(Doom PSX - Geryon)

"How did we...?"

"Don't know. Don't think about it."

Pyrrha and Jaune skipped a few wagons then went back into the train. Instead of finding rows of seats and metal, they found a damp tunnel through which a cold wind blew with a shrill cry. The entire experience made them wary and paranoid of any surprises that could come their way.

"We should find Nora and Ren." Jaune said as if it were a simple thing.

"I agree. But where are they."

"I wish I knew."

The tunnel gradually developed into a paved hallway, splitting into smaller alleys left and right. Jaune noticed how all of them were lit by torches with green fire, save for one, which shared the same lights of the hallway. He didn't understand the reason, but he knew that not following them would be a bad idea.

"Do you hear it too, Jaune?" she asked after a while.

"Yes."

"There's... there are people here."

Jaune's frown deepened. He was hearing them too, the voice of those that could only be called martyrs and the punished. The aggressiveness with which they filled their ears increased as their journey became more akin to something out of fiction. He wished to offer his help, but from what he had seen up to then, it could have been a bait and nothing more.

"Don't let it get into your head. It might be a trap."

"I can hear them crying, Jaune. We, we should save them."

He turned around and put his hands on her shoulders. He was losing her.

"Listen to me. This is not real. None of it is."

"But how, Jaune? I feel this horrible stench, and-"

He shook her.

"Pyrrha! Snap out of it. Focus, damn it!"

A tear dropped down her cheek.

"They are begging me for help. I can't do anything to stop their pain. It's killing me."

Jaune brought Pyrrha closer and gave her a hug. The latter gasped quietly.

"Bear it with me. The only way we can help them is to bring to justice those who made them suffer. But I can't do it alone, Pyrrha. I need your help. I need you. And Ren and Nora. You're my strength, my courage and my will. So don't give up on me, on us, and fall into despair. Got it?"

She didn't answer at first, but then she hugged him back and wept, burying her face in his chest. It was a heartbreaking sight for Jaune, who within his depths knew that the mission they were on would become another bad memory they would remember as adults and an incurable scar that would have consequences for their psyche.

He didn't know who was responsible for that mess, but they were the first people Jaune had ever hated with all his might. For the first time in his life, Jaune wished to see another person dead.

They heard a boom echoing through the tunnel. It promised bad news, but Jaune had a feeling that it wasn't intentional, that they were being led somewhere. He let Pyrrha go and together they went for a maddened sprint.

Ren wasn't what some would describe as "man of action". He wouldn't resort to violence unless it was necessary. Patience and focus were virtues he had learned throughout his early years, being the only dependable companion for the one ginger-haired girl that wormed her way so close to his heart. The tragic loss he experienced as a child was a reminder of what life was like outside the capital of any kingdom. Those lessons would eventually found their way into his combat style. While his enemies were quick and prone to anger, he would put more strength into few but effective punches. Unless Nora jumped into the fray first. Then all he had to do was to find a way to calm her down after she would demolish everything. Reflecting on those days didn't help in the slightest with that woman Red Rivers. All his knowledge in combat told him two things; that talking would be a waste of time and that she was deadly.

She also had no openings he could exploit.

It was amazing, yet terrifying. Her stance – and that was stretching the word – consisted of her folding her arms and tilting her hips to one side. She held no weapon he could see. Was she fighting with bare hands? Or legs only? And if so, could that reveal her Semblance?

The edges of her striking red lips curled up ever so slightly.

"I'm letting you the honors, boy." it was amazing to Ren how someone could have such a calm voice while doing nothing to hide their murderous intent. "Let me repeat myself in case your ears are stuffed with shit. I won't kill you, okay? But." and that's where her smile suddenly became more sinister, "That doesn't mean I'm not allowed to break every bone in that weak body of yours."

Ren's first goal was to identify her Semblance and fighting style, the two points that made her a threat. The first step in his analysis foresaw her reaction to his StormFlower. He shot two bullets from his guns.

