In the ruins of the city once known as Vale two women stared each other down, their faces were wearing a look any outsider would only be able to describe as pure, unbridled, and unrestrained hatred. The older of the two women looked as though she crawled straight out of a young child's nightmare and into the living world. The entirety of her body was covered in the thick, inky liquid that also composed the creatures of Grimm, indeed the only "human" body parts that remained on her was her left arm, her left eye, and part of her face. Both her arms and her legs were sharp and clawed the way a Grimm's would be, and her right eye contained the sinister red glow of a Grimm. In both of her hands she held two glass swords, that practically thrummed due to the amount of magic pouring off of them.

The younger woman could probably still have been called a girl, she was average to below average height, standing at a meager five feet, five inches. Her short raven black hair faded to red at the tips, and she wore a basic white tank top and black combat skirt. Along the base of her neck the young woman wore a donut collar, with two donut belts attached. Flowing down from the collar was a white cloak and hood with a red interior, each donut belt carried a side cloak with them, that flowed as if blown by an invisible wind. A quiver of different colored arrows were tied to the young woman's waist, clearly infused with several kinds of dust. The young woman's face was probably the most striking and tragic part of her. Her face clearly showed the young woman's youth, she looked to be eighteen at most, but was probably younger, her figure was hunched over as if she were being crushed by an invisible burden, and her frame was thin and gaunt. Her left eye was covered by a black eyepatch that traveled diagonally across her forehead, the eyepatch was decorated with a grey rose motif. The girl's other eye was a cold silver, the color of the fractured moon that loomed over both woman, where once the eye shined with hope and zeal for life, now all that remained was a dull glow, and a glazed over look, as if the girl was living in her own world, or perhaps more accurately and much more horrifying, as if she were trapped inside her own mind.

At one point the older woman could have been considered beautiful, but not a single soul would have thought that about her once they saw what she had been willing to do to her own body in her blind and destructive pursuit of power. Similarly the young woman could still be considered beautiful from a distance, but if any soul was around to stare at the younger woman in the face, they would see heavy bags around her one good eye, as well as the flames of madness. Even more horrifying was the dried red material that covered the girl's clothes and even her hands, the material was clearly blood, given the stench that wafted off of the young woman, as well as the fact that the scythe in her hand was currently dripping wet blood onto the ruined street. What made the scene especially terrifying was the animalistic hatred in the girl's eye, it was positively feral, and if there were observers present they would all agree that killing the older woman was the only thing that mattered to the younger girl.

"Well, well, well." The older woman was the first to break the suspenseful silence between the two, her voice would have been smooth and seductive, but her words almost sounded hollow, like there was a second presence in her body, that wasn't used to speaking in any vocal language, "After all this time apart our paths cross again, Little Red."

The younger woman gave no vocal response to the old nickname, but the flames that always danced in her good eye were growing, and soon no force would be able to contain the inferno.

"Look around you," The older woman gestured to the broken remains of the once prosperous city, but both knew that she was speaking about more than just the city, "You've lost Ruby, Salem has already won."

A deep rumbling sound escaped Ruby's throat, an animalistic growl, reminiscent of a warning that a wolf would give to an enemy, "Give up now, and I'll kill you quickly, and you can finally join all your friends and family."

"I would never just roll over and let you kill me, Cinder." Cinder's name came out as a venomous hiss, while Ruby's voice was hoarse and scratchy clearly it had been a while since she had spoken, "Afterall, the dead must have their vengeance."

The Fall Maiden let out a condescending laugh, the noise cold and cruel on the ears, "And you truly believe that the dead care about which of us lives?"

Ruby's eye looked out to a ruined building at the end of the street, to Cinder and any outside observer it would look like the last silver eyes warrior was looking at nothing in particular, but Ruby could see it clear as day even if others could not. Standing in the shadow of the ruined building were ghostly apparitions of her closest friends and family: Her sister Yang, her closest confidant Blake, Her deceased girl friend Weiss. JNPR, her uncle Qrow, her father, Oscar, Penny. They were all near, waiting for her to finally throw Cinder's mangled corpse to their feet so that they could finally be at rest. Even standing several yards away from the spirits Ruby could still here them clear as day, the haunted her every waking moment, and even asleep she got no rest from the souls of the departed, and even if she was lucky enough to not see them for a day or two, she could always hear them, whispering in her ears, giving her advice, or criticism, but usually they would ask her why she hadn't killed Cinder yet. Why the maiden got to live when they had to die.

