn't have worried, because he wasn't alone. Summer, despite the hard kick, was already back in the fight, and it seemed the others weren't too far behind. Raven had to duck under Crocea Mors while using her weapon to block Summer's own double slash, which left her vulnerable to the others' own attacks. She still managed to dodge Taurus's rifle shot and she twisted under Ruby's follow-up with her scythe, but she couldn't bring Omen up in time to defend herself from Neo's parasol, which smashed first into her nose and then into her diaphragm, knocking the air out of her lungs. Torchwick, used to fighting alongside the petite assassin, immediately capitalized on the opening, slamming his cane into the back of her head and sending her stumbling.
However, Raven hadn't become the leader of the bandits by being weak. She quickly regained her breath and slammed her sheath into Torchwick's stomach before roundhouse kicking him in the jaw, sending him to the ground, dazed. She brought Omen up to deflect Mercury's axe kick and slightly buckled under the force of the hit before she pushed the assassin back with a frown. She hadn't meant for a real battle to take place! She didn't have time to even think of creating a portal before Summer was back on the offensive, their weapons clashing dangerously close to their faces.
"Are you done running?!" the silver-eyed woman shouted at her face.
Raven grinned. "And you've just started," she retorted before using her Aura to augment her strength, pushing Summer's own daisho into the woman's face. Hadn't it been for her Aura, she would've probably lost her eyes right then and there. "Have you even told Taiyang you're alive yet? Or are you even going to?"
She wanted to taunt her further, but she was forced to jump back when Taurus darted into the fray, aiming for her midriff. Growling in annoyance to the many opponents she had to keep up with, Raven stepped back and let the blow harmless whiz past her before grabbing Taurus by his jacket and stabbing him through the stomach, or that's what it looked like. In reality his Aura had protected him, but it still had been a strong blow and it had taken quite a lot of damage. She kicked him away before he could retaliate, and found herself face-to-boot with Mercury Black.
Biting back another growl, she ducked under a roundhouse and tried to slash upwards with her blade to catch him unbalanced, but the assassin had already pivoted on his other leg, placing his foot down and raising his leg in a devastating frontal kick that impacted Raven square in the chest, knocking her back several feet.
'I guess I'll have to use Dust, then,' she told herself as she started to feel her anger kicking in. While she would never compare herself to her spawn, Yang still took after her a lot in terms of anger issues. She was just better at controlling it instead of letting it control her. She sheathed her katana and waited for the perfect moment to strike, which just so happened to coincide with Jaune's next attack.
Drawing her sword, she shot a trail of ice through the ground while knocking the sword clean of his hands as the ice froze his legs to the ground, effectively trapping him. Before he could react, she kicked his shield arm aside and slammed Omen's hilt against the side of his head before pivoting on herself and stabbing him in the chest. If she could take him out quickly, she would thin their ranks, and he was the easier target considering his obvious lack of training. Besides, killing him would make for a good show of force.
Her blade slid harmlessly against the protection of Aura, but even that wouldn't last forever.
She was forced to back off when Neo attacked her once again, effortlessly sliding under her horizontal slash before trying to sweep her legs out. Unfazed, Raven stomped on the smaller woman's right knee, earning herself a satisfying crack. Curiously, the petite woman didn't scream, but she did seem in pain. Perhaps she was mute.
"NEO!" She didn't have time to think, nor to go back to taking the boy out, before Torchwick was upon her, slamming her katana aside before firing a point-blank shot at her face. A shot she dodged and then responded to with a kick that was blocked by the thief's cane. Growing irritated with the orange-haired buffoon, Raven locked her katana against his cane before grabbing it with her free hand and holding it still.
She was about to stab him in the face when she felt a strong impact on her side, which launched her away and sent her rolling on the ground a few feet away. Jumping back on her feet, she glared at Mercury, who glared right back at her. Then her eyes moved to the blonde boy, and she frowned. He was hunched over, with Summer's brat rubbing his back or something. That was odd. She hadn't hit him in the stomach.
She was torn from her thoughts when Mercury and Taurus both moved in to attack while Summer and Torchwick checked on Neo's fallen form. She allowed herself a smirk. While Aura was indeed incredible, attacks still impacted on the body. She hadn't personally done any damage, she had just forced the woman's leg in a position her kneecap couldn't sustain and thus ended up snapping. Outwardly, no damage at all.
