Chapter 3: A Little Bird Told me
"And just what exactly do you expect me to do while you stand around and talk?" Death griped at the gruff drunk.
"Well what do you expect me to do? I can't just waltz into a school filled with uneasy children accompanied by a seven foot walking corpse, and explain to them that you're the literal embodiment of Death."
Qrow said as he opened the front door to the house the party was staying in. The rest followed suite behind him as they were heading towards Haven academy to meet the professor, with the exception of the Pale Rider.
"Come to think of it," Qrow started,
"why are you still following us?"
"If what you say is true, then these relics are my best chance of returning to my post, and seeing through that my brother's trial was done justice. Furthermore, leaving the relics with the likes of Salem would only create trouble for everyone. Whether they're involved or not." Death said almost nonchalantly, as if he dealt with these kinds of things every other day. Likely because he did.
"Look, we'll work out a game plan when we get back. There's a lot going on as of now and we've got to make sure we know what we're doing. The kids will be back in an hour or two, I might be a little longer. We've got to talk to the headmaster of Haven. There's a training room with a porch overlooking a cliff side, you can practice out there until we get back." Qrow said as he and the teens left to the academy, leaving Death in solitude.
The Horseman groaned in annoyance, not taking a liking to being cooped up in a human's house, incapable of doing anything of worth. He wondered around the the house, looking for the cliff side porch Qrow told him about.
He walked aimlessly around the premise, taking mental notes of what is where. Looking around he saw that the place had luxuries he had never had the time to experience. He understood the concept of luxury, but the thought of what most would consider 'relaxing' made him anxious. If he ever partook in such things he feared that he would lose his edge; which he was never going to let happen.
Eventually he found the room down a set of stairs. The training room itself looked like it would serve its purpose well, but as Death slid open the sliding doors, revealing the cliff side, it was a no brainer that he'd prefer to train outside.
The view was decent, but the upside to training outside was that the breeze would cool him off if he were to work up a sweat. Neither the training room nor the cliff side have a large wooden post the same way Thane's did, but it hardly bothered the Reaper.
Death drew his scythes in a reverse grip, leaving the blades behind his back as he envisioned his enemies around him, in this case grimm. He pretended as if a beowolf foolishly charged at him from the front, it's right paw raised to strike. To which he leaped backwards as the ghostly purple figure of his Reaper form appeared in front of him, swiftly slicing upwards followed by a downwards swing, empaling the beowolf. Or at least it would have if it was real.
He lunged forward in the direction of a would-be Ursa, subsequently spinning his connected scythes. The beast didn't fall as easily as the wolf, but it stumbled backwards. Death went on to once again to conjure his Reaper form, as it simultaneously brought its scythe down onto the bear, as it was too slow to retaliate.
The Executioner went on to create countless scenarios while he patiently waited for the rest of the party to return.
Raven overlooked the tribe's camp, seeing to that everyone was pulling their weight. From the porch of her tent she saw that atop one of the sharpened tree shafts used to create a wall, rested a blackbird. Had it just been an average crow or raven she would have shrugged it off as nothing. But she knew better.
Appearance wise it stood out from most of the wild blackbirds in the forest, although the differences were hard to spot. Had she not paid attention it would have slipped past her. It was relatively large, about the size of a small hawk. It's ruffled feathers gave it a feral appearance, and like she is in her raven form, it had strangely colored eyes. However it had bright ethereal green eyes while hers were a dark deep red.
It had a crazed look in it's eye as it stared directly at her. It had been tailing her since she listened in on Qrow's talk with the kids. She didn't notice it at first when she flew back to the camp, but about halfway there it became apparent that it was following her.
It gave a single caw as it ended the staring contest between the two of them. Shortly after, it gently fell down onto a crate that rested against the wall, and eagerly hopped over to look over a sleeping tribe member in a chair. As it hovered over the tribesman, it reeled its head back and slammed its beak into one of the tribesman's closed eyelids.