He didn't know all the technicalities. He didn't know the exact speed at which his bullets travelled, though it was self-evident that they flew beyond a human eye's tracking capabilities. That fact alone made it difficult, though not impossible, to do something against them, like moving away or outright parrying them. Red Rivers did none of those. She didn't jump in fright or tried to shield herself. She merely cocked her head sideways. The bullets zipped past her right ear and hit the wall.

And just like that, everything in Ren's approach, in his accumulated combat knowledge, turned on its head. That woman with an obsession for the color of blood something new and unexplored, an enemy unlike anything he had faced before. The number of Huntsmen that could do what she just did didn't pass the amount of fingers on one hand.

Worse, his move made her scowl.

"Oi, do you see me holding a gun to your head and threatening you to spill your brain everywhere? No? Then why the hell are you shooting? Wasn't my handicap good enough? Do you want me to forget about it?" her smirk returned, "Though I don't mind those knives. Knives are cool."

Making her angry when he didn't know her limits was suicidal for Ren, so he decided to grant her wish and use his blades and body only. He was still uncertain whether should he attack or not.

"This is not how you treat a lady, Ren-kun. I can call you Ren-kun, right? Anyways, I would really like for you to correct those poor manners, otherwise I would have to get serious. And, heh, you know what they say about angry women…"

Reinforcing the belief that he didn't have a choice, Ren infused his legs with Aura and darted forward. He wouldn't surprise her, but at least he had a start.

"Dear Asshole in Heaven, finally…" he heard her mutter as he swung his blades for a sideways strike. She backstepped, never unfolding her hands, and kicked Ren in the jaw with her knee.

Aura was one of the greatest tools for a Huntsman to use. By channeling the energies of one's proper soul, a body would acquire a near-perfect shield that would keep it from harm. Depending on the individual, Aura could even mitigate the pain or outright protect its user from it. What Ren felt was pain beyond pain, a kind of hurt that, he thought later, transcended the corporeal and dived into the realms of the mind and soul. He didn't know a better explanation.

That pain doubled when she used her other leg for a side kick. Time slowed to a crawl as his mind tried to process the same cycle again. His Aura took a hit, but nothing so drastic that warranted such torture. The third kick, a thrust with the left hill, threw him against Nora's cage with enough strength to cause a serious concussion to an average person. He gasped as the collision blew the air out of his lungs.

"If you're gonna fall asleep after the third hit then methinks this is gonna be a Hell of a chore, Ren-kun. On your feet, damn you! I'm not looking for a soulless punching bag."

Ren tried to stand back up. His feet buckled under him twice, before his Aura jumped into action, healing any physical injury he might have gotten.

"Your friends are coming… But will you survive for that long? If you die, I kill the ginger over there too."

At the mention of Nora, Ren exploded and tried again. He was faster than in the earlier attempt, avoiding two of her swipes before countering with his blades. Not even that was enough to land a hit on Red Rivers, who gained even more in speed to compensate for his own. Before he knew it, he got a back kick, a calf to the head, a strike to the gut, a headbutt to the face and an upward kick that lifted him from the ground. Ren's body performed a backflip before landing on its stomach. He felt pressure on his neck.

"My word. What's with the lame attacks? I thought I gave enough hints that I want to be taken seriously…?"

Ren felt something squeezing his left shoulder. A crack.

"Uh-uuaaaaaahhh!"

"There. That should motivate you to be better. Next time I won't be so generous."

Her foot went under his stomach and flipped him back towards Nora's cage. The impact dislocated his shoulder.

"This is becoming a chore..." Red Rivers sighed as she heard Ren's cry of pain. Unable to withstand his pitiful form, she raised her head and shouted.

"Hey, nutcase! Be a kind boy and free the girl for me, will you? At this rate, I'll be forced to kill him! You don't want that, do you?"

She smiled when her mind picked up a tired sigh.

The pillars that kept Nora locked away from the rest of the world detached themselves and sunk into the ground. Her chains shattered, reforming into her signature weapon that lay in front of her feet. She mumbled something as her consciousness returned back to her body.

"Ren!"

Frightened by the first thing she saw, Nora fell towards her partner's side, lifting him up amid his convulsions. "Nora", he whispered with a look of surprise, a look which told her that he didn't even expect to see her alive and well. She felt a stabbing pain in her chest.