Omen and its sheath went opposite ways as she parried both the assassin's wide kick and Taurus's slash before she pushed Mercury away and used Omen to slash the terrorist's arm, taking away another bit of his Aura. Sooner or later, one of them would run out. She wasn't particularly worried about herself – she had a lot of Aura thanks to her extensive training, and she wasn't getting hit as much as they were.
"Jaune! No, Jaune, stop!"
"RRRRrrraaaaaarrggghhh!"
Both men in front of her stopped and looked behind them. A bad mistake she didn't miss as she darted forward, kicking Taurus in the face and slashing at Mercury with the Ice Dust blade, freezing him from the torso down. His arms were free, but she only needed to get a few good hits in. Before she did that, however, she took a look at what had made that growl. Had Grimm arrived, hearing the sounds of battle and feeding on her opponent's negative emotions?
What she saw froze the blood in her veins.
Standing where the blonde boy had been just a handful of seconds prior, with torn clothes and shattered ice still clinging to it, there was what she could only describe as a Grimm abomination. An armour plating of rib bones covered its chest, protecting it from the attacks, while long, jagged spikes grew out of its forearms, arms and back as well as its shins. In fact, its back was all but hidden from view thanks to the veritable forest of bone spikes growing out of it. Its head looked similar to a wolf's, but with a pair of demonlike horns growing out of its forehead. The sides of its mouth looked torn, like it had accidentally opened its jaws too much and torn its cheeks to shreds, revealing two rows of sharp fangs. Its piercing red eyes fit well with the red markings on its plates of bone armour. The monster might've not been as tall as some of the monsters she'd fought before, standing at just over eight feet in height, perhaps even nine, but there mere sight of it was terrifying. She didn't know why, but her heart was beating against her ribcage and something was screaming in her ears, probably telling her to run. Except her limbs were like pipes of lead, and she felt like someone had dumped a bucketful of icy water on her, freezing her to the bone.
The creature swept its gaze across the battlefield until it landed on her, and its eyes narrowed. It turned to face her, and roared, a deep sound that shook her to the core. That sound alone made her feel like a little girl lost in the howling wind of a storm. Only, in front of her there wasn't just wind and rain, but a horrid monster from the deepest pits of Hell.
"Well, Raven." She barely heard Summer's voice, and idly noted just how smug she sounded. "Meet Carnifex."
"Your worst nightmare made Grimm."
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Cinder Fall tossed and turned in her bed as flashes of multicoloured Dust fire and the swish of a deadly blade tormented her dreams, burning her fading scars like hot coals as her body relived the horror of being mutilated.
The woman opened her eyes with a sigh of annoyance before sitting up in her bed and looking around.
Beacon was pretty much how she'd expected. The dorm rooms were all the same and it was up to their inhabitants to redecorate them and give them a little bit of life, something she had no intentions of doing. Her side of the room was grey and bland, exactly how she'd found it when she'd first stepped into her dormitory room.
The same couldn't be said for her 'teammates'. Where Watts had found those three, she'd never know. They were probably mercenaries only interested in money who would be forgotten as soon as their usefulness ran out. That hadn't stopped them from decorating their side of the room a little bit.
Sherry Ingham had a very provocative poster just above his bed, whose covers were bunny-patterned. When questioned, he'd replied with an "It's for luck. More chance of screwing like rabbits". Other than those two, he had a few books called Ninjas of Love on his nightstand, and nothing else.
Lucy Borgée had a lot of flower posters, and Cinder was fairly certain they were all poisonous flowers. She could recognize the digitalis, the belladonna and the oleander, but most others were completely unknown to her. Some of them, she never would've thought were poisonous or dangerous in any way.
Schwarz had basically covered his side of the room with horror posters of ghosts, monsters, zombies or other creepy things. She had to admit the art was good, so much so that if someone were to stand in front of his 'wall of horrors', they'd think a veritable army of darkness was coming to get them. Sometimes she could swear they moved in the dim light.
Before her lessons with Watts, she would've scoffed at their unprofessionalism. They were supposed to be merciless warriors only interested in money, not a bunch of dumb teenagers going through puberty.
After everything that happened, after seeing how easy it was for her plan to fall apart due to incompetent or disloyal underlings, Cinder had a newfound appreciation for Watts' servants – they were all either heartless mercenaries kept mostly in the dark about his motives, but given a lot of freedom to keep them happy, or just plain insane like Ampere. And once they had been told they were infiltrating a school full of teenagers, their skill had immediately come to light as they adapted to pretending to be teens.