The member almost instantly screamed in pain as the large blackbird continued to peck at the man's eye. After only about to more seconds of trying the bird was able to skewer the man's eye onto its beak, before subsequently swallowing it whole. The crazed look in its eye wasn't for show Raven supposed.
"Agh! You little shit!" The man said in agony as he drew his revolver and attempted fire at the bird as it started to fly away, but missed every shot.
Raven watched the blackbird fly out of the camp, more intrigued by it rather than concerned about the man who just lost his left eye. Whatever it was, it was smart and trained. It was likely headed towards its master, whoever that was. As of right now it didn't matter, she had more important things to tend to.
Team RNJR was approaching the front door of the house when Nora attempted to spark up a conversation. Up until now they all stayed silent, leaving themselves to their own thoughts as they were still processing what was happening. It was fine at first but Nora was starting to get anxious not talking to any of her friends on the matter at hand.
"So uhh… how do you think Yang is going to take that we're hunting her mom?" Nora openly asked.
"Well it's not Raven who we're looking for, it's the Spring maiden. But that doesn't matter seeing as how Yang stayed at home with her dad. You did say she's still recovering with Tai when we left, right Ruby?" Ren replied correcting Nora, as well as asking a question himself.
"Huh? Uh, yeah." Ruby replied in a disinterested tone.
"Come on Rubes, cheer up. There's a time place for us to be serious, but now and here isn't it. We're not going to get anything done being gloomy, so try and have fun with the few fun things we have." Nora said as she began to lighten the mood, as well as surprising her teammates. Although what she said wasn't all that special by itself, it was a pretty profound by Nora's standards.
"Yeah." Ruby said in a more carefree tone, her emotionless face growing a small smile.
"If we're going to kick Salem's butt, then we're going to have to be have to be at the top of our game!" She exclaimed, a sliver of her innocence still alive within her.
"C'mon Nora! To the training room!" Ruby said, positivity once again flowing through her body, and completely forgetting about their guest.
"Yeah!" Nora cheered with an evil grin on her face.
The two busted through the front door of the house, with Ruby leading the charge. Ren and Jaune who continued at their walking pace exchanged glances with each other. Both had a comical 'so that just happened' expression painted on their faces.
"Best two out of three?" Ruby said with energy as she and Nora raced to the training room, their hands already having their weapons drawn.
"You're on!" Exclaimed the red head.
Ruby rushed down the small flight of stairs and into the training room, prepared to spar for the first time since the fall of Beacon. Her eyes were full an energy and innocence that they haven't known in what felt like forever.
That was until she saw him.
Death threw his connected scythes forward, causing it to spin in the air in place, faster than her eyes could see. He then grabbed the center of the handle and disconnected the two ends. Before he brought them back behind his back, he slashed the air with the two as if the blades were a pair of scissors. And as he did so a giant dark purple figure that looked like the reaper, appeared in front of him. It was only there for half of a second, but in that time it hit the would be enemy at the same time as Death, dealing a single upwards slash.
She stood frozen at the base of the stairs as she watched the pale man practice.
"Hey Ruby, what's wro-" Nora started but stopped herself as she saw what she was looking at.
Death was beginning another string of attacks, this one ending similarly to the last.
"Is the fight still on?" Nora reluctantly asked Ruby.
"Huh? Oh yeah sorry. It's just that I feel a little weird being watched by Death and all." She said as she paused to watch him continue his onslaught, occasionally seeing the reaper show up again.
"Hey, isn't that the purple thing that hit us when we first fought him?" Nora asked Ruby, both of their interests peaked.
"I think so. You think summoning is his semblance?" Ruby replied to her friend, thinking back to how Weiss was still trying to master her own summoning.
"Why don't you ask him? It's not like we're on opposite sides or anything." Nora suggested.
"Alright."
Ruby slowly approached the pale scythe wielder, fearful that she'd bother him.