"Who did this to you?"

Ren winced as she helped him with the shoulder. After a loud pop and a gasp, he replied, somewhat fearfully.

"It's her."

Nora's eyes gazed up, until they met Red River's. There was something in the woman's eyes that Nora didn't like.

"Oooo! If looks could kill." she mocked, "I wouldn't be so horrified if I were you. I wore him out before we could get funky."

Nora's anger burst from the depths of her soul as she picked up Magnhild in its hammer form. She was willing to bust that pretty face into the skull.

"You will pay for what you did to Ren!"

"Hah! Leave it to a woman to do a man's job. Hm? Sorry, I mistook you for a woman, but you're still a little girl. Needs more fattening in all the right places, if you catch my drift."

Ren's warning fell on deaf ears as the ginger-haired girl attacked Red Rivers, her swings becoming raw and full of deceptively-high power. The woman in red, being the more delicate one in her movements, dodged successfully Nora's attacks, with every failed hit making the latter more frustrated and thus less precise.

"All muscle, no brain, huh? You two fit together like peas in a pod."

Red River's knee hit Nora's stomach. The impact blew a pocket of air open like a ballon and Nora's stomach retrated into her body, as her face contorted. Thei air kept expanding into a loud boom as the girl got shot backwards, slamming into Ren who just stood up. With just one hit, Nora's spirits broke and her rage dissipated with the same swiftness it took for it to build itself. Horror slowly dawned on her when she understood their position as she helped herself and Ren stand up.

"She's... a monster."

"I know."

"What can we do, Ren?"

"Without Jaune and Pyrrha?"

Ren didn't look at Nora, though he knew what she thought.

"She's something else. We can't beat her like this."

"Glad you understood, Ren-kun." the woman replied as if she heard their conversation no matter how much they tried to lower their voices. The duo flinched as she took a step forward, which only served to broaden her smile.

"Stop right there whoever you are!"

Red River's smile faltered as she turned around.

"Ren! It's Pyrrha and Jaune!"

He remained silent, unsure of what words to use to explain his anguish. Somehow, he thought, their position had become worse. Somehow, this 'Red Rivers' had become more threatening. And for a first time in a long while, Lie Ren felt fear, the same fear that took over his body when he had made that cursed Grimm that took away his parents.

Jaune saw red.

He and Pyrrha had a sight to behold once they reached the end of the hallway. A woman with hair and clothes blood red, her back turned to them, standing in front of his team members. The pain and fear on their face told him a story he didn't need at the moment. The stranger dared to lay a finger on his teammates. His friends.

"Step away from them!"

Jaune surprised himself with the depth of his own voice as he warned the enemy. Even in the most dire of moments, his tone would have that hitch of insecurity that was part of his personality. But now he felt as if he was someone else.

The woman turned around nonchalantly, almost bored in her body language. They locked their eyes despite the distance.

"Reinforcements came to the rescue." she drawled, "The big bad boy and his trusty sidechick, I presume. You have to train your dogs a little bit better than this, 'kay? Unless you plan to put them up for adoption..."

Pyrrha stepped forward.

"Are you the one responsible for what happened to the train?"

The woman shrugged.

"Sure. Me and another guy."

"And... you don't feel any remorse? For what you've done?" Jaune asked before Pyrrha could.

"Depends on your taste. I, for one, like to see them bleed. Unless I'm, like, in a hurry or something. Then I just rip to shreds. But I'm not turning them into monsters, if that's what you're after. That's the other guy's department... unfortunately."

The hand which held his sword trembled.

"I see... and you don't care that those people had loved ones that will cry for them? You don't care about the families you destroyed?"

"Family's overrated, boy." she snorted, "Besides, it's my purpose now. It's why I have such a name. Red Rivers... because all I do is drawing rivers of blood wherever I go."

"If that's the case, then we have nothing to talk about anymore."Jaune turned to his partner. "Pyrrha. Can I trust you with this?"

"You have a plan?"

"Yes. We have to kill that woman."