Of course she would never admit she was the one doing a poor job at it, but deep down she knew she should've acted more like them, instead of keeping to herself and talking in what Borgée had defined her I'm-fucking-you-with-words voice. She could acknowledge most teenagers wouldn't do something like that. That didn't mean she would change her demeanour.
She glanced down at the Scroll in her hands, boredom eating away at her. The Beacon Dance was to be held in a couple of days, and not too long after that the Breach would happen.
She knew Ilia would do like she had been told because her hatred for the humans had grown even stronger after poor Taurus had been captured by humans and locked away. Convincing her of her own innocence had been pathetically easy – like a lot of other White Fang members, the girl had basically jumped at the chance of blaming the humans for one more thing.
But it wasn't the Breach what was troubling her.
That little ragtag group of thieves and runaways was the source of her anxiety. She already didn't have a good experience with most of them, and the fact that they were apparently unwilling to work with anyone but themselves was even more frustrating.
"The last thing I need is for some third side to mess things up and ruin my plans," she growled softly, careful not to wake up any of her teammates.
Unbeknownst to her, the ripples in a pond never stop just because the rock has sunk.
/-/
The clear liquid sloshed out of the glass while he poured it, some drops hitting the tablecloth, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He set the bottle down, perhaps a tad more forcefully than it was needed, and grabbed the glass, downing its contents in one go. Normally he didn't drink, but tonight it was something he oh so desperately needed.
"So, Ruby is now following a group of extremely dangerous criminals, Summer is somehow still alive and with them, Yang is facing criminal charges, and you suggest we do nothing?"
Taiyang Xiao Long still couldn't believe his ears. He'd always trusted Qrow to tell him the truth – unless it was a secret, and even then he wouldn't lie to him, just keep silent. But now even that trust was being challenged.
Qrow had looked more miserably tired than usual that evening, and remarkably silent. Of course, Tai had immediately known something was wrong, but he hadn't pressed the issue. They had had dinner together, and Tai had recalled a few of the Beacon stories he usually reserved for when his daughters were feeling down, before biting the bullet and addressing the elephant in the room.
Ruby's and Yang's marked absence.
He knew he couldn't expect everything to go well, and he knew that it was possible, probable even, that they had been forced to stay somewhere else, either Beacon or the police department, to help identify the criminals, and Qrow had been sent to tell him.
But if that had been the case, Qrow would've stormed in, grabbed him and dragged him all the way to Vale to comfort and calm down his daughters.
His presence and behaviour could only mean his daughters would not be coming home anytime soon.
So he had dared to ask about them.
And then the dam had broken. Qrow had told him how Yang had brutally taken matters into her own inexperienced hands, and how she had threatened and physically injured some civilians to try and extort information from them. Of how she had taken up Raven's offer -that had made his blood boil, he had to admit it- and how Raven had double-crossed them and dumped back on Qrow as soon as she had no use of them any longer. He told him about the battle and how the boy had turned into a Grimm -probably his Semblance- before a full-out fight broke out.
He'd been horrified to hear that his little girl had fought against such a foe, especially considering how even Qrow hadn't been able to fight it, though perhaps that was due more to the others' intervention than real deadliness. He'd been afraid to hear how she had almost died, and sad to hear they'd gotten away with Ruby. And then he had listened, unable to believe his ears, as Qrow tried to convince him that Ruby was fine and that they had to leave that group well enough alone.
"Tai, that's not what I meant." Qrow sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The irony of for once being the one not drinking was not lost to him. "Those guys… I've seen them, Tai, they don't want to hurt Ruby. They're criminal, yes, but they just want to escape their former boss and to escape the law, because neither would be very kind to them."
"But why wouldn't Ruby and Summer come back?" Taiyang stressed out, hurriedly filling up another glass before emptying that one as well. "Why would they choose to stay with them? Why not even send a message?! Ruby left her Scroll here, Qrow… I was so worried when I realized I had no way of contacting her or tracking her location…"
"Tai, Tai, she's fine, okay?" The brunette pushed the blonde man onto a chair, and then sat on the edge of the table. He didn't mention how he had an inkling why, and how it had to do with the Grimm-transforming guy, but there was no need for Taiyang to know about that. Not yet anyway. "Look, right now, Ruby is in the sights of the law as well, just for being an accomplice, and Summer as well. I don't know how she survived, hell I barely just got my shit together about her being alive at all, but she's there and she'll protect Ruby in case things get dangerous."
