she was falling through the void. The void was dark, it was cold but something was wrong. she looked down and saw her hands. Were they supposed to be there. looking to her left and right she saw the souls of those who had gone with her. or at least at the same time.
three of them all too young to be dead and all of them frightened. That was when she noticed the chains. all of them had a chain under their arms dragging them deeper. when she reached out to grab one of the children her hand passed through them. the chains corporeal, but how. how could this have happened. looking into the void she saw a man. He was chained like her and the children but he seemed at peace.
She recognized him but the name escaped her. He had an inch or two of grey hair and broken glasses. unlike the children he seemed to notice her. like he was somehow more real than them. without a word he reached down and touched the center of his chest jacket just over his heart.
she needed a moment to realize his meaning but when she did she looked at her own chest and saw an open wound. The cross shape of a broadhead seemed familiar. she knew how she had gotten that wound but the memory was unreachable.
then she felt it. something she needed was outside of the void. she needed to be outside of the void. reaching out for a hand hold but she found no purchase. in frustration she threw her hands downward only to see her chains carry the energy and in doing so move her upwards. she could see the opening but it was so far away. she was going to have to work for this.
that felt good, being challenged. reaching out for the chains of others she pulled on them. when that didn't work she was struck with an epiphany. she grabbed the chain around her and pulled.
The link was strong but she was stronger. After some hard work it gave way with an impressive snap. freed from her chain she was able to swim through the nothing towards the opening. As she drew closer the void faded into a rough rock wall. and the open seemed like the surface of a pond.
as she neared the top she felt several chains wrap around her shoulders dragging her down. she grabbed at the wall and found a grip this time. The chains were heavy and their pull was strong but she refused to be denied. there was something beyond the void that she needed and she would not stop now.
inch by inch she clawed her way up to the pond. The closer she got the more chains were added. now she was at the surface. her hands passed through and sank into the soil on the other side. she felt the chains all go taught and with a final powerful push she felt them all snap sending her up and into the water. back into the real world.
...
The air was cool where she was. it was dark but not like night more like this was simply not a place of light. she looked back at the pond and saw a vast expanse of water from which all manner of creatures emerged.
she knew of their names. Beowolf, Ursa, Deathstalker. but she felt conflicted. a piece of her training told her to attack but they showed her no hostility. in fact the beowolves were approaching her cautiously as though they were uncertain of what it should do with her.
she reached out and gently placed her hand on its muzzle. the creature growled and in an instant she felt its life and consciousness speak to her mind. it had no name but it seemed distinct from herself. this beast bowed its head in submission and soon another three had done likewise.
each one had no name but needed none. they were somehow all different in spite of their similarities. as more of the creatures flocked to her she remembered the name this place was said to have. The Grimlands nobody had ever gone there and returned.
over her head she heard a noise and looking up revealed a Nevermore. she reached out to it with her hand and her mind and it spoke to her. she learned its mind. and it learned her's flying low and landing in front of her. She mounted the beast with a fistfull of feathers in her left hand. She commanded it to take her away from here.
she had no idea where that was but the bird flew far and fast. She watched as the land gave way to clear ocean water. they flew over the sea with the taste of saltwater hanging in the air for what may have been days in truth she was still getting a grasp of time.
when land was spotted the bird was exhausted. she ordered it to land near the coast and it did as it was told. In a moment of curiosity she dismounted and plucked one of the feathers. if the Grimm noticed this it gave no sign of it.
holding the feather in an over hand grip like a spear she recognized that the feel of it was familiar. was she once trained in the use of spears. The odds that she was trained to fight with feathers were low.
finding a sharp rock she stripped most of the quill away leaving only a tuft for fletching. her new spear was well balanced after she shortened it five inches. before they could take flight again the rain began. it was heavy and she knew that flying in this weather would be foolhardy at best and scuicide at worst.
stepping back she crossed her legs and calmed her mind. she waited for the rain to stop which took many hours. yet during that time she did not sleep nor did the Nevermore. they simply sat in silence not needing words to communicate.
it was at this time that the beowolf from before reached out to her. It informed her that they were swimming across the ocean to meet with her and that they would arrive in the semi near future.
with the rain gone and both her and the bird rested she mounted up and they flew further inland. she wasn't sure where they were going but she felt drawn to an area that seemed to be eastward bound.
...
team RWBY moved in silence through the forest. there had been reports of odd happenings from the grimm and the locals where bizarrely tight lipped about everything. one hunter had already been sent in and they were never heard from again. as such an A list team like RWBY was dispatched to investigate.