"They do care Cinder, they care very much." Ruby's grip on her scythe tightened as Ciner once again began laughing, the weapon itself wasn't very high quality, since Ruby created it using leftover parts from her own Crescent Rose, as well as scraps from her uncle's Harbinger, but it would do, it had to.

Cinder stopped laughing only to smirk at the sight of Ruby's tightened grip on the scythe, "So you still think that you can stop me?"

"..."

"I'm more powerful than ever!" The maiden boasted to her silent opponent, "I'm stronger than I was when I killed your friend, the so called Invincible Girl, and I'm stronger than when I killed that pretty little girlfriend of yours, White wasn't it?"

Ruby's hands clenched to the point that they had turned white, and there was a dangerous glow in her right eye, despite it's dull gleam and defeated look, the God of Light's power had not left Ruby, "Weiss, her name is Weiss."

Ruby paused to grip her head in pain, the dead's presence were growing in her mind, and she was becoming unable to ignore their insidious whispers, "Kill her! Make her suffer! Avenge us Ruby! Crush her skull beneath your hands! Finish her, or are you too weak to even do that? I hate you! We died for you! I wish I had never met you! You're the worst sister in the world! I can't believe that I ever loved you! All You bring is pain!"

Ruby continued to clutch her head in pain, all while she desperately whimpered apologies to the phantoms that plagued her mind, "Please father, Uncle Qrow, Penny, I will bring you her corpse soon I promise. Jaune, Pyrrha, Oscar, Ren, Nora, you'll finally be free to rest just give me some more time." The broken girl began gesturing to the invisible figures, pleading for their mercy, "I have no mercy for a creature like that, I will end her life, I'll feel her pulse stop, and her breath fade away, I promise. Please Yang, Weiss, Blake, I know that if I can just bring you her head you'll finally be at peace, yes I know it."

Cinder watched the blubbering girl in amusement, it was truly entertaining to see how such a bright, and simple soul had been torn and darkened by life and the harsh realities of it. And Cinder was proud to say that she was the one responsible for the darkening of the girl's soul, and the madness in her eye.

"Who you partner was doesn't matter, what did matter was that ring she gave you."

Ruby's good eye trailed down to the ring that she still wore on her finger, if Weiss had given it to her on any other day Ruby would have been able to feign normalcy, pushing the encroaching madness to the back of her mind, but Weiss gave her the ring while lying in a pool of her own blood, and the two neve were free to have a life together. After her love's death Ruby stopped caring what people saw, wearing the mask of the happy and optimistic Ruby Rose had no point after she lost Weiss. Besides the walking corpse recognized the truth even when no one else had, Ruby Rose lived life to the fullest, and fought for the people around her, she fought to protect life, and glowed with divine life. She didn't have any of those things, she had been dead for the last year, she had no life left to live, and no living left to fight for, she fought for the salvation and vengeance of the dead. In several ways Ruby Rose had been dead for almost a year, and she was just desecrating the dead by dragging her corpse along with her.

Ruby looked back to her hated enemy, any humanity had drained from her face, and Cinder almost took a step back in surprise, in that moment Ruby Rose looked more like a demigod than anything, her right eye glowing with the power of her patron. "I'm going to kill you Cinder." Cinder did take a step back at that, because the words Ruby Rose spoke were not a guess, nor a threat, they were a promise.

Ruby grinned, one that split the face and looked painful to the eye, "I'll even give you a choice about HOW you die: I'm either going to smash your face in, Or I'll sever your head. Or I'll shoot you in the neck with an arrow just like you did with Pyrrha!" Ruby's voice broke off into a low growl at the end until the girl suddenly perked up, "Or better yet, why not all three! Now come on, it's time to play!"

Cinder was shocked, so much so that she merely stood there dumbly while the crazy silver eyed warrior rapidly approached, it was only the blade of Ruby's scythe that brought the maiden back to the present, and she was only barely able to successfully deflect the strike.

Ruby took advantage of Cinder's sloppy block by staying on the offensive continually pushing the older woman back, Ruby may have been dead for almost a year, but she had used that time wisely, waiting for her hated foe to finally appear. Cinder kept blocking Ruby's onslaught of blows, until finally the maiden was able to push her younger opponent back, not wasting any time the Fall Maiden quickly sent out a series of fireballs, intending on burning the last Rose.