"Even Summer can't defeat five other people, especially if they already took you down," Taiyang moaned, hiding his face into his hands. Qrow rolled his eyes. He'd forgotten how much of a whiny drunk his friend was. But after all, he hadn't really drunk alcohol since he recovered from Summer's apparent death, so that wasn't so hard to believe.
"But they won't hurt her. They saved her and reunited her with Ruby." That was true, even if still hard to believe. Hadn't it been for those criminals, they would've never found Summer again. "Now, the real questions aren't how we are going to get Ruby and Summer back, because that's their call, not ours."
"Then what are they?" Taiyang lifted his face from his hands just enough to stare at his long-time friend, tears dangerously close to spilling from his blue eyes.
Qrow sighed. "The first question is what we're gonna do with Yang now. She's broken a lot of laws, and she'll have to face the punishment. She is going to spend a long time in jail, Tai, unless we can convince her to see what she's done wrong. If she can do that, maybe I can convince Ozpin to try and go easy on her, possibly even keep it a little secret between us. But we need your help convincing that hothead, because she'll never listen to the guy who, in her opinion, stopped her from saving her sister because he was afraid."
Taiyang groaned. "Yang says and does stupid stuff when she's angry, especially if there's Ruby involved."
"Couldn't agree more," the greying Huntsman laughed heartily, feeling a weight lift off his shoulders. At least Tai didn't seem to blame him like his niece did. His mood sobered up quickly, however. "The second question is how we are going to contact that group again, and have a talk with Ruby and Summer."
"Wha-"
"Just because I said we're not going after them doesn't mean I'm letting Ruby go without a lecture on proper behaviour," Qrow snorted, stealing Taiyang's glass and refilling it for himself. "We just have to make sure they know we're friends, not foes. If we approach them nicely, maybe we'll manage to get a conversation with Ruby and Summer instead of a fight."
"Do you think they'll come back if we ask them?"
"I'm sure they'll come back, eventually." The Branwen male twin swirled the alcohol in his glass for a second. "But they may have gotten attached to those guys. We have to be careful." He took a sip of his drink, eyes widening as the taste hit his tongue… and promptly spat it back into the glass.
"Watered down vodka?! Seriously, Tai?!"
/-/
Raven watched long black strands fall to the ground as she once again just narrowly dodged a swipe from the monster in front of her, the fear turning her usually swift and fluid movements into sluggy and slow motions that made her an easy target…
An easy prey…
She jumped away just in time to avoid a kick from Mercury, which would've sent her straight into the monster. She didn't want to test how quickly it could tear away at Aura. Not on her Aura, at least. She would've jumped at the chance to send someone else to fight that Grimm, but for some reason it kept focusing on her, ignoring the other members of the group.
Normally, she would've found it odd, but being on the brink of being killed at every attack coming oh so close to her was occupying all of her mind, leaving none for such idle thoughts.
The proud leader of the bandits raised her katana to try and slash at Taurus's exposed neck – he had tried to lunge at her, but had ended up leaving an opening she couldn't ignore. But before she could, she had to bring up her sheathe to block a shot from Summer's brat's scythe-rifle thing. Probably something Qrow had had a hand in creating, the damn idiot. Only he would put a gun in a scythe.
However, the movement left her side unprotected for just a fraction of a second, a fraction of a second that the grey-haired assassin immediately exploited, kicking her hand and then firing off a round as well, digging into her Aura as the pain made her flinch and stumble. Taurus's backswing slid off her katana, but it still came dangerously close to her head as it sailed harmlessly above. He was about to attack again, but the Grimm -Carnifex, as Summer had called it- appeared again, lunging at her with a speed and a strength it shouldn't have had.
She was forced to use both her weapons to block, wincing when the monster tried to crush her against the ground and almost succeeded. She rolled away, breathing heavily. She never saw Torchwick's shot coming, but she definitely felt it as it exploded against her back. Whether he meant for it to happen or not, the force slammed her against Carnifex's porcupine-like back, and she bit back a cry of pain as dozens of spikes tried to pierce through her Aura.
It was almost gone…
The Grimm turned around as she fell off its back, but she was quicker and without hesitation, she sank Omen into its stomach before activating its Dust, freezing it solid. She hated to use all her swords' Dust in one go, but there was no other way. The blade shattered and she sheathed it again, switching to Lightning Dust. That would give them trouble for sure. She wasn't worried about the giant ice block that once was Carnifex.