"Sooo uh," she watched as he paid no attention to the young huntress as she approached his side.
"is that your semblance?" She asked warily.
Death stopped what he was doing, and brought his disconnected scythes to a more relaxed position as he turned to face Ruby.
"What?" He asked, clueless as to what she meant but hardly cared for it.
"Summoning, is that your semblance?" She asked timidly asked again.
"What does 'semblance' have to do with anything? You're talking nonsense." He said, his confident tone contrasting with Ruby's uncertain voice.
"You don't know what a semblance is?" She asked, more dumbstruck than scared this time.
"Why would I? I rarely concern myself with humanity." Death replied.
"Well it's just that, I, uh, that makes sense I guess." Ruby said, knowing that things are very different where he comes from.
"Well, it might be called differently back in, uh, where ever it is you're from. But a semblance is more or less a unique ability only you can use." Ruby replied, feeling more relaxed knowing she knew something he didn't.
"It's like having your very own super power!" Nora said energetically, walking up to Ruby's side, not nearly as timid as her cloaked friend.
"And is summoning that weird purple thing, and that fire horse from before, is that yours?" She asked.
"You could say that." Death answered.
"The humans of my time weren't capable of such feats. You've come far."
"Thanks! I think." Ruby said half flattered and half confused. "Nora and I were just about to spar a little, if you don't mind."
"What you do is none of my concern." Death said as he turned to walk closer the fenced ledge, leaving room for Ruby and Nora to fight on the other half of the cliff.
"You ready for this?" Nora said with a evil looking grin. She drew Magnhild from her back and put it in hammer form. She took a stance slightly leaning forward, with her right foot back.
"Whenever you are." Ruby said matching her enthusiasm. She took a similar stance with Crescent Rose, although not quite as aggressive.
Nora charged forward, not hesitating to strike first. As she approached Ruby she raised Magnhild over her head and brought it down to where her friend was standing.
The problem with having a hammer as large as Nora's, was that she had to put a lot of emphasis on large swings to build up momentum. This made the majority of her attacks easily telegraphed to her opponents, and Ruby knew how to exploit it. With Nora's headstrong attitude Ruby saw the strike coming a mile a way.
As Nora swung Ruby jumped just high enough to get her legs off the ground, but kept the rest of her body at eye level. Nora's hammer missed its target and slammed into the ground. While Ruby was in the air she dealt a horizontal slash to Nora's face with Crescent Rose.
Nora stumbled back, her left hand feeling her cheek where Ruby struck her, while her right clung to Magnhild.
Ruby capitalized on her opening while Nora was still dazed. She used her semblance to rush the red head, leaving rose petals in her wake. As she exited her cloak she elbowed Nora in the face, utilizing her momentum to put more force behind her strike.
Ruby aimed to continue her onslaught by firing Crescent Rose in sniper form at her friend.
Nora, not wanting to look like a punching bag, made cover for herself by slamming Magnhild into the earth, causing a slab of rock rise from the ground and shield her. She fired a single grenade over her cover as a distraction.
Ruby dashed forward towards Nora using her semblance, taking the bait.
As she got closer, Nora smashed her rock shield to bits as she turned the tides on Ruby. Before Ruby could realized what she was planning, Nora hit the young rose in the right side of her abdomen, practically sending her flying towards the area of the cliff Death was training.
She skidded to a halt before she could collide with the dual scythe wielder, but she still managed to draw his attention away from his practice.
Nora sprinted towards her, as Ruby did the same. With about ten feet of ground left between the two, Ruby dashed forward using her semblance once more. Death stopped what he was doing to observe the two young humans.
Ruby exited her cloak and petals, quickly twirling Crescent Rose upwards as she did so. With each rotation she hit Nora in either her stomach or the bottom of her jaw. Before she could recover, Ruby continued her assault as she slashed Nora's abdomen at an angle, and did so again but coming from the opposite direction. She followed up with a powerful slash to the redhead's stomach. Ruby repeated the move where she twirled Crescent Rose upwards, but didn't do it for quite as long this time around. Finally she finished with an upwards blow, using both of her hands more so than Crescent Rose's momentum.