"you sure we should be taking this job?" Yang asked.
"why wouldn't we?" Ruby countered.
Yang clearly didn't want to answer but knew that she needed to. "Jaune may not have been the best fighter among us but he grew up in this area if whatever is out here killed him then we are..."
"drop it!" Ruby snapped with an uncharacteristically angry tone.
she had told Jaune not to go here alone but he refused to listen. thinking about him made her heart sink. she had loved him once. but that was years ago, years that had not been kind to Jaune or to her.
she knew that he would need time to recover from losing Pyrrha but after eight years she gave up hope. She also wasn't as blind as Jaune. She knew full well that Oscar had fallen just as hard for her as she had for Jaune.
When the day came that he asked her to marry him how could she have said no.
Ruby had come to love her husband. she saw the man he really was under all the newfound stoicism that Ozma gifted him. if she could go back the only thing she would change would be to say yes faster.
none of that eased the sting that jaune left her with however. love was a fickle thing after all.
Ruby noticed that she was not paying attention to her surroundings when a series of metal clanking sounds pulled her back to the moment.
looking up showed a man or maybe a Grimm atop a cliff they looked like a man but seemed to be made of Grimm flesh. it had dropped something down to them. tracking the item to the ground Ruby saw it and felt her pulse stop.
it was the twisted and bloody remains of Jaune's armor. including one of his arms and legs.
"that's all that's left of the last hunter to enter this land. retreat form here now. this territory is not under your protection." the man shouted.
If this had been a fact finding mission then they would have done just that but this stopped being a fact finding mission when this bastard had thrown the remains of one of team RWBY's oldest friends at them.
Now this was personal. they all went to attack and he stepped back from the cliff out of sight just as a pack of Beowolves attacked from the trees. they were quickly destroyed but there was a problem.
they had tried to isolate Weiss. she was the weakest link combatively and if they had somehow noticed that and devised a plan to exploit it then this was bigger than expected. they pushed deeper until the dense forest cost them.
the man from the cliff stepped out from behind a tree and brought his left fist down hard on the outside of Ruby's left knee. she yelled and collapsed in pain as he disappeared again. a lifetime of running had given Ruby weak knees. The blow seemed to have dislocated the joint.
she would like but she wasn't running anywhere anytime soon. Weiss wanted to pull back but the others refused. they may not have been in love with Jaune but they all cared for him and they all wanted revenge.
with a concerned sigh Weiss slipped her shoulder under Ruby's and helped her along. they fought through a concerning amount of grimm but they fought into the enemy that would lead them to the heart of their forces, to whatever was leading them.
Soon they found a cave and the man was waiting outside of it. This was a problem since they could hear more Grimm closing in on their location and the only thing in their way was someone that seemed to be a part of the terrain with how hard so see he had been.
"turn back, this is the last warning I will give you." he growled. As he did so bone plating grew as armor over his black flesh. His left arm was covered almost entirely with just enough cracks to allow movement. His right was less covered but still plated in large parts.
His chest had a multi piece plate and greaves over his legs. Again with his left more heavily than his right. His head was already protected by a helmet but now a crown grew from that. The crown had seven spikes across the brow. The middle one being three inches tall. With the next two being two inches. And the final two being barely more than an inch.
something about him was setting off Ruby. she wanted him dead for killing Jaune but there was more. something she didn't have words for yet.
when Blake and Yang moved forward he gave a tired sigh "so be it," he said a shield of bone forming over his left forearm and a sword of bone in his right hand. Blake and Yang acted first attacking with a motion and sequence that was first used by team RNJR.
that when things started going wrong. every move they made this man was ahead of them his sharpened bone blade bouncing off of their aura chipping it away with each blow. Yang was the first one to realise that they needed to change tactics which she did. stepping back to open fire Blake found herself alone and Ruby watched as a flurry of strikes from the man sent the cat to her knees.
That was when it all clicked. and just as his sword came down in a killing blow two voices rang out. "Stop," Ruby cried in unison with a commanding "enough" from the cave.
the man froze and Blake scrambled back behind Yang. going back to where he was standing before the man's sword crumbled and his shield contracted back leaving only his armor.
"They would kill us if they ever got the chance," the man snarled, never taking his eyes off of Ruby.
The voice from the cave was a calm one. One that understood what was happening from both sides. " no beloved they wouldn't you just don't remember that yet."
As she spoke the woman moved from the cave and team RWBY stared in shock at Pyrrha Nikkos. Her flesh a deathly white, her eyes a blood red. And with her veins clearly seen through her skin.