"Jaune!" Summer's brat was the first one to feel her wrath. As she ran over to the ice mountain that covered the Grimm, Raven took advantage of her distractedness and slashed at her midriff, activating the Lightning Dust and smiling approvingly when it did its work, electrocuting the girl, who screamed and fell to the ground as the electricity took away her control over her body for a second.
A second was all she needed.
She raised her sword high, ready to plunge it down. The brat's Aura wasn't gone yet, so she had to use as much force as possible, and a tiny bit of Dust as well, if she wanted to really hurt the girl. Aiming for her head would also help.
"Stay away from my daughter!" Ah, and there she was. Raven turned around and parried Summer's two-sword strike with Omen before blocking Torchwick's cane with her sheathe. Two of the weakest opponents so far, but she could deal with that. In fact, it was perfect – both had taken more hits than the others. It would be easy to take them out.
The sound of ice shattering and an unnatural feeling of utter dread changed her mind faster than she could even turn around.
Mercury's axe kick found the back of her head before she could, slamming her into the ground and reducing her Aura to almost nothing. One more decent hit like that and she'd be completely without Aura.
She had to get away.
She rolled away and got up, eyes widening as she took in the sight of Carnifex, standing tall and unharmed.
They wouldn't give her enough time to create a portal and run through it. And even if she did, they could just follow her back to her camp and finish the job there.
With a sigh of fear mixed with anger, she held out a hand and pointed it at Mercury, the most annoying opponent so far. "The strong lives, the weak dies," she stated clearly, before a bolt of pure-white lightning slammed into the boy, flinging him several feet away, spasming and smoking from the high voltage.
One down, for now.
She stood back up, taking in their shocked expressions. Of course none of them knew she could use magic, but she frowned as she noticed that they were shocked, but not that shocked. Normally, people freaked out at the first event they couldn't logically or scientifically explain. It was one of the reasons why the Grimm were feared so much, after all. Yet all there was only surprise, not disbelief, in their eyes.
Somehow, they had already known about the Maidens, or at least magic.
Which took away a lot of her surprise advantage.
"Stay back, all of you, if you want to live!" she shouted. All of their expressions hardened. The bicoloured girl scowled at her from where she laid on the ground, her leg popped back into place but still broken. It would take a while even for Aura to heal that. The assassin was slowly getting back up, but it was clear he'd been severely hurt by such a powerful attack. Summer's brat was getting up as well, gripping her oversized gardening tool with both hands. And the Grimm…
Her eyes widened.
Carnifex hadn't been surprised or shocked or cowed by her display of power, and had instead crossed the distance between them, a claw raised high and ready to strike her down. She'd been a fool to think she could intimidate Grimm, and now she would pay the price. It was too late to dodge, so she parried with her sheathe while at the same time placing Omen perpendicular to it.
As she had hoped, the Grimm didn't change its attack's path, and impaled its claw on her katana, electrocuting itself in the process. Carnifex howled in pain as thick, black blood began to spurt from the wound.
That was her chance.
She ripped Omen out of its body, and slashed the air beside her with it. The others were too far or too surprised by her use of magic to reach her in time, and the Grimm abomination was in pain.
She threw herself at the portal, closing it around her to prevent them from following. It was a dangerous thing to do as she could be caught in-between and split in half, but she had had enough practice to be able to prevent that.
Her left half was in Vale still, but her eyes were now staring at Vernal, her lieutenant and trusted second-in-command, who looked shocked by her mistress's sudden return.
She had almost done it.
And then long, sharp somethings sank into her shoulder, drawing blood and digging deep, too deep. She screamed as they could cut through what remained of her Aura, tearing her skin like it was paper and severing the muscles underneath. Her scream rose in pitch when, after a long, agonizing fraction of a second, the bone snapped under the extreme pressure, and she went tumbling forwards, her portal closing behind her as her Aura failed to fuel her Semblance any longer.
"Raven!"
The bandit queen, still screaming, pushed herself up. Her ears were ringing and her vision was hazy, as if she'd taken a hard blow to the head.
"Raven!"
She ignored the faraway voice. It wasn't important at the moment. She glanced at her left shoulder, and bit back another scream, this time of horror.
"Raven!"
Her arm was no more. Her shoulder was torn, ligaments and muscles clearly visible amidst the shreds of skin and splinters of bone. The blood was everywhere. Her blood was everywhere.
"Raven!"
Her eyes felt heavy, so heavy. Exhaustion slammed into her like it never had before. She let herself fall to the ground, which at the moment seemed comfier than the world's softest bed.
"-ven!"
The voice could wait.
Raven slipped into unconsciousness, and knew no more.