Death looked at Ruby, his eyes squinting with skepticism. What she pulled of seemed eerily familiar to him. He walked through what she did in his head, and realized what it was.
"Ugh…" Nora groaned as she tried to get up. Ruby walked up to her friend and offered her a hand, to which she gladly accepted.
The scene reminded Death too much of his last confrontation with Absalom.
"You want to keep going?" Ruby asked as she pulled her friend up.
"Maybe later. I'm just now noticing how hard you hit." Nora replied. While she winced in pain, her smile never wavered.
"Come on, Ren is going need help getting dinner ready." Ruby cheerfully said as she and Nora started walking back into the house.
"You did good for just seeing it once." Death called out to the two. Both girls turned around in confusion.
"Um…" Ruby hummed.
"What?" Nora questioned, not having a clue in the world as to what he meant.
"Did you think I wouldn't notice, Rose?" Death called back again, his voice slightly laced with amusement.
"The finishing move you used on your friend, it was the one you saw me doing when you came out here. Or rather it was an imitation of it." He finally said, seeing as how she wasn't catching on.
"Oh! I'msosorry, I-I didn'tthinkyouwouldcareifIborrowedit j-just this once," Ruby spewed as she suddenly broke out trying to explain herself.
"What are you getting so worked up about?" He said as he gave a slight chuckle.
He found her innocent stampering amusing. Innocence is a trait incredibly rare to come across inside anything that isn't human nature. Occasional forms of humor, and in very rare cases being knocked out, are the only breaks the reaper takes from achieving his goal.
"For what it was worth, you did well. I think I'm beginning to like this iteration of humanity more than the last." Death said to the young rose.
Had they met under very different circumstances, he might have enjoyed taking her in under his tutelage.
"Well, uh, thanks!" Ruby said. The fact that she wasn't apart of the original human race still made her feel a bit uneasy. But Death didn't seem to be making a big deal of it, so she tried to do the same.
"Nora and I are heading in to help Ren with dinner, we'd like it if you could help." She said hopefully.
"Go on without me. I'm a warrior, not a cook."
Both of the girls nodded and turned to walk back into the house. Once they were both gone and up the stairs Death looked to the mountains, and left himself to his thoughts.
He wondered where each of his siblings were, and how they were fairing. War was in the most trouble when he leapt into the Well of Souls, but he's very capable of holding his own. Even against Hell's champions. He didn't need to worry about his safety for the most part. It was his connection to the Charred Council that has him worried. He didn't doubt their intentions, but they were incredibly strict, and not afraid to show it.
Strife on the other hand was without Redemption, which made up half of his primary arsenal. He's as good of a fighter as War, if not better. But if he is without Redemption, then he may very well be missing Mercy. He is more than just his guns, but if he is missing both of his pistols, he won't be able to last long. He and Death didn't leave on great terms with each other, but Strife was still his brother. Death still loved him as much as War and Fury. But he never showed it to any of them.
He hardly had to worry about Fury. It had been nearly a century since he last spoke to her, and in all that time he's never even heard her name be mentioned. She's managed to fly under everyone's radar for quite some time. If anything bad did happen to her, he would have known about it by now. One way or another.
His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a caw. He looked his right and saw Dust quickly approaching, the large crow coming to rest on his left shoulder.
Death angled his head to so that he could see Dust in the corner of his vision, but didn't quite look him in the eye.
"What did you find?" He asked his guide.
Dust replied by looking in the direction he flew in from, and croaked like a raven.
"South?" He looked off into the distance, although he knew he wouldn't find anything.
"Should I be worried?" He asked, to which Dust gave out another caw. Death somehow was able to understand everything Dust told him, or at least anything of importance. But much of what he said was still just senseless croaking.