Ruby dug her combat boots into the ruined sidewalk before her eye narrowed at the sight of fire. Ruby twisted her body to the side to avoid the initial volley of magic, before sprinting and sliding underneath the second blast. Finally the girl sprung into an impressive side flip to avoid the third blast of power. Using the momentum of her flip, Ruby turned into three separate bursts of rose petals, all three clouds charged towards the Fall Maiden, but each cloud played an improvised game of the shell game, switching places too quickly for the eye to follow.

Cinder raised her right hand to block Ruby's strike once the petals converged back into a single cloud, but the speed and force behind the scythe's strike were far greater than the maiden had anticipated and her arm and her blade were knocked to the side, leaving an opening for Ruby to land the first blow of the fight with a well placed kick.

The Fall Maiden sent out several more blasts of magic as she dug her own shoes into the ruined sidewalk, "Well done Ruby, you finally managed to land a hit on me, your friends must be sooooo proud of you."

Ruby's right eye snapped up at the barely veiled insult, "Don't you ever speak for them!" The broken girl growled at the maiden, "Don't you ever place words into the mouths of the dead!"

Ruby charged towards her foe in a blind fury, Cinder smirked anticipating an easy win now that her opponent was in a blind rage. Ruby came swinging her scythe with speed and strength she didn't even know she possessed, Cinder was continually pushed back as she used all her skill and experience to block and parry the flashing scythe. The chants of the dead grew louder and louder in Ruby's ears as her family continued to grant her strength and encouragement, "Finish her off Ruby! Don't mess up you dolt! Grant us our vengeance! Kill her! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The feral grin on Ruby's face grew once she finally pushed Cinder against the front of one of Vale's many ruined buildings, somehow Ruby knew exactly what to do, discreetly reaching behind her back for a normal arrow, Ruby began subtly loosening her grip on the scythe. Cinder was reaching the end of her limit and soon would go out on a desperate streak.

With the encouragement of the dead Ruby's grip on her scythe slackened and Cinder's next parry sent the weapon flying through the air before landing behind the two fighters. Cinder watched the weapon fly and land before she let out another mocking laugh, "Really that was your all? How pathe-" The maiden's words were cut short by an arrow piercing her unprotected Grimm neck. Ruby was leaning forward slightly pushing the arrow deeper and deeper into the Fall Maiden's neck. Ruby pulled away as the maiden fell to the ruined streets of Vale, all while she began choking on her own blood, blood that had changed from the regular red, to an inky black, like everything else about her Cinder's blood too had become Grimm.

"..." Ruby said nothing as she watched her tormentor finally suffer the way so many had suffered because of her. Ruby might not have been able to save them in life, but at least she would be able to grant their souls peace in death. Walking back to pick up her scythe, Ruby watched with a growing smile as more and more blood pooled from Cinder. "..."

"Little… Red" Each word that escaped the fallen maiden's mouth was accompanied by a series of hacking coughs and gurgles, "Do… you… really think…. That this.. Changed…. Anything?"

Cinder broke off into another series of coughs, "You… will…. Always be alone… They…. Will never… forgive-" Cinder's dying sentence was cut short by the flash of a crescent. In one fell swing the fallen maiden, Salem's left hand, a living monster, and Ruby's personal devil, Cinder Fall, was finally dead."

Ruby's face finally broke into a pleased smile as Cinder's head rolled onto Vale's desolate street, finally the spirits that haunted her would finally be able to rest. Ruby sighed as she sat down onto Vale's ruined sidewalk, where would she even go now? What could she do? Stopping Salem was impossible by herself, Oscar had confirmed that much, she wouldn't be able to stop Salem without the four relics, and they were gone, Salem herself had shown up to see them destroyed.

"Why haven't you freed us Ruby? Let us Rest! Give Us Salem's head next! Your job isn't done yet! More! I need more! Blood, death destruction! Give us Vengeance Ruby! Justice!"

Ruby fell to the street in pain, "Why? Why won't you leave me?" The broken girl whimpered to no one, her silver eye illuminating the ruined city, the eye reacting to its owner's distress, "I can't stop Salem." The pitiful girl curled into herself, begging for forgiveness. All while her entire world went white. Before she lost consciousness because of the pain Ruby felt a range feeling, one she hadn't felt for years…. Peace.

A/N: I'm looking to revise the first 5 chapters of this story as well, because looking back on it there were several silly errors that needed to be corrected. It's really good to be back! And I hope that I'm not too rusty, and that the revised first chapter is more to your liking