"I see." Death said grimly. His guide gave him the closest thing it could to a 'yes'.
"The children are preparing a meal. If you're fast you might be able to snatch a few pieces while it's still raw."
Dust hastily leaped off Death's shoulder and took flight, heading towards the training room. Death saw him disappear as he flew up the stairs and into rest of the house. A few seconds of silence passed as nothing happened. The screaming of Ruby, and mabey Jaune, broke the silence as they turned to see the bird feasting on their dinner.
"Birdy why!?" Ruby squealed from inside the kitchen.
Death chuckled to himself at their reaction. He stopped himself, fearing that if he kept humoring himself that he'd get soft.
Ruby came down the stairs with a broom in hand, swinging at the crow as it made its escape. A piece of raw meat still flailing in his beak. The crow flew towards Death and landed on his shoulder again. Dust flung his head back and let the piece of meat momentarily float in the air, before catching it and swallowing it whole.
"Wait a minute. That bird is yours?" Ruby asked, curious as to why Death casually let it rest on his shoulder.
"He was given to me as a gift, from the Crowfather." Death said as he walked towards Ruby, closing the large gap between them. He was tired of having to hollar for them to hear him.
"His name is Dust. He acts as my personal guide, and in rare cases, my spy."
"Woah, that's so cool!" Ruby said, letting her innocence shine through again.
"Where was he all this time? I've never seen him, and you've been with us a couple days." Ruby asked.
"That night you all sat by the campfire, the day you met me, there was a raven watching over us. Listening."
"Okay, we have a lot of ravens-" she started but was cut off.
"None with red eyes though. I told Dust to follow it, and here he his reporting."
"He can, talk?" Ruby questioned.
"No, but I can understand his nonsense." Death answered.
"We ought to watch out for whoever's bird that is."
"'Watch out for bird person'. Got it." Ruby said, a little worried that Death could talk to his bird.
"I'm heading back into help with dinner. Are you sure you don't want to come in? I can't see anyone having fun out here by themselves." Ruby asked, not wanting to exclude anyone, even if they are the Grim Reaper.
"I'm not here to have fun. You may have time for that, but I don't." Death said, making his intentions clear.
"Oh, alright. Uh, talk to you later." Ruby said to him, trying her best to sound upbeat, despite her offer being shot down.
She turned around and walked up the stairs, leaving Death to himself once more. Death walked back out onto the cliff side. He hadn't noticed how low the sun has gotten since the children got back from paying the professor a visit. The sky transformed from its natural blue hue to a combination of pink and orange.
He reached down to grab his scythes, preparing to go through another string of attacks, but he felt something, as if his heart skipped a beat. It didn't even last half of a second, but it felt unlike anything he had felt in centuries. The surprising surge of potent energy nearly knocked him off his feet. Death stood still, his scythes held in a combat ready stance.
His uneasiness was met with nothing. He expected that there would be another surge of the power, like the steady beat of a heart, but silence was the only thing that prevailed through the entire courtyard. Even though he wasn't suspecting the wave of power to rush over him, if he nearly fell, it would undoubtedly be a danger to humans. Death turned and ran up the stairs towards the kitchen.
If what he felt wasn't some mind trick he let get to him, then the children ought to have felt it as well, and they might not be in as of good shape as him. Death hustled down the corridor and turned the corner to the kitchen. They all looked exhausted, they were all panting for air, completely dropping whatever it was they were doing to catch their breaths.
Ruby stumbled over and was about to collapse, but caught herself by holding onto the edge of a counter. She, as well as the rest of team RNJR, looked over to see Death watching over them with (or what they could only guess) concern. Ruby shakily stood back up, her breathing slowly returning to its typical pace.
"What, was that?" She asked as she looked at Death's orange eyes.
"Something not of Remnant, but a spawn of Heaven, or Hell." The pale rider made clear. The teens looked at him with wide eyes, all filled with shock.
"Heaven and H-Hell, here?" Jaune said with an anxiety rich voice.
"How do you know?" Ren asked, calmer than his friend, but clearly breaking his collected composure.
"I haven't felt anything this powerful in centuries. In that time I've seen more worlds, far more capable than that of Remnant, all of which lack anything of this caliber. The only answer that would make any sense would be something of the White City or the Dark Realm. Likely the latter." Death told the kids, not worried about them being terror stricken.
But there was more to it than what he told them, although he couldn't quite tell for sure. The pulse of energy gave him déjà vu, a sensation he's come to despise over the milenia. it gave off an aura that was blistering and explosive when it hit him. He was far from recognizing the source, but Death couldn't shake the feeling of knowing what it was.
'It's on the tip of my tongue. But by tongue appears to be elsewhere." The image of the giant construct from the Forge Lands said as he thought of the position he was in.
"Well what are we going to do?" Ruby asked Death, fear in her eyes.
"Nothing. If whatever that was is free, Dust would have found it by now. Where ever it is, it's harmless, it's none of your concern." Death said, calming the teens as to not escalate the situation.
"How do you know?" Nora asked, just as worried as her teammates.
"Because, even if it was free, if I so much as allow it to touch the hair on any of your heads, my brother's neck might not be intact by the end of all of this."
Ruby's body language seemed to ease up, but her face still showed concern.
"Return to whatever it was you were doing. All of this means nothing as of now, so it's best you treat it that way." Death said as he turned around to head back to the courtyard on the cliff.
Ruby looked at the dinner she was preparing, it had sat on the stove far to long at this point. The look of stress that was on her face changed to one of disappointment.
"And I almost got this dish right…" She mumbled to herself.
"Hey Ren, can you please clean up in here pretty please?" She asked her friend, her voice get higher in pitch the farther into her sentence.
"Uh, sure, but aren't any of you going to eat?" Ren asked everyone in the room.
"You know uh, I think we all lost our appetites." Jaune said, Nora nodding her head alongside him.
"Alright." Ren said calmly as he began dumping some of the green beans down the garbage disposal.
"I'm going to my room, probably just going to read some comics to get my mind off things." Ruby quietly announced to her friends.
"Yeah." Jaune mumbled.
"Good idea." He said in a depressed tone as he looked at the floor.
A/N:
First off, sorry for not updating in nearly a year and going off to start other projects and only do the same thing to them. I was about to give up on the one I'm currently writing, but I've already got three or four stories that I've been putting off. I figured the least I could do is finish at least two of those stories before I jump the gun on a new story. After being gone for nearly a year, coming back and writing this feels strangely refreshing.
My original plan for this story was that I was going to start writing this chapter when episode one of vol. 5 went live on YouTube, and post more chapters afterwards. However, seeing as how RNJR did literally nothing except talk, and stayed that way until the very end of the volume I knew it was going to be harder than planned.
I found it incredibly hard to write something that would mesh well with the way Darksiders protagonists behave (Death is always moving towards his goals, even if there are detours) and the direction RWBY's protagonists are going, RNJR specifically, (The team is filled in with exposition, preparing for a time of which they will eventually have to fight something). I understand that those are VERY grossly oversimplified summaries, but the point still stands.
Now then, on to the stuff that i would have said if I didn't decide to leave this story sitting in the back a of my garage. Combat is incredibly difficult to write, especially since how fast paced RWBY and Darksiders 2 are. As for the Darksiders spectrum, should I use the technical names for Death's moves? (ex: the fight against the imaginary beowolf he used his Evade Counter, and with the Ursa he used Harvester Revenge followed by Harvester Slam). I'm not sure if most of you are familiar with the move names so I'm a little hesitant. If it does come to that, I'll still probably describe what's happening (ex: He used Harvester Slam on the Ursa, bringing his scythe down onto the bear's back). Please let me know in the